Editing Five Civilized Tribes (section)

==Tribes==

===Cherokee===
{{Main|Cherokee|Cherokee Nation}}

The [[Cherokee]], ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|ɛ|r|ə|k|iː}}; {{langx|chr|ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ|translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi}}) are people of the Southeastern United States, principally [[Upland South|upland]] Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. They speak an [[Iroquoian language]]. In the 19th century, historians and ethnographers recorded their oral tradition that told of the tribe having migrated south in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, the base of most other Iroquoian-speaking peoples.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mooney|first1=James|title=Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees|date=1900|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|page=393|isbn=978-1-4286-4864-7}}</ref>

Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the [[Cherokee Nation]] and the [[United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians]] (UKB) have headquarters in [[Tahlequah, Oklahoma]]. The UKB are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers", Cherokee who migrated to Arkansas and Oklahoma about 1817. They are related to the Cherokee who were forcibly relocated there in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act. The [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians]] is on the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, and are descendants of those who resisted or avoided relocation.<ref name="Anderson2006">{{cite encyclopedia |author1=William L. Anderson |author2=Ruth Y. Wetmore |author3=John L. Bell |entry=Cherokee Indians - Part 5: Trail of Tears and the creation of the Eastern Band of Cherokees |entry-url=https://www.ncpedia.org/cherokee/trailoftears |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of North Carolina |publisher=State Library of North Carolina |access-date=21 January 2019 |date=2006}}</ref> Although the Cherokee Nation sponsors some satellite communities, it does not recognize Cherokee heritage groups that are seeking federal recognition. The Cherokee tribe has 729,533 enrolled members.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/nativetrends/tables/table_1_3.asp|title=Status and Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives: 2008}}</ref>

===Chickasaw===
{{Main|Chickasaw|Chickasaw Nation}}

The [[Chickasaw]] are Indian people of the United States who originally resided along the [[Tennessee River]] and other parts of present-day [[Tennessee]], in the southwest side of present-day [[Kentucky]], west of present-day [[Huntsville, Alabama]], and in parts of Mississippi. They spoke some French and some English. Some historians credit the Chickasaw intervention in the French and Indian War on the side of the British as decisive in ensuring that the United States became an English-speaking nation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chickasaw.net/Our-Nation/History.aspx |title=The Official Site of the Chickasaw Nation &#124; History |publisher=Chickasaw.net |date=2014-10-31 |access-date=2015-10-18}}</ref> Originating further west, the Chickasaw moved east of the [[Mississippi River]] long before European contact. All historical records indicate the Chickasaw lived in northeastern Mississippi from the first European contact until they were forced to remove to Oklahoma, where most now live.

The Chickasaw are related to the [[Choctaw]], who speak a similar language, both forming the Western Group of the [[Muskogean languages]]. "Chickasaw" is the English spelling of ''Chikasha'' ({{IPA|mus|tʃikaʃːa}}), that either means "rebel" or "comes from Chicsa". The Chickasaw are divided in two groups: the "Impsaktea" and the "Intcutwalipa". The Chickasaw were one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" who went to the Indian Territory during the era of Indian removal. Unlike other tribes, who exchanged land grants, the Chickasaw received financial compensation from the United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River.<ref name=burt_and_ferguson>
{{cite book | author = Jesse Burt & Bob Ferguson | title = Indians of the Southeast: Then and Now | year = 1973 | publisher = Abingdon Press, Nashville and New York | chapter = The Removal | pages = [https://archive.org/details/indiansofsouthea00burt/page/170 170–173] | isbn = 0-687-18793-1 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/indiansofsouthea00burt/page/170 }}</ref> The Chickasaw Nation is the thirteenth largest federally recognized tribe in the United States. The Chickasaw built some of the first banks, schools, and businesses in Indian Territory. They also signed a treaty with the Southern United States during the Civil War and brought troops to fight for the Confederates.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/_Topics/history/_Texts/FOR5CT/home.html#Chickasaw ''The Five Civilized Tribes'': Book II, Chickasaw] (Grant Foreman 1934).</ref>

===Choctaw===
{{Main|Choctaw|Choctaw Nation}}

The [[Choctaw]] are Native American people originally from the [[Southeastern United States]], including present-day Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. There were about 20,000 members of this tribe when they were forced to move to Indian Territory. Many of them did not survive.<ref>{{cite web |title=Choctaw History |url=http://www.fivecivilizedtribes.org/Choctaw-History.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303142231/http://www.fivecivilizedtribes.org/Choctaw-History.html |archive-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=Fivecivilizedtribes.org |access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref> They are of the [[Muskogean languages|Muskogean linguistic]] group. The word ''Choctaw'' (also rendered as ''Chahta'', ''Chato'', ''Tchakta'', and ''Chocktaw'') is possibly a corruption of the Spanish ''chato'', meaning flattened, in allusion to the tribe's custom of flattening the heads of infants.<ref name="Hodge1907">{{cite book|author=Frederick Webb Hodge|title=... Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: A-M|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kugNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA288|year=1907|publisher=United States Government Printing Office|page=288}}</ref><ref name="Cushman1899">{{cite book|author=Horatio Bardwell Cushman|title=History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924073559761|year=1899|publisher=Headlight printing house|page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924073559761/page/n575 564]}}</ref> Noted anthropologist [[John Swanton]], however, suggests that the name belonged to a Choctaw leader.<ref name=john_swanton_figure>{{cite book | last = Swanton | first = John | title = Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians | year = 1931 | publisher=The University of Alabama Press | isbn = 0-8173-1109-2 | page = 29}}</ref> They were descended from people of the [[Mississippian culture]] which was located throughout the Mississippi River Valley. Historians such as [[Walter Lee Williams]] have documented some early [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish explorers]] encountering chiefs of the Mississippian culture, ancestors of some of the Five Tribes.<ref name=walter_williams_antecedents>{{cite book | last = Williams | first = Walter | author-link = Walter Lee Williams | title = Southeastern Indians: Since the Removal Era | year = 1979 | publisher=University of Georgia Press | location = Athens, Georgia | chapter = Southeastern Indians before Removal, Prehistory, Contact, Decline | pages = 7–10}}</ref>

Although smaller Choctaw groups are located in the southern region, the [[Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma]] and the [[Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians]] are the two primary federally recognized tribes. This people historically cultivated beans, maize, and squash, like other settled Indians. They also hunted and fished for some of their diet. Since the early nineteenth century, the tribe has recovered and increased in number. The federally recognized tribes have about 231,000 members in total, making the Choctaw the third-largest Native American population in the United States. The capital of the [[Choctaw Nation]] is in [[Tuskahoma, Oklahoma]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.choctawnation.com/history/ |title=History |publisher=Choctaw Nation |access-date=2015-10-18}}</ref>

===Muscogee===
{{Main|Muscogee}}

The [[Muscogee]], or Creek, are originally from present-day Alabama, [[Florida]], Georgia, and [[South Carolina]].<ref>[http://anpa.ualr.edu/digital_library/Additional%20Texts%20-%20Yuchi%20.htm Transcribed documents] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213170748/http://anpa.ualr.edu/digital_library/Additional%20Texts%20-%20Yuchi%20.htm|date=February 13, 2012}} Sequoyah Research Center and the American Native Press Archives</ref> They resided there from approximately 1500 AD until they were forcibly displaced by the American government in the early 19th century. ''Mvskoke'' is their name in the Muskogee language. The Muscogee Creek were not one tribe but a confederacy of several, each of which had their own distinct land and sometimes dialects or languages in the Muskogean family.

Starting in 1836, the US government forced them to remove west of the Mississippi along with the other Southeast tribes to what was designated as Indian Territory. About 20,000 Muscogee members were forced to walk the [[Trail of Tears]], the same number as the Choctaw.<ref name="muscogeenation-nsn.gov">{{cite web |url=http://www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov/Pages/History/history.html |title=Muscogee (Creek) Nation |publisher=Muscogeenation-nsn.gov |access-date=2020-07-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008074719/http://www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov/Pages/History/history.html |archive-date=2015-10-08 }}</ref> Modern Muscogee live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Their language, ''[[Creek language|Mvskoke]]'', is a member of the Creek branch of the [[Muskogean languages|Muskogean language family]].

Federally recognized tribes descended from the Creek Confederacy include the [[Muscogee (Creek) Nation|Muscogee Creek Nation]], [[Kialegee Tribal Town]], and [[Thlopthlocco Tribal Town]] in Oklahoma; [[Poarch Band of Creek Indians]] in Alabama, and [[Alabama–Quassarte Tribal Town]].

The Seminole people originally included many of Creek origin, but developed as a separate culture, through a process of [[ethnogenesis]], before Indian removal.

===Seminoles===
{{Main|Seminole}}

The [[Seminole]]s are a Native American people that developed in present-day Florida. Federally recognized tribes of this people now reside in Oklahoma and Florida.

The Seminole nation came into existence in the late 18th century and was composed of renegade and outcast Native Americans from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, most significantly from among the loose Creek confederacy. They were joined by African Americans who escaped from [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] in [[South Carolina]] and Georgia. During Indian removal and the [[Seminole Wars]], roughly 3,000 Seminoles were forced by the U.S. to remove west of the Mississippi River. The [[Seminole Nation of Oklahoma]] is made up of their descendants.

But approximately 300 to 500 Seminoles migrated to the [[Everglades]] of Florida, where they gained refuge and resisted removal. The US waged two more [[Seminole Wars|wars against the Seminoles]] in Florida in an effort to dislodge them, and about 1,500 US soldiers died. The Seminoles never surrendered to the US government, and consequently the Seminoles of Florida call themselves the "Unconquered People".<ref name="GreenbergProctor1997">{{cite book|author1=Mark I. Greenberg|author2=Samuel Proctor|author3=William Warren Rogers|author4=Canter Brown|editor=Mark I. Greenberg |editor2=William Warren Rogers |editor3=Canter Brown |title=Florida's heritage of diversity: essays in honor of Samuel Proctor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_IRAQAAIAAJ&q=%22unconquered%20people%22|year=1997|publisher=Sentry Press|isbn=978-1-889574-03-5|page=84}}</ref><ref name="DOS2016">{{cite web|title=Seminole History|url=http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/|website=DOS.Myflorida.com|publisher=Florida Department of State|access-date=7 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530043131/http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/|archive-date=May 30, 2016|date=2016}}</ref>

For about twenty years after the move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), the Seminoles refused to live with the Muscogee Creek tribe or under their government until they finally reached an agreement with the government to sign a treaty and live with them. The Seminoles favored the North during the Civil War and remained loyal to the Union. They moved north into Kansas during the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Seminole History |url=http://www.fivecivilizedtribes.org/Seminole.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303142942/http://www.fivecivilizedtribes.org/Seminole.html |archive-date=3 March 2021 |publisher=Fivecivilizedtribes.org |access-date=2021-10-29}}</ref>

Seminole tribes include the [[Seminole Nation of Oklahoma]] and [[Seminole Tribe of Florida]]. In addition, the [[Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida]] was part of the Seminole Tribe in that state until 1962, when they gained independent federal recognition as a tribe. They speak the [[Mikasuki language]], also called Seminole and related to Creek, or Muskogee, but the two languages are mutually unintelligible. Ancestors of each of these tribes were among Creek bands in the region in the eighteenth century, but the Seminoles developed an independent culture in Florida.