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INDIAN TRIBES OF OKLAHOMA

Five Civilized Tribes Museum - Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw.

The Five Civilized Tribes was a loose confederation, formed in 1859, of North American Indians in what was then INDIAN TERRITORY (in present-day Oklahoma).  The group comprised the Iroquoian-speaking CHEROKEE and the Muskogean-speaking CHICKASAW, CHOCTAW, CREEK, and SEMINOLE. They were described as "civilized" because of their early adoption of  many of the white man's ways.  Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Five Tribes were deported from their traditional homelands east of the Mississippi and forced to settle in Indian Territory.  Each organized an autonomous state modeled after the U.S. federal government, established courts and a formalized code of laws, constructed schools and Christian  churches, and developed a writing system patterned on the one earlier devised by the Cherokee.

Members of the Five Tribes absorbed many cultural features of their white neighbors, including plow agriculture and animal husbandry, European-style houses and dress,    and even the ownership of black slaves. Some tribesmen joined the Confederate forces during the Civil War.

Thereafter the United States instituted a policy of detribalization and gradually curtailed Indian control of tribal lands. The tribal nations remained independent until 1907, when statehood was granted to Oklahoma and the federal government opened Indian Territory to white settlement. Today, a great many descendants of  the Five Tribes live on reservations in Oklahoma.

Before forced settlement in Indian Territory, the members of the Five Tribes, some of  which were traditionally enemies, shared many culture traits. All relied primarily    on maize agriculture, with fishing, hunting, and foraging an important but subsidiary  means of subsistence. Village life was highly developed. Households generally included small extended families, with kinship based on a matrilineal clan system.

Among the more western tribes, notably the Creek, social stratification existed in the form of noble and common classes that were marked by their mode of dress.  Independent communities were politically integrated into confederacies.  Temple architecture, ceremonial centers, and elaborate rituals--such as the CORN DANCE--existed, centered on the growing of corn and worship of the Sun.  Traditional crafts included coiled pottery, woven blankets, and articles of wrought copper.

Federally Recognized - Oklahoma Tribes
  1   - Absentee-Shawnee Tribe
  2    - Alabama/Quassarte Tribe
  3    - Alabama-Coushatta Tribe
  4    - Apache Tribe
  5    - Caddo Tribal Town
  6    - Cherokee Nation
  7    - Cheyenne/Arapaho Tribe
  8    - Chickasaw Tribe
  9    - Choctaw Tribe
10   - Citzen Band Potawatomi
11   - Comanche Tribe
12   - Creek Nation
13   - Eastern Delaware
14   - Eastern Shawnee
15   - Fort Sill Apache-
16   - Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma
17   - Kaw Nation
18   - Kialegee Tribal Town,
         June Fixico, Micco
         P.O. Box 332,
         Wetumka, OK 4883
         (405) 452-3262 FAX 452-3413
19   - Kickapoo Tribe
        Danny Kaskaske, Chairman
        P.O. Box 70
        McLoud, OK 74851
        (405) 964-2075 FAX 964-2745
20   - Kiowa Tribe
        Billy Evans Horse, Chairman
        P.O. Box 369
        Carnegie, OK 73015
        (405) 654-2300 FAX 654-2188
21   - Miami Tribe
22   - Modoc Tribe
23   - Otoe-Missouria Tribe
24   - Ottawa Tribe
25   - Pawnee Tribe
26   - Peoria Tribe
27   - Ponca Tribe
28   - Quapaw Tribe
29   - Sac & Fox Nation
30   - Seminole Nation
31   - Seneca/Cayuga Tribe
32   - Thlopthlocco Tribal Town
33   - Tonkawa Tribe
34   - United Keetoowah Band
        Dallas Proctor, Chief
        P.O. Box 746
        Tahlequah, OK 74465
        (918) 431-1818 FAX (910)431-1873
35   - Wichita & Affiliated Tribes
36   - Wyandotte Tribe
37   - Western DELAWARE TRIBE OF EAST OKLAHOMA

Populations various tribes