Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

Above: The Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, The five Tribes are the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Tribes.
Below: Trail of Tears by prominent Creek artist Albert Harjo. Clinging to their ancient homeland in Georgia and Alabama the majority of Creeks opposed removal. Following the
Creek War of 1836-1840, approximately 14,500 were herded west to their new home in Oklahoma by federal troops during the winter of 1836-1837. No one knows how many died on the
Creek Trail of Tears, but 3,500 died of exposure or disease after arriving in their new homeland. The two factions of Creeks were reunited in 1839.
COURTESY OF ALBERT HARJO.
The Five Tribes—the Choctaws, Chickasaws,
Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokees—felt pressure
from state and federal government leaders
to leave their ancestral home. They negotiated
treaties to exchange their lands in the
southeastern United States for land in Indian
Territory. The Choctaws were the first to
accept removal. The forced removal of the
Five Tribes was accomplished by military
units herding the American Indians westward
along the Trail of Tears.
Much sickness and death permeate the
sad chapter of history that tells the story
of the coming of American Indians to
Oklahoma. Many tribal members arrived in
their new home with nothing except their
horses, mules, wagons, farm implements,
and household goods. To accommodate the
arrival of the large Five Tribes, American
Indian nations such as the Wichita, Osage,
and Quapaw were confined by treaty to
smaller reservations.
O K L A H O M A : A S t o r y T h r o u g h H e r P e o p l e
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