Five Civilized Tribes

Home |Publications| Encyclopedia |Five Civilized Tribes Union Agency(10935, Industrial Development and Parks Commission Collection, OHS).FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES.The term "Five Civilized Tribes" came into use during the mid-nineteenth century to refer to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations. Although these Indian tribes had various cultural, political, and economic connections before removal in the 1820s and 1830s, the phrase was most widely used in Indian Territory and Oklahoma.Americans, and sometimes American Indians, called the five Southeastern nations "civilized" because they appeared to be assimilating to Anglo-American norms. The term indicated the adoption of horticulture and other European cultural patterns and institutions, including widespread Christianity, written constitutions, centralized governments, intermarriage with white Americans, market participation, literacy, animal husbandry, patrilineal descent, and even slaveholding. None of these attrib...