Chickasaw - Post-Civil War

Post-Civil War

Because of their siding with the Confederacy, after the Civil War the US government made a new peace treaty with the Chickasaw in 1866. It included the provision that they emancipate the slaves and provide those who wanted to stay in the Chickasaw Nation with full citizenship; they and their descendants became known as the Chickasaw Freedmen. Many of their descendants continue to live in Oklahoma. Today the Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Association of Oklahoma represents their interests.

The Chickasaw Nation never granted citizenship to the Chickasaw freedmen. The only way blacks could become citizens at that time was to have Chickasaw parents or to petition for citizenship and go through the same process as any other race to gain citizenship, if they were of known Chickasaw descent. Because the Chickasaw Nation had working relations with the Confederacy and did not adopt their freedmen after the Civil War, they were penalized by the U.S. Government. It took over half of their lands, with no compensation, although the territory had been negotiated as Chickasaw property in previous treaties for their use after Removal.

The Chaloklowa Chickasaw Indian People were recognized as a "state-recognized group" by South Carolina in 2005. They are headquartered in Hemingway, South Carolina. In 2003, they unsuccessfully petitioned the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs to try to receive federal recognition as an Indian tribe.