Chikashshanompa’: The Language of the Chickasaw People

Chikashshanompa’ belongs to the Muskogean Language family.  Muskogean Languages are generally divided into Western and Eastern Muskogean groups.  Chikashshanompa’ is a Western Muskogean language, as is the Choctaw language (Davis, 2015).  Other Muskogean languages include Seminole, Muskogee Creek, Mikasuki, Alabama, Koasati, and Apalachee (Fitzgerald, 2016; Haas, 1956). Each of these languages are used today to some extent, with the exception of Apalachee which currently has no fluent speakers (Fitzgerald, 2016; Goddard, 2005; Haas, 1956).  The Chickasaw and Choctaw languages are closely related, with speakers of one language often able to understand speakers of the other language.  The same is true of the Muskogee Creek and Seminole languages, as well as the Alabama and Koasati (Hardy & Scanarelli, 2005).  All of the Muskogean languages are considered endangered, although there are pieces of documentation including dictionaries and/or reference grammar of some type for each of the languages (Fitzgerald, 2016).  Most speakers of Muskogean languages live in present-day Oklahoma, with some speakers living in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida (Hardy & Scanarelli, 2005).

Chikashshanompa’ as a Minoritized Language

A minoritized language is defined as a language that has historically encountered prejudice and even attempts at eradication.  Minoritized languages are often the languages of Indigenous peoples (Slapac & Coppersmith, 2019).  Chikashshanompa’ falls into that category as a language that is endangered and whose users were subjected to prejudice and even punishment for many years.  However, this was not always the case.

Chikashshanompa’ Prior to the Arrival of the Europeans

The traditional homelands of the Chickasaw people are commonly referred to as the Mississippian homelands.  The Mississippian homelands covered approximately 38,000 square miles in parts of present-day Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  The Mississippi River ran through the early homelands and the Chickasaw lived in towns along the river and other waterways.  They were adept at navigating the Mississippi and other smaller waterways in the homelands via dugout canoes.  In addition to the Chickasaw, many traders and travelers, both other tribal members and non-Natives, travelled up and down the Mississippi.  In fact, the Chickasaw name for the Mississippi was Balbasha’ Okhina’, or the river where foreign speakers are (roughly translated) (Dyson, 2014).

Chikashshanompa’ was solely spoken among the Chickasaw people prior to the arrival of the Europeans.  Hernando de Soto was the first European to have contact with the Chickasaw People.  His arrival in North America in 1540 would eventually lead to the disruption of the language and culture of North American tribes, including the Chickasaw (Gibson, 1971).  The Spanish stayed with the Chickasaw through the winter of 1540-1541.  Soon, the Chickasaw became weary of the demands made of them by the Spanish and drove them out.  It would be approximately 150 years until further contact with Europeans (Dyson, 2014; Gibson, 1971).

The French were the next group of Europeans to make contact with the Chickasaw, followed by the English (Dyson, 2014; Gibson, 1971).  Once the European colonizers began arriving in North America, the Spanish, French and English languages were introduced to Chickasaw territory (Davis, 2016).  Even after the Europeans arrived in North America, Chikashshanompa’ was the only language spoken by the majority of the population until the “1720s and 1730s, [when] some English traders had married into the Chickasaws, becoming bilingual and raising mixed-blood children” (Ozbolt, 2014, p. 22).  It really was not until the 19th century that it was common for Chickasaws to speak English, thus raising a group of bilingual Chickasaws (Davis, 2016; Hinson, 2019; Ozbolt, 2014).  In fact, there is evidence of wide-spread intermarriage among the Chickasaw and the British that can be seen in the number of Chickasaw signers of an 1801 treaty who had English surnames (Dyson, 2014).  This decline in the knowledge and speaking of Chikashshanompa’ has reached the point where currently, the vast majority of Chickasaw citizens are monolingual English speakers (Davis, 2016).

Indian Removal Act

By the 1830s, life in villages for the Chickasaw had mostly gone by the wayside.  Most of the once-thriving towns encountered by the early Europeans had been abandoned (Dyson, 2014). The Indian Removal Act of 1830 served to further minoritize Chikashshanompa’.  This act allowed for the US President to take the land of the tribes living east of the Mississippi River in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi River (Cobb, 2007; Gibson, 1971).  While this practice of moving Indians from land east of the Mississippi River to lands west had been going on for some time, the Indian Removal Act made this practice an official policy of the US Government and sped up the process of removing the eastern tribes from their homelands.  The states of Alabama and Mississippi had also enacted policies aimed at eroding Chickasaw sovereignty during this time.  New state laws abolished tribal governments and removed power from tribal leaders (Gibson, 1971).  The Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832 specified that the Chickasaw would cede their Mississippian lands to the Federal Government (Goodin, 2017).

Removal to the lands west of the Mississippi River, which became known as Indian Territory (now present-day Oklahoma), proved detrimental to the eastern tribes for many reasons.  First of all, many tribal members died as a result of the arduous journey.  With removal also came a great loss of traditions.  The Chickasaw, like many other tribes, were closely connected to their homelands in both cultural and spiritual ways.  This meant that being forcibly separated from their lands proved detrimental to both cultural traditions and language (Goodin, 2017).

Removal from their homelands came with a change in the plants and animals that the tribes had known for generations.  This led to great loss of Chickasaw vocabulary (Dyson, 2014).  For example, prior to removal, the Chickasaws had an estimated 3-5 words for waterways depending on the size of the waterways.  This variety of vocabulary was reduced to one word after removal (Dyson, 2014).  For their extensive travelling on various waterways, the Chickasaw used yellow poplar, longleaf pine, and bald cypress for making their dugout canoes.  Sadly, when the Chickasaw were forcibly removed to Indian Territory, the names of these particular trees dropped from conversational language as they did not grow in Indian Territory.

Furthermore, several other varieties of trees that were present in the Mississippian homelands did not grow in Indian Territory.  Therefore, the names of those trees, which were culturally important to the Chickasaw, have also been lost to time (Dyson, 2014).

Indian Territory

Upon removal to Indian Territory, the Chickasaw originally settled in the territory of the Choctaw.  The 1837 Treaty of Doaksville meant that the Chickasaw would have their own district within the boundaries of the Choctaw territory.  This was intended to be a temporary solution, with the Chickasaw eventually having their own territory.  However, a census taken in 1844 revealed that there were 4,111 Chickasaws, with the vast majority still living within the territory of the Choctaw (Gibson, 1971).  Finally, by 1853, most Chickasaws were living apart from the Choctaw.  This co-mingling of the tribes is important in terms of language because linguistically, Chikashshanompa’ and Choctaw are closely related (Davis, 2016).

According to oral history, the Chickasaw and Choctaw were once one tribe.  This idea is supported by the fact that their migration stories are almost identical and linguistically, the tribes are very similar (Dyson, 2014).  At some point along the way, the tribes became separate entities, but they continued to live near each other.  This close proximity has continued to modern times.  In terms of language, Goddard argues that it has only been recently that the languages of the Chickasaw and Choctaw have become separate (2005).  However, according to Munro, a Chickasaw linguist, Chikashshanompa’ is unique, demonstrated by a lack of understanding by most Choctaw speakers of Chickasaw language (Munro, 2005).

The Boarding School Era

Chikashshanompa’ was further minoritized with the era of boarding schools.  Boarding schools had been present since the 1820s, prior to the tribe being removed to Indian Territory.  In addition to boarding schools, there were also day schools attended by Chickasaw students.  In the beginning, schools received funding from the federal government and were primarily run by religious groups.  Chickasaw families seemed to welcome schools as there was an interest in literacy among the people (Cobb, 2007).  At that time, there were four boarding schools present in the Chickasaw Homelands with most of the students being of mixed blood at first (Ozbolt, 2014).  Once the schools became more established in the communities, more full-blood students started to attend.  Eventually, the Chickasaw Nation began to contribute to these schools using tribal funds (Cobb, 2007).  One product of the pre-Removal boarding school years was the fact that they produced many bilingual Chickasaws, who became important in dealings with the United States Government (Hinson, 2019).  However, a detrimental aspect, which contributed to the minoritization of the Chickasaw language was the fact that this “generation would often choose to withhold Chikashshanompa’ from their children” (Hinson, 2019, p. 34).

Upon arrival in Indian Territory, the Chickasaw established their own schools.  In conjunction with Methodist missionaries, Bloomfield Academy was established in 1852 (Cobb, 2007; Goodin, 2014).  It was common for students to leave home for boarding school around age 6 and stay for 10-12 years.  During that time, they were away from their culture and traditions and were unable to speak their language.  It really came as no surprise that those students often did not pass their language on to their own children (Cobb, 2007).