Editing Five Civilized Tribes (section)

{{Short description|Native American grouping}}
[[File:Five-Civilized-Tribes-Portraits.png|thumb|Illustrations of members of the Five Civilized Tribes painted between 1775 and 1850 (clockwise from top left): [[Sequoyah]], [[Pushmataha]], [[Selocta Chinnabby|Selocta]], [[Piomingo|Piominko]], and [[Osceola]]]]

The term '''Five Civilized Tribes''' was applied by the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] in the early federal period of the [[history of the United States]] to the five major [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] nations in the Southeast: the [[Cherokee]], [[Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw]], [[Muscogee]] (Creek), and [[Seminole]]s.<ref>Clinton, Fred S. [https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2745554 "Oklahoma Indian History, from The Tulsa World"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824093740/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2745554 |date=2017-08-24 }}. ''The Indian School Journal'', Volume 16, Number 4, 1915, page 175-187.</ref><ref name="Pritzker2000">{{cite book|author=Barry Pritzker|title=A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples|url=https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanen0000prit|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-513877-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanen0000prit/page/389 389]}}</ref><ref name="PerdueGreen2001">{{cite book|author1=Theda Perdue|author2=Michael D Green|title=The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RBJCyp2bFIC&pg=PA101|year=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-50602-1|pages=75–77}}</ref> White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/F/FI011.html |title=Five Civilized Tribes |access-date=2015-01-22 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228051804/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/F/FI011.html |archive-date=2014-12-28 }}</ref>

The descriptor "civilized", historically used to obscure the [[cultural imperialism]] of White settlers, is seldom used nowadays because of the derogatory implication that other Native tribes were uncivilized.<ref>"Historic Context Review: A Planning Tool for the Oklahoma Historical Society", 24 January 2018, Vertical File, Publications Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.</ref> Consequently, the grouping of these nations is referred to as '''The Five Tribes''' or simply '''Five Tribes'''.<ref> "Five Tribes," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=FI015. Published September 20, 2018 </ref>

Examples of such colonial attributes adopted by these five tribes included [[Christianity]], [[centralized government]]s, [[literacy]], [[Market (economics)|market]] participation, [[Constitution#Written versus unwritten; codified versus uncodified|written constitution]]s, [[Interracial marriage|intermarriage]] with White Americans, and [[Slavery among Native Americans in the United States|chattel slavery]] practices, including purchase of enslaved Black Americans.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Roberts |first1=Alaina |title=Opinion: How Native Americans adopted slavery from white settlers |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/27/how-native-americans-adopted-slavery-from-white-settlers#:~:text=Members%20of%20five%20Native%20American,Tribes)%2C%20owned%20black%20slaves.&text=The%20fact%20that%20by%20the,for%20decades%20is%20rarely%20discussed. |website=Al Jazeera |access-date=30 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="Smith">{{cite web |title=How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-native-american-slaveholders-complicate-trail-tears-narrative-180968339/|last=Smith |first= Ryan P |work=Smithsonian Magazine |date=6 March 2018|access-date= 30 October 2021}}</ref> For a period, the Five Civilized Tribes tended to maintain stable political relations with the White population. However, White encroachment continued and eventually led to the [[Indian removal|removal of these tribes]] from the Southeast, most prominently along the [[Trail of Tears]].

In the 21st century, this term has been criticized by some scholars for its [[Ethnocentrism|ethnocentric]] assumptions by Anglo-Americans of what they considered [[Civilization|civilized]],<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCWjHf71PFgC&q=five+civilized+tribes+ethnocentrism&pg=PA52|title=Historical Atlas of Oklahoma|author=Michael D. Green|editor1=Charles Robert Goins|editor2=Danney Goble|chapter=The Five Tribes of the Southeastern United States |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2006|pages=52–53 |isbn=978-0-8061-3483-3}}</ref> but representatives of these tribes continue to meet regularly on a quarterly basis in their Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes.<ref name="five">{{cite web|url=http://www.fivecivilizedtribes.org/|title=Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes}}</ref>

The descendants of these tribes, who primarily live in what is now [[Oklahoma]], are sometimes referred to as the Five Tribes of Oklahoma, although several other [[List of federally recognized tribes in the United States|federally recognized tribes]] are also located in that state.