In the early 1800s, the U.S. government attempted to rid the Southeast of Indians in order to make way for trading networks, American immigration, optimal land use, economic development opportunities, and, ultimately, territorial expansion westward to the Pacific. The difficult removal of the Chickasaw Nation to Indian Territory—later to become part of the state of Oklahoma— was exacerbated by the U.S. government’s unenlightened decision to place the Chickasaws on lands it had previously provided solely for the Choctaw Nation.

This volume deals with the challenges the Chickasaw people had from attacking Texans and Plains Indians, the tribe’s ex-slaves, the influence on the tribe of intermarried white men, and the presence of illegal aliens (U.S. citizens) in their territory. By focusing on the tribal and U.S. government policy conflicts, as well as longstanding attempts of the Chickasaw people to remain culturally unique, St. Jean reveals the successes and failures of the Chickasaw in attaining and maintaining sovereignty as a separate and distinct Chickasaw Nation.

Wendy St. Jean is Assistant Professor of history at Purdue University, Calumet.

“St. Jean’s great strength and main contribution to Chickasaw scholarship is her tenacity and persistence in finding and scouring source material from the 1870s through the 1890s, especially territorial newspapers. Those newspapers give us more insight into some of the Chickasaw leaders, particularly the great protector/promoter of Chickasaw nationalism, the charismatic governor B. F. Overton.”

—Richard Green, Tribal Historian of the Chickasaw Nation