Charles Tate was born in 1940 in Ardmore, OK and is a descendent of Edmund Pickens and Cyrus Harris. He has been a prominent voice in Indian law for over 40 years, and has used his legal experience to better the Chickasaw Nation. He earned his law degree from the University of Oklahoma and dedicated much of his legal career to the revival of Chickasaw sovereignty and became active in the movement to revive the constitutional governments in both the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations. He held many positions that include tribal judge for countless Native American Nations and tribes as well as being appointed special district judge for Carter County, Oklahoma, where he served until he retired in 2009. He now works for the Chickasaw Nation, traveling across the country locating, identifying and retrieving historical materials for the Holisso Research Center, located at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, OK.