The Chickasaw Removal Process

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The first tribe that was forcefully removed was the Choctaw, whose population was estimated to be about twenty-three thousand, of southeastern Mississippi. The first treaties with the Choctaws began with the Treaty of Mount Dexter in 1805. Some Choctaws acquired debts at government trading posts that they weren't going to be able to pay back. At Mount Dexter, Choctaw leaders were forced to give up four million acres of their land to pay off the owed debt. The Choctaws wanted to exchange their land for different land in the Indian Territory, which was west of the Mississippi River, and this was approved by the Treaty of Doak’s Stand in 1820. Pushmataha, the essential chief and diplomat of the Choctaws, negotiated this treaty with General Andrew Jackson. However, white settlers had already occupied much of the new Choctaw land, so the treaty seemed to have a little effect. The Treaty of …show more content…

It was agreed that the Chickasaws would move west when appropriate land could be obtained. Finding the land was difficult, but with the best possibility was being part of the Choctaw territory that was already established. Levi Colbert, the most well-known of several Chickasaw chiefs, was sick and not there when the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek was signed. He protested the use of force by General John Coffee, the leading government negotiator, to get the other chiefs to sign. However, he cooperated with the removal process in order to get the best possible land and to ease the problems of his people. The Chickasaw removal shadowed the signing of the Treaty of Doaksville in January, 1837. The land was secured and most of the tribe moved during that same year. Unlike other tribes, they were able to take most of their possessions with them, and few died along the way. However, after arrival in the Indian Territory, they faced the typical problems with the other tribes, food rationing, and a smallpox

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