PARTIAL 1818 CHICKASAW CENSUS ROLL

When the advance party of the United Sates Treaty Commissioners arrived at the Treaty Grounds near the Chickasaw Old Town on September 29, 1818, they were surprised to find not only a very light attendance by the members of the Chickasaw Nation, but additionally a refusal by the Chickasaw Chiefs and head men present to entertain any "Talks" until they had been paid the annuity owed to them for some time. A messenger was immediately dispatched to Nashville to obtain the funds, while other clerks, on Thursday, October 8^th, began enrolling members of the Chickasaw Nation for the purpose of distributing the annuity when it arrived. (See, under the "Treaty" section of this web page for a journal of the 1818 negotiations.)

This annuity roll was the first known attempt at a complete census of the members of the Chickasaw Nation. According to the Journal kept on the 1818 negotiations, it was a census by clans. Unfortunately, it appears that the actual 1818 roll may have been lost sometime in the first half of the 1900's, but a hand written list of the names on that roll was made about the time of its disappearance.

What follows are two listings made from that list. The first listing is an Index of those individuals having English surnames and showing the page number wherein they appeared on the original roll. The second listing is a Regrouping of these same individuals as per those page numbers so that one might see who else was listed on the same page on the original roll. Sometimes this relationship helps to show clan and family relations.

Please be advised that while a surname was given for each individual on the original hand copied list, their has been some thought that in some cases this assignment of surnames was speculative. Further, the researcher should be aware that in many cases the order of enrollment was family head, wife, children, but this order was not followed in every known case. Additionally, it was the custom among the Chickasaw for some males to have more than one wife at a time, and hence more than one family. Sometimes the second or third wife might be listed, with her children, as a separate entry on the roll.

To complicate matters further, there are several occurrences on the list in which siblings are listed in the so called children section. This has lead to some confusion among researchers in the past.

If in fact the original 1818 enrollment was by clan, as suggested by the Journal, then it is unfortunate that the names of the clans and who was a member of same was not preserved in the listing. Under the old Chickasaw marriage custom a man married into his wife's clan and their children became members of his wife's clan. A male could not marry someone from his own clan.

As a final note, in this modern age mass contact through the Internet, should any one discover the whereabouts of the original 1818 roll, please share that information with the rest of us.-- kma

1818 CHICKASAW ROLL -- SURNAME INDEX

1818 Chickasaw Census - Regrouped

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