Historians have referred to the period before the American Civil War as the Golden Years of the Five Tribes. The amount and speed of acculturation was remarkable. The accomplishments of the Five Tribes during those years were many, but they often had little to do with the experiences of the majority of tribes people.

Modern studies have shown that the total population of the Southeastern Indians decreased by more than a third between the time of removal and the Civil War. Since populations decrease only when they are under great stress, the “golden years” apparently were golden for only a few.

Governmental Reconstruction

The Five Tribes were the first peoples in Oklahoma to write constitutions to establish republican forms of government.

Choctaw National Government

The legislative branch was a unicameral (single-chamber) council of 10 representatives from three districts that met annually. Its executive branch consisted of three district chiefs who were elected for four years and governed together. Three appointed judges composed the judicial branch, while a lighthorse of 18 elected peace officers enforced the law. The constitution included a bill of rights (a document stating basic rights of the people that are protected from government violation) and extended voting rights to all males 16 years of age and older.

The Chickasaw National Government

In 1855 they negotiated a treaty with the Choctaws that permitted them to create an independent nation of their own. In the following year they drafted their own constitution, creating a government almost identical to that of the Choctaws and establishing their capital at Tishomingo in Johnston County. Cyrus Harris was elected as the first governor of the Chickasaws.

The Cherokee National Government

 On July 12, 1839, the convention adopted a formal “Act of Union,” which declared that the Eastern and Western Cherokees were “one body politic.” The next September, another convention adopted a fundamental, organizing law similar to the constitution of 1827. A third convention, this time with the Western Cherokees participating, was held in 1840. It ratified the constitution and set Tahlequah as the tribal capital. This document remained in place for the next 66 years.

Creek National Government

In 1859, representatives of the Upper and Lower Creeks joined to produce the tribe’s first written constitution. It maintained the two divisions of the tribe, including the dual executive branch. But it departed dramatically from tradition by changing the town and division chiefs to elected positions. The Lower Creeks elected Motey Kennard as their principal chief, while the Upper Creeks selected Echo Harjo.

Seminole Tribal Government

In 1849, national councilor Wildcat and former slave John Horse organized a group of Seminole, Creek, and Black Seminole warriors to establish a colony south of the Rio Grande in Mexico. Anxious to prevent a mass departure, especially of their slaves, the Creeks agreed to Seminole independence in a treaty signed in 1856. The Seminoles received their own domain in the West, and they promptly moved there. Under their new chief, John Jumper, the Seminoles reestablished their towns and built a national council house near present Trousdale in Pottawatomie County.

Economic Reconstruction

As the Five Tribes reestablished their governments in Indian Territory, they also began rebuilding their economies. For the traditionalists, that meant selecting new farm sites, clearing small fields out of the timber, and planting patches of corn, beans, potatoes, peas, pumpkins, and melons.

Many also planted fruit trees. It was hard work, especially when floods in one year and drought in another wiped out the crops. Most of these farmers did not plant for the commercial market, but they were so skillful that they often produced surpluses, which were sold to forts from Fort Smith to Fort Washita and to people in border towns.

A Different Kind of Slavery

Slavery had been introduced among the Five Tribes long before they were removed to Indian Territory. At the time of removal, the Cherokees owned nearly 1,600 slaves, more than any other tribe owned. In the West, slavery grew rapidly among all the tribes. By 1860, the more than 8,300 slaves in Indian Territory were 14 percent of the total population. Fewer than 10 percent of the Indians owned slaves, however.

Slavery among the Five Tribes differed from slavery elsewhere in the American South. It rested less heavily upon the bondsmen held by the Creeks and the Seminoles, whose slaves cultivated their own plots of land, acquired personal property, acted as interpreters, and moved about with relative freedom. Often, African Americans and Indians married one another, even though of their food. Fortunately for them, the forest was filled with white-tailed deer and smaller animals. Some people even journeyed to the plains in search of buffalo, but that effort was more for sport than for food.

Commercial Development

Along with the revival of agriculture, a thriving commerce evolved. Annuity payments from the federal government and the profits from farming and ranching were used to buy goods imported by enterprising Indian merchants and licensed white traders. These included Elijah Hicks among the Cherokees, G. W. Stidham among the Creeks, Robert M. Jones among the Choctaws, and Benjamin Franklin Colbert among the Chickasaws. Some tribespeople, like Cherokee Jesse Chisholm, traded regularly with the various tribes that roamed western Oklahoma.

Transportation Network

No systematic transportation network connected the commercial centers in Indian Territory. Goods and people followed the wagon roads and trails that the U.S. military had built in the 1820s and 1830s. These routes linked the forts, especially Fort Smith with Fort Towson. Heavier traffic flowed along the famous northeast-southwest Texas Road. Most people who followed those roadways were headed south toward Stephen Austin’s Texas rather than to a destination among the Five Tribes.

Manufacturing

In their western domains, the Five Tribes engaged in limited yet significant industrial activity. Energetic members of the tribe operated gristmills and sawmills, while others opened saltworks and cotton gins. Some even manufactured spinning wheels and looms for government distribution among the Indians.

Reestablishment of Religious Life

As the Five Tribes rebuilt their economies, they also resumed a meaningful social life. The religious observances and guidance that took place before their removal to Indian Territory continued in their new homelands.

Traditional

Traditionalists rekindled sacred fires and retained their faith in the power of secret medicines. At least once each year, they gathered to renew clan ties, to honor their elders, to participate in sacred dances, to take medicine, and to light new fires. These gatherings were widespread and involved large numbers of Oklahoma’s newest residents. What is known about them today is minimal, however, mainly because participants were reluctant to record their faith and practices in the writing system of whites.

Presbyterian

Because its adherents left written records and because it won the battle of religions, much more is known about Christianity in Indian Territory. Among the most influential missionaries were those sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. As we have seen, the ABCFM sent its first missionaries to the Five Tribes when they still lived in the East. With removal, its workers followed their converts to Oklahoma, reestablishing Presbyterian congregations and organizing new ones. By 1860, some 500 ABCFM workers had served in Indian Territory.