User:Emilyc12345678/Chickasaw Nation

The Chickasaw people were a tribe a great hunters and warriors whose homes were located near the Tombigbee River in Northern Mississippi. Their territories ranged far and wide over the entire Mississippi Valley region. With a population of about 5,000 in 1600, the Chickasaw were significantly less in number population wise in comparison to their neighbors, the Cherokee and the Choctaw, which both had populations well over 20,000. However, despite being less populous, the Chickasaw were still able to hold vast hunting grounds in the region, including western Kentucky and Tennessee, northern Alabama and Mississippi.

According to tribal traditions, the Chickasaw and Choctaw people were once one tribe, with further confirmation of this due to the close similarities of their Muskogean languages. There were two divisions of the Chickasaw, which in turn turned into numerous clans. One would inherit membership of his mother's clan and was forbidden to marry within that clan. The High Minko, or head chief, was selected from the Minko clan and had leadership assistance from a council of advisers consisting of clan leaders as well as tribal elders. The two head priests, the hopaye, one from each division of the tribe, provided other leadership. These leaders presided at all religious ceremonies.

The Chickasaw believed in an afterlife in which the good would be rewarded somewhere in the heavens while the evildoers would wander forever in the land of the witches. When one passed, their face would be painted red and a grave would be dug under a house in which the body is placed in a sitting position facing west (the path to judgment lay in this direction) surrounded by his worldly possessions. The supreme deity of the Chickasaw was Ababinili, a composite of the Four Beloved Things Above: the Sun, Clouds, Clear Sky, and He That Lives in the Clear Sky. There were also a number of other lesser deities, including an entire range of evil spirits and witches.

The Chickasaw had great success in warfare, and as a result often had help with work from slaves takes as captives in battles. Chickasaw villages were rather compact in times of war, but spread out in times of peace, with a council house in the central area for meetings and ceremonies and council ground for gatherings and ball games. Men in the society were tasked with hunting, fishing, house building, boat building, tool making, etc. while the women were responsible for food gathering, household chores, and agriculture. Their main item of dress was the breech clout, in addition to deerskin shirts or robes or colder weather and high deerskin boots for hunting.

However, in the winter of 1540-41, the Chickasaw people had an unwelcome visit by an expedition of Spanish treasure seekers led by Hernando de Soto. Hernando de Soto is credited as being the first European to contact the Chickasaw, during his travels of 1540. He discovered them to have an agrarian society with a sophisticated governmental system, complete with their own laws and religion. The Chickasaw people were well aware of Soto's dangerous nature, as the Spanish had slaughtered thousands of Native Indians in a battle just an autumn before. After an uneasy truce regarding letting the Spanish stay in their camps, the Chickasaws planted a surprise night attack, burning the entire camp, and successfully sent a defiant message to their European enemies to not return to their land. As a result, 150 years passed before the Chickasaw received another European exploitation party.