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Five Civilized Tribes

Illustrations of members of the Five Civilized Tribes painted between 1775 and 1850 (clockwise from top right): Sequoyah, Pushmataha, Selocta, Piominko, and Osceola

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.[1][2][3] White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture.[4]

Conventionally, the descriptor 'civilized' is seldom utilized nowadays due to its derogatory nature, and the historical usage of the term as an obscuration for cultural imperialism.[5] Therewith, the grouping of these aforementioned nations is referred to as The Five Tribes or simply Five Tribes.[6]

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.[7][8] 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,[9] but representatives of these tribes continue to meet regularly on a quarterly basis in their Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes.[10]

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.

  1. ^ Clinton, Fred S. "Oklahoma Indian History, from The Tulsa World" Archived 2017-08-24 at the Wayback Machine. The Indian School Journal, Volume 16, Number 4, 1915, page 175-187.
  2. ^ Barry Pritzker (2000). A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford University Press. p. 389. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1.
  3. ^ Theda Perdue; Michael D Green (2001). The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast. Columbia University Press. pp. 75–77. ISBN 978-0-231-50602-1.
  4. ^ "Five Civilized Tribes". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
  5. ^ "Historic Context Review: A Planning Tool for the Oklahoma Historical Society," 24 January 2018, Vertical File, Publications Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.
  6. ^ "Five Tribes," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=FI015. Published September 20, 2018
  7. ^ Roberts, Alaina. "Opinion: How Native Americans adopted slavery from white settlers". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  8. ^ Smith, Ryan P (6 March 2018). "How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  9. ^ Michael D. Green (2006). "The Five Tribes of the Southeastern United States". In Charles Robert Goins; Danney Goble (eds.). Historical Atlas of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-0-8061-3483-3.
  10. ^ "Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes".

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