Prehistory

Chickasaws in Ancient Times

• History Timeline

This era spans our ancestors' discovery of stone tools to the rise and fall of prehistoric cities and the beginning of the clan system.

Discovery

The end of the Mississippi era was marked by the Europeans' arrival to what they called the "New World."

Nations Collide

Vying for Influence and Land

• History Timeline

The Chickasaws enter into an alliance with the British, ensuring their survival in a looming battle with other Nations.

Early America

A New Nation

• History Timeline

As the British gained their edge over France, colonists began pressing for independence. The Revolutionary War confounded the Chickasaws.

Resistance

A Time of Uncertainty

• History Timeline

Chickasaws' lives in their ancestral homelands drew to a sorrowful close.

Territorial Era

Westward Fortitude

• History Timeline

Astute leadership and strategic negotiating put the Chickasaws in charge of their own removal, faring far better than the first four southeast tribes.

A New State

Lasting Impacts on Tribal Rights

• History Timeline

Oklahoma reached statehood in 1907, but tribal rights for the Chickasaw were retained in the new constitution.

Reasserting Sovereignty

Strengthened by Self-Governance

• History Timeline

With the leadership of President Richard Nixon, tribal nations were once again able to assert their sovereignty.

Renaissance

An Era of Growth

• History Timeline

Through centuries of struggle, the Chickasaw remained an unconquered people.