Editing Chickasaw (section)

===United States relations===
[[File:Chickasaw cultural center 1.jpg|thumb|right|Sculpture of a stylized 18th-century Chickasaw warrior by [[Enoch Kelly Haney]], at the [[Chickasaw Cultural Center]] in Oklahoma]] 
[[George Washington]] (first U.S. President) and [[Henry Knox]] (first U.S. Secretary of War) proposed the cultural transformation of Native Americans.<ref name=perdue>
{{cite book
 | last = Perdue
 | first = Theda
 | title = Mixed Blood Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South
 | year = 2003
 | publisher = University of Georgia Press
 | chapter = Chapter 2 "Both White and Red"
 | page = 51
 | isbn = 0-8203-2731-X
}}
</ref> Washington believed that [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] were equals, but that their society was inferior. He formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process, and [[Thomas Jefferson]] continued it.<ref name=remini_reform_begins>
{{cite book
 | last = Remini
 | first = Robert
 | title = Andrew Jackson
 | publisher = History Book Club
 | chapter = "The Reform Begins"
 | page = 201
 | id = {{Listed Invalid ISBN|0-9650631-0-7}}
}}</ref> Historian Robert Remini wrote, "They presumed that once the Indians adopted the practice of private property, built homes, farmed, educated their children, and embraced Christianity, these Native Americans would win acceptance from white Americans."<ref name=remini_submit_adoption>
{{cite book
 | last = Remini
 | first = Robert
 | title = Andrew Jackson
 | publisher = History Book Club
 | chapter = "Brothers, Listen ... You Must Submit"
 | page = 258
 | id = {{Listed Invalid ISBN|0-9650631-0-7}}
}}</ref> Washington's six-point plan included impartial justice toward Indians; regulated buying of Indian lands; promotion of commerce; promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Indian society; presidential authority to give presents; and punishing those who violated Indian rights.<ref name=eric_miller>
{{cite book
 | url = http://www.dreric.org/library/northwest.shtml
 | title = George Washington And Indians
 | access-date = 2008-05-02
 | last = Miller
 | first = Eric
 | year = 1994
 | chapter = Washington and the Northwest War, Part One
 | publisher = Eric Miller
}}
</ref>
The government-appointed [[Indian agent]]s, such as [[Benjamin Hawkins]], who became Superintendent of Indian Affairs for all the territory south of the Ohio River. He and other agents lived among the Indians to teach them, through example and instruction, how to live like whites.<ref name=perdue /> Hawkins married a [[Muscogee Creek]] woman and lived with her people for decades. In the 19th century, the Chickasaw increasingly adopted European-American practices, as they established schools, adopted yeoman farming practices, converted to Christianity, and built homes in styles like their European-American neighbors.

Due to settlers encroaching into Chickasaw territory, the United States constructed [[Fort Hampton (Alabama)|Fort Hampton]] in 1810 in present-day [[Limestone County, Alabama]]. The fort was designed to keep settlers out of Chickasaw territory and was one of the few forts constructed in the United States to protect Native American land claims.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Chandler |first=Tonya Johnson |date=2014 |title=An Archaeological and Historical Study of Fort Hampton, Limestone County, Alabama (1809-1816) |type=MA |chapter= |publisher=University of West Florida |docket= |oclc= |url=http://etd.fcla.edu/WF/WFE0000476/Chandler_Tonya_Danielle_Johnson_201506_MA.pdf |page=25 |access-date=19 June 2021 |archive-date=10 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610025720/http://etd.fcla.edu/WF/WFE0000476/Chandler_Tonya_Danielle_Johnson_201506_MA.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

====Treaty of Hopewell (1786)====
[[File:Characteristic Chicasaw Head.jpg|thumb|A sketch of a Chickasaw by Bernard Romans, 1775]]

The Chickasaw signed the [[Treaty of Hopewell]] in 1786. Article 11 of that treaty states: "The hatchet shall be forever buried, and the peace given by the United States of America, and friendship re-established between the said States on the one part, and the Chickasaw nation on the other part, shall be universal, and the contracting parties shall use their utmost endeavors to maintain the peace given as aforesaid, and friendship re-established."  Benjamin Hawkins attended this signing.

====Treaty of 1818====
In 1818, leaders of the Chickasaw signed several treaties, including the [[Treaty of Tuscaloosa]], which ceded all claims to land north of the southern border of Tennessee up to the [[Ohio River]] (the southern border of [[Indiana]] and the [[Illinois Territory]]).<ref name="EOHC-Chickasaw">Pate, James C. ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. "Chickasaw." Retrieved December 27, 2012.[http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CH033.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001210055/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CH033.html|date=2009-10-01}}</ref> This was known as the "[[Jackson Purchase]]."  The Chickasaw were allowed to retain a four-square-mile reservation but were required to lease the land to European immigrants.

====Colbert legacy (19th century)====
In the mid-18th century, an American-born trader of [[Scottish people|Scots]] and Chickasaw ancestry by the name of James Logan Colbert settled in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama.  He lived there for the next 40 years, where he married three high-ranking Chickasaw women in succession.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chickasawhistory.com/colbert/i0001014.htm#i1014 |title="James Logan Colbert" |access-date=2010-11-17 |archive-date=2010-11-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112144731/http://www.chickasawhistory.com/colbert/i0001014.htm#i1014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Chickasaw chiefs and high-status women found such marriages of strategic benefit to the tribe, as it gave them advantages with traders over other groups. Colbert and his wives had numerous children, including seven sons: William, Jonathan, George, Levi, Samuel, Joseph, and Pittman (or James). Six survived to adulthood (Jonathan died young.)

The Chickasaw had a [[matrilineal]] system, in which children were considered born into the mother's [[clan]]; and they gained their status in the tribe from her family. Property and hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line, and the mother's eldest brother was the main male mentor of the children, especially of boys. Because of the status of their mothers, for nearly a century, the Colbert-Chickasaw sons and their descendants provided critical leadership during the tribe's greatest challenges. They had the advantage of growing up bilingual.

Of these six sons, [[William "Chooshemataha" Colbert]] (named after James Logan's father, [[Chief/Major William d'Blainville "Piomingo" Colbert]]) served with General [[Andrew Jackson]] during the [[Creek Wars]] of 1813–14. He also had served during the Revolutionary wars and received a commission from [[President George Washington]] in 1786 along with his namesake grandfather.  His brothers [[Levi Colbert|Levi]] ("Itawamba Mingo") and [[George Colbert]] ("Tootesmastube") also had military service in support of the United States. In addition, the two each served as interpreters and negotiators for chiefs of the tribe during the period of removal. Levi Colbert served as principal chief, which may have been a designation by the Americans, who did not understand the decentralized nature of the chiefs' council, based on the tribe reaching broad consensus for major decisions. An example is that more than 40 chiefs from the Chickasaw Council, representing [[clans]] and villages, signed a letter in November 1832 by Levi Colbert to President [[Andrew Jackson]], complaining about treaty negotiations with his appointee General [[John Coffee]].<ref name="LC">[http://www.chickasawhistory.com/CHICL_32.htm "Levi Colbert to President Andrew Jackson, 22 NOV 1832"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025065425/http://www.chickasawhistory.com/CHICL_32.htm |date=2011-10-25 }}, Chickasaw Letters -- 1832, Chickasaw Historical Research Website (Kerry M. Armstrong), accessed 12 December 2011</ref> After Levi's death in 1834, the Chickasaw people were forced upon the [[Trail of Tears]]. His brother, George Colbert, reluctantly succeeded him as chief and principal negotiator, because he was bilingual and bicultural. George "Tootesmastube" Colbert never reached the Chickasaw's "Oka Homa" (red waters); he died on Choctaw territory, [[Fort Towson]], en route.