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There is a tradition that these two tribes once inhabited the same
country where they now live, and that a great tribe of Indians from the
northwest made war on them so long and so fiercely that they decided to
leave the country. They started east, guided by a dog and a magic pole.
At night they would plant the pole in the ground, and in the morning the
way the pole would be leaning would be the way they would go. They
traveled east until they came to the Mississippi River. The dog was
drowned crossing the river, leaving them nothing but the pole for a
guide. They then traveled south for some distance along the Mississippi.
They remained in the new country until they first saw the white man. The
Chickasaws reheld they are only
Choctaws, but the word Chickasaw "means "reheld." They have never
shed the blood of the white man, and brag of it. They have adopted the
white man's ways and his religion.
The Choctaws and Chickasaws,
like the other tribes, made a
treaty in 1866 and parted with those lands of theirs lying in what
is now Oklahoma, on which the government settled the
Comanches,
Kiowas,
Apaches,
Caddos and
Wichitas, whose country was opened for settlement on August 5, 1901.
A more sensible method of opening was adopted this time, by drawing, so
that each man had an equal chance, and the lucky man won. The lands of
the Choctaws and Chickasaws were allotted about the same as the lands of
the other five civilized tribes.
This closes the history of the
five civilized tribes and Oklahoma with the exception of the big pasture
that will be open on the 3rd day of December, 1906. A Cherokee allotment
is $325 worth of land, and the land is graded from 50 cents an acre to
$6.50. The Creeks have 160 acres each, and have a surplus that is to be
sold to the highest bidder. The Choctaws and Chickasaws have 320 acres
each. Every one of them who can write his own name is allowed to sell
all his land but his homestead by applying to the Secretary of the
Interior through the Indian agent. A great part of Oklahoma was long
counted part of Texas, but it was finally decided by the Supreme Court
of the United States that not the North Fork of the Red River, but the
Red River itself was the dividing line between Oklahoma and Texas as far
as the east line of the Pan-handle country. Beaver County was a tract of
land which none of the tribes claimed, and was for many years called "No
Man's Land." Fort Supply was established in '67, it was the first fort
to be established in Oklahoma. It was located on Beaver creek in what is
now Woodward County, Oklahoma, which was the first step to be taken to
rid that part of the plains of buffalo.
- Additional Choctaw and Chickasaw Resources
History of Oklahoma, Indian
Territory and Homeseeker's Guide
Source: History of Oklahoma and Indian Territory and Homeseeker's
guide, By J. L. and Ellen Puckett, Vinita, Oklahoma, Chieftain
Publishing Company, 1906
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