BULL. 30] 



CHICKASAW 



261 



irregular; this they divide into 7 [towns] 

 by the names of Amalahta 'hat and 

 feather,' Chatelaw 'copper town,' Chnka- 

 falaya 'long town,' Hikkihaw 'stand 

 still,' Chucalissa 'great town,' Tuckahaw 

 'a cert'n weed,' Ashukhuma 'red grass.' 

 Formerly the whole was inclosed in pali- 

 sadoes." 



The warlike Chickasaw claimed other 

 territory far beyond the narrow limits of 

 their villages, and extending on the n. to 

 the confluence of the Ohio witii the Ten- 

 nessee. They also claimed a large area 

 N. of the Tennessee to the ridge be- 

 tween Duck r. and the Cumberland to 

 the headwaters of Duck r. and s. to Chick- 

 asaw Old Fields on the Tennessee, thence 

 along an indeterminate s. e. line to the 

 MicTissippi. This cl?'r . was admitted by 

 the Cherokee. According to Haywooa 

 and otherauthoritiesan outlying colony of 

 Chickasaw formerly dwelt on Savannah r. 

 nearly opposite Augusta, Ga., but trouble 

 with the Creeks drove them westw.:"d 

 again. In 1795 the Chickasaw claimed 

 payment from the United States for the 

 land on the Savannah thus occupied. 



The Chickasaw were noted from remote 

 times for their bravery, independence, 

 and warlike disposition. They were con- 

 stantly fighting with the neighboring 

 tribes; sometimes with the Choctaw and 

 Creeks, then with the Cherokee, Illinois, 

 Kickapoo, Shawnee, Mobilians, Osage, 

 and Quapaw. In 1732 they cut to pieces 

 a war party of Iroquois who had invaded 

 their country. They were constant ene- 

 mies of the French — a feeling intensified 

 by the intrigues of British traders and 

 their hatred of the Choctaw who had 

 entered into friendly relations with the 

 French colonists. The Chickasaw urged 

 the Natchez to resist the French encroach- 

 ments, and gave shelter to them when 

 driven from their home. They defeated 

 the French at Amalahta in 1736, at the 

 Long House and other points, and baffled 

 their attempts at conquest in the war of 

 1739-40. They combined with the Cher- 

 okee about 17i5 and drove the Shawnee 

 from their home on the Cumberland, and 

 in 1769 utterly routed, at Chickasaw Old 

 Fields, these former Cherokee allies. 



Their relations with the United States 

 began with the Hopewell treaty in 1786, 

 when their boundary on the x. was fixed 

 at the Ohio r. They began to emigrate 

 w. of the Mississippi as early as 1822, 

 and treaties for the removal of those who 

 remained in their old seats were made in 

 1832 and 1834. By the treaty of 1855 

 their lands in Indian Ter. were definitely 

 separated from those of the Choctaw, with 

 which they had before been included. 

 _ In manners and customs they differed 

 little from their congeners, the Choctaw, 

 the principal difference being the more 



sedentary habits and greater devotion to 

 agricultural pursuits by the Choctaw on 

 the one hand, and the more turbulent, 

 restless, and warlike disposition of the 

 Chickasaw on the other. Their tradi- 

 tional origin is the same as that of the 

 Creeks and Choctaw (q. v.), and is given 

 in the so-called "Creek migration leg- 

 end" (see Creeks). The Chickasaw ap- 

 pear to have sheltered and ultimately 

 incorporated into their organization the 

 small tribes along Yazoo r., who spoke 

 substantially the same language. The 

 Chickasaw language served as a medium 

 of commercial and tribal intercourse for 

 all the tri})es along the lower Mississippi. 

 Early estimates of population vary widely, 

 those of the 18th century ranging from 

 2,000 to nearly 6.000. " According to 

 Adair (dji. cit.. .'!.").'!) they had l>cen much 



CHICKASAW 



more numerous than during his time 

 (1744), one of the two divisions, the 

 "Long House," numbering not more 

 than 450 warriors, indicating a population 

 of 1,600 to 1,800 persons. He gives no 

 estimate of the other division, but assum- 

 ing it to have been about the same, the 

 jwpulation of the entire tribe was between 

 3,000 and 4,000. Morse (Rep. to Sec. 

 War, 364, 1822), though estimating the 

 Choctaw at 25,000, gives the Chickasaw 

 population as 3,625. In 1865 the esti- 

 mated population was 4,500; in 1904 the 

 official number was given as 4,826, in- 

 cluding mixed bloods. 



According to Morgan (Anc. Society, 

 163, 1878) the Chickasaw were divided 

 into 12 gentes, arranged in 2 }>hratries, as 

 follows: 



I. — Koi, Panther: (1) Koinchush, 



