Mythologies of the Five Civilized Tribes

The Five Civilized Tribes were a group of Native American nations that were officially and unofficially called such to collectively designate the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes. The term was applied by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal periods because these tribes had adopted many of the colonists’ customs and generally had good relations with the white settlers. The term appears in the reports of the Indian Office as early as 1876, when the agent reported that “each tribe had a constitutional government, with legislative, judicial, and executive departments, conducted upon the same plan as our State governments, the entire expenses of which, are paid out of their own funds.” However, at that time, there was no court with jurisdiction to try cases where an Indian was one party and a citizen of the United States or a corporation was the other. These five tribes differed from most others in the fact that their lands were held not on the same basis as reservations but by patents or deeds, with certain restrictions as to alienation and reversion, as well as other restrictions regarding timber, mining, and grazing within their respective tracts. All of the Five Civilized Tribes lived in the Southeastern United States before the government forced their relocation under the Indian Removal Act to other parts of the country, especially the future state of Oklahoma. This act, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in May 1830, required that all Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River relocate to lands west of the river. Over the next several decades, the Five Civilized Tribes were relocated from their homes to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during a series of removals authorized by federal legislation. The title of the Chickasaw Nation to their lands in Indian Territory was obtained from the Choctaw in accordance with treaties with the United States, while that of the Seminole was obtained from the Creek tribe. The territory assigned to these five tribes within the limits of Indian Territory in present-day eastern Oklahoma was approximately 30,431 square miles.When the Civil War began in 1861, the Five Tribes were divided in politics, with the Choctaw and Chickasaw fighting on the Confederate side, the Creek and Seminole supporting the Union, and the Cherokee fighting a civil war within their own nation between the majority Confederates and the minority pro-Union men.

The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminoles. White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture. The descriptor "civilized", historically used to obscure the cultural imperialism of White settlers, is seldom used nowadays because of the derogatory implication that other Native tribes were uncivilized. Consequently, the grouping of these nations is referred to as The Five Tribes or simply Five Tribes. Examples of such colonial attributes adopted by these five tribes included Christianity, centralized governments, literacy, market participation, written constitutions, intermarriage with White Americans, and chattel slavery practices, including purchase of enslaved Black Americans. For a period, the Five Civilized Tribes tended to maintain stable political relations with the White population. However, White encroachment continued and eventually led to the removal of these tribes from the Southeast, most prominently along the Trail of Tears. In the 21st century, this term has been criticized by some scholars for its ethnocentric assumptions by Anglo-Americans of what they considered civilized, but representatives of these tribes continue to meet regularly on a quarterly basis in their Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes. The descendants of these tribes, who primarily live in what is now Oklahoma, are sometimes referred to as the Five Tribes of Oklahoma, although several other federally recognized tribes are also located in that state.

Five Civilized Tribes, term that has been used officially and unofficially since at least 1866 to designate the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Indians in Oklahoma (former Indian Territory). Beginning in 1874, they were dealt with as a single body by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the U.S. Department of Interior, but there has never been any unification or overall organization of these tribes under that name. The word civilized was applied to the five tribes because, broadly speaking, they had developed extensive economic ties with whites or had assimilated into American settler culture. Some members of these southeastern tribes had adopted European clothing, spoke English, practiced Christianity, and even owned slaves. In 1821 the Cherokee developed a written language, and by 1828 the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper, began publication. The Cherokee also established a strong central government with a constitution based on the U.S. constitution. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized Pres. Andrew Jackson to accelerate the westward movement of Europeans by relocating Indian tribes to unsettled land west of the Mississippi River. While the act had explicitly provided for the purchase of land from willing parties, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole had little desire to leave their established communities to begin anew beyond the frontier. When faced with forced removal, the Cherokee used the American federal court system to press their claims against the state of Georgia. Although the Supreme Court twice ruled in favour of the Cherokee nation, Georgia ignored the ruling, and Jackson is said to have declared privately, “[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”

The United States has a long, complicated history with the Native American nations that originally inhabited its lands. The historical significance of the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes” lies in how the US treated these nations despite their assimilation into American culture. The “Five Civilized Tribes” was a term used by the United States in the late 19th century that referred to the Native American nations of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole. These nations were all located in the southeastern United States and largely chose to assimilate into American culture. The natives hoped that by adopting white culture and abandoning their traditional ways that they would be able to remain on their ancestral lands instead of being forced westward. The Five Civilized Tribes assimilated in a variety of ways. The nations participated in the market economy trading goods and services, practiced large scale agriculture and animal husbandry instead of hunting, adopted Christianity, allowed western education, and formed their own centralized governments. Many even adopted the practice of owning black slaves to work their large plantations growing cotton made possible by the invention of the cotton gin. Despite their adoption and assimilation into white culture, the Five Civilized Tribes found that the US government would once again renege on its promises. Congress’ passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 eventually forced all the nations to vacate their lands and move west. The horrific treatment of the Five Civilized Tribes during the “Jacksonian Era” is known as the Trail of Tears.

Five Civilized Tribes is a name white settlers gave to the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminoles in the 1800s after these Native American tribes adopted Christianity and European customs. When the colonists arrived on the North American mainland, these native peoples were living in the southeastern United States. They had settled there in small villages and farmed and hunted for subsistence. The Indians were not immune to many illnesses the settlers brought to the new world. Smallpox, measles, pneumonia, and other sicknesses claimed many lives and reduced the populations of these tribes by an estimated 75 percent in less than two hundred years. Thus, by the time colonists won the American Revolution (1775–1783), relatively small numbers of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminoles survived; of necessity they began to adapt to the growing culture around them. They attended church services, sent their children to school, and even bought plantations. Nevertheless, under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 the U.S. government claimed the lands of the five tribes in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. The government moved the tribes westward to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma. The forced migration along the Trail of Tears, which claimed four thousand lives, was completed by 1842. Installed in their new lands, each of the Five Civilized Tribes was given the status of a nation. While they lived on communally held land, each tribe drew up its own constitution, formed its own government, and set up schools. They successfully farmed the rich soil of their new lands in peace, but their independence was again threatened by the further encroachment of white settlers, who moved ever westward in what finally became the Land Rush (of 1889). Eventually the Oklahoma lands were opened to white settlers; the Five Civilized Tribes became increasingly assimilated into the culture around them. In 1907 the state of Oklahoma (which is a Choctaw word meaning "red people") was created by merging Indian Territory with the Oklahoma Territory.

There are currently 574 federally recognized Indian nations (also known as tribes, bands, communities and by other terms) in the U.S. according to the National Congress of American Indians. About 229 are located in Alaska and the rest are in 35 other states. Of that number, five were called the "Five Civilized Tribes," a term which didn't save them from being forcibly removed to "Indian Territory," in the 19th century. So, where did that term come from and who were they? By the time the first European settlers arrived in America, there were already more than two dozen Native American tribes living in and farming the fertile soil of the Southeast, in the area today encompassing the states of North Carolina down through Georgia, Florida and the Gulf Coast. Like other Native peoples who came in contact with Europeans, these Southeastern tribes were ravaged by diseases like smallpox. Over time, they learned to adapt to the encroaching white culture in ways that they believed would secure their survival and sovereignty. Many members of these Southeastern tribes converted to Christianity, for example. They took to wearing European-style clothing and living in frame houses. They adopted the agricultural practices of their Southern white neighbors, including ownership of enslaved people, and sold goods in a market economy. They intermarried with whites, spoke English, and sent their kids to schools run by Christian missionaries. As a result, by 1800, five of the largest Southeastern tribes were routinely referred to by U.S. government officials as "civilized," explains Andrew Frank, a scholar of Indigenous and Seminole history at Florida State University. "American officials drew a distinction between these five tribes — the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and somewhat the Seminole — and what they would call the 'wild, wandering and uncivilized' tribes elsewhere," says Frank. The Cherokee were the largest of the "civilized" tribes. By 1830, they had a written constitution with a democratically elected assembly and chief, and they published a newspaper in both Cherokee and English. "Among Southern whites, those earmarks of 'civilization' suggested that there was a willing assimilation into American culture," says Mark Hirsch, an historian with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. But Frank says that appearances can be deceiving. If you look back deeper into Native American history, Native peoples always incorporated new technologies and customs from their neighbors. And when circumstances in their environment changed — a drop in wild deer population or the introduction of maize — the people changed with them. "But in almost every instance, the adoption of these new outside things was done for the purpose of protecting Indigenous people, not abandoning them," says Frank. "Despite the appearance of 'civilized' customs, Native people had no interest in becoming part of the United States. They had no interest in assimilating into a white norm. How better to resist the oppressors than to learn their language?"