The term Five Civilized Tribes is the name commonly given to the five major tribes of the southeastern part of the United States: the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muskogee Confederation (Creeks), and Seminoles. These tribes came into contact with Europeans early in American history and adapted quickly to new conditions. Intermarriage between the tribes and whites produced a number of tribal leaders as well as established planters and prosperous businessmen within these communities. The tribes also developed their own constitutions, law codes, judicial systems, and other facets of "civilization," and by the early nineteenth century had come to be called "Civilized Tribes."
As early as 1808 the Cherokees were codifying their laws. The "civilization" of the Cherokees was enhanced when Sequoyah developed the Cherokee syllabary, which reduced the Cherokee language to eighty-five written characters. By the 1820s the syllabary had spread throughout the Cherokee Nation East. Newspapers and books were being printed using the Cherokee syllabary, and in 1821 The Laws of the Cherokee Nation was published, the first printed law code of a Native American tribe. A national government, complete with legislative, judicial, and executive branches, was organized in 1827. In 1828, the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Indian newspaper, appeared. Following Cherokee removal to Oklahoma, a national printing press was established at Tahlequah. It, along with the Park Hill Mission Press, printed an abundance of books and periodicals. Schools were opened throughout the nation, and the Cherokee Female Seminary and Cherokee Male Seminary provided a college-level education to promising Indian leaders.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century the Chickasaws had established extensive trading relations with European colonists. Missionary work among the tribe was well under way by the 1820s, and in 1844 the Chickasaws' first written law was printed. It appropriated funds for a tribal academy, the Chickasaw Manual Labor School. Several other educational institutions were established, including Wapanucka Institute, Bloomfield Academy, Collins (Colbert) Institute, and Burney Institute. In 1848 the tribe adopted its first written constitution.
In 1824 the Choctaws opened their first school, Choctaw Academy, at Blue Springs, Kentucky, and in 1842 the tribe established a series of boarding schools—Spencer, Fort Coffee, and Armstrong academies, and Goodwater, Ianubbi, Chuwahla, Wheelock, and New Hope seminaries—that were funded by the tribe. In 1838 the Choctaw Council established twelve local schools, with the teachers' salaries to be paid by the tribe. In 1834 the Choctaws produced the first written constitution adopted within present-day Oklahoma.
The Muskogee Confederation, commonly called the Creeks, first adopted written laws in 1817, and in 1839 organized a tribal government, whose structure was based on a series of tribal towns. As early as 1835 books were being published in the Creek language, and in 1842 the Koweta Mission school was opened. Several other schools soon followed, and by 1896 the Creeks were funding seventy local schools and six boarding schools—Eufaula, Wealaka, Nuyaka, Wetumka, Euchee, and Coweta—as well as the Creek Orphans Home, the Pecan Creek Colored Boarding School, and the Colored Creek Orphans Home. In addition a number of other local schools were funded by the tribe for Creek freedmen.
The Seminoles were the most traditional of the Five Civilized Tribes. Following their removal they were settled with the Creeks, where they were allowed to establish town governments under Creek law. In 1856 the tribes separated and the Seminoles formed their own government, consisting of an elective principal chief, a second chief, and a national council. The council also served as the judicial body. A company of lighthorsemen, with an elected captain, enforced tribal laws. Missionaries were active among the Seminoles after their removal, and in 1844 the first tribal school—Oak Ridge Mission—was opened. By 1868 four schools—Wewoka Mission, Sasakwa Female Academy, Mekasukey Academy, and Emahaka Academy—were in operation.
