by Richard Green

ln developing an article on the history of the Great Seal of the Chickasaw Nation, I started with the little I knew, delineated what I did not know, noted possible sources of information and hoped, as always, that some interesting answers and unexpected bonuses would turn up. After many hours of effort expended by me and others, the accent is still on what I do not know.

To justify the top-heavy ratio of effort to effect and deal with my discouragement as the project wound down, I tended to romanticize the research by thinking of it as an adventure to discover-as Churchill once said-a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I was reminded of how the ancient Egyptians protected the secrets of the pharaohs by erecting formidable obstacles inside the tombs. Perhaps that in a metaphorical sense is how it was with the Seal.

Instead of deadly trapdoors, however, some of the missing links to the story may have been purposely removed or withheld from the record.On the other hand, developing a coherent and relatively comprehensive historical account depends not just on a curious and resourceful spirit, but that someone actually did record what happened and that the recording was saved in a logically retrievable way for posterity. However, we know from experience that often no one took any notes or that notes were discarded after the essence had been distilled for the record.

Thus, for example, we know that the first mention of the Great Seal of the Chickasaw Nation was included in the Constitution of 1856. `There shall be a seal of this Nation, which shall be kept by the Governor and used by him officially, and shall be called 'The Great Seal of the Chickasaw Nation.' We do not know the details of how the seal was developed. After repeated searches of the microfilmed laws and records of the Chickasaw Nation in the 1840s and 1850s nothing about the seal was mentioned.'

At some point, probably in 1855 or 1856, Chickasaw leaders or a committee of some kind convened to design a Great Seal. Since no record of this meeting could be found, we infer that the planners decided to honor the tribe's last great war chief, Tishomingo, who died on theTrail of Tears in 1837. An article on the Chickasaw Seal by the noted Oklahoma historian Muriel Wright was published in 1940. She wrote that "the figure of the warrior ... commemorated the coura­geous Chickasaw of old times, represented in the person and character of Chief Tishomingo."[1]

She had been researching the seals of the Five Civilized Tribes so that the seals could be reproduced on banners at a special Flag Day event that was sponsored by the Alabama Department of Archives and History in June 1940. The idea was to present flags from all the nations that had once held dominion over Alabama land. Since the tribes had not adopted official flags, banners depicting each tribal seal were presented.[2]

In her 1940 article, Wright described the Chickasaw Seal and interpreted some of its elements, but cited no information sources. "The two arrows in the warrior's hand represented his guard over the two ancient phratries or tribal divisions, in which all Chickasaw clan and house names originated. These two phratries were called respectively, Koi and Ishpani in the native language. In the ancient tribal organization, the hereditary ruler or chief of the Chickasaws was selected from the Ishpani division."[3]

She went on: "In historical records, the Chickasaws were referred to as a nation noted for intrepid warriors, unconquered in battle. According to old tribal lore [my emphasis], the bow and the shield in the Great Seal represented the insignia of the Chickasaw warrior, by right of his descent from the 'House of Warriors.' This organization was sometimes called the 'Tiger Clan' (i.e. KoiClan or Division), which counted its members from more than one Indian tribe long before the Europeans came to the shores of America."

What are we to make of this reference to "old tribal lore?" Did Ms. Wright find this reference in the tribal records? Or was this interpretation passed through the generations in the traditional way, through oral history? Since there is no account in the tribal records, we will probably never know. There is an interesting and intriguing footnote to the first mention of the Seal in the 1856 Constitution that was included in her article and in other accounts. She writes that the Constitution and laws were sent to Louisiana to be printed. "Strangely, the person with whom the documents were entrusted lost them en route and they were never found." The process was repeated later, at an unspecified time.[4]

After the Civil War, another Constitution was promulgated and new documents were adopted for the official Seal in 1867. According to both Wright and historian W. David Baird, the Seal was affixed to the papers of Governor Cyrus Harris in his term from 1872 to 1874.[5]

Ms. Wright, the editor of The Chronicles of Oklahoma and daughter of former Choctaw chief Allen Wright, was a member of the Oklahoma committee that participated in planning the Alabama event. The Chickasaw members were Floyd Maytubby, governor, and Mrs. Jessie E. Moore. A.M. Landman, superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes Agency in Muskogee, supplied original impressions of the seals and Ms. Wright supplied "copies of the Indian laws and other data," [6]to Guy C. Reid, an Oklahoma City architect who "donated paintings of each of the seals from his drawings enlarged to scale and hand done in water color."

Are we to understand that the original Seal was embellished through a collaboration of Muriel Wright and Guy Reid? The Seal, looking much as it does today, was reproduced in black and white in that 1940 issue of The Chronicles. At some point, though we do not know when, the colors and other symbols depicted on the Seal were explained and are included in Appendix 1 of the Chickasaw Nation Code, enacted by the Legislature in 1994.

Among the points are: The outer rim of the Seal is gold, and represents the purity of the Chickasaw people. The inner rim is light purple and represents the people's honor. The head feathers represent the four directions of the earth. The band crossing over the warrior's left shoulder is known as the Warrior's Mantle and was made of swan feathers. The quiver, made of deerskin, represents the hunting prowess of the Chickasaw warrior, as well as his willingness to defend his people. The bow, also representing the hunting prowess of the Chickasaw people, was made of hickory. Knee straps were made of deer hide and were a form of Chickasaw medicine;they were thought to bring fleetness to the wearer. The shield, also made of deerhide, signifies the protection of the warriors for all Chickasaw people. The Mississippi River is in the background. It was crossed at some indefinite time when the Chickasaws made their way to the promised land in the east. The trees and plants pictured are indigenous to the area near the Mississippi River and serve to remind the people of their original homelands.[7]The origin of these interpretations is not known, but it is possible that Muriel Wright, through her extensive knowledge of Chickasaw history and culture, took it upon herself to interpret the elements depicted on the original Seal and directed Guy Reid to draw in additional elements, such as the Warrior's mantle and shield, the river and plants, which she also interpreted.[8]

Since that time, the Seal has been either unaltered or slightly altered depending upon who has the better memory. Gary Childers, who has worked for the Chickasaw Nation since the late 1970s, says he remembers that while Overton James was still governor, some people remarked that the warrior (on the Seal) should be drawn more professionally. "As I recall it, Governor James asked Ted Key [an artist and official with the Chickasaw Housing Authority] to touch the warrior up some." Contacted in his Washington office where he works in Indian housing for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Key said that his friend Childers "must have been dreaming." Former Gov. James could not remember, but said he was not happy with the appearance of the warrior and that "it is possible" that Key or someone else might have done a more professional job improving the appearance of the seal without changing anything substantive.[9]

In the opinion of Chickasaw Nation Chief Judge Wilson Seawright any subsequent change in the Official Seal of the Nation would have to be approved by the Chickasaw Legislature. Seawright says that in the past the Legislature has dealt only with the use of the seal, not its appearance.[10]

Design aside, papers of the governor were affixed with the official Chickasaw Seal since after the Civil War. In her research, Muriel Wright said that the papers of Governor Cyrus Harris were affixed with the Seal as early as 1872.

There is a well-known and popular story about the Seal that, if true, means that a device of some kind for leaving an imprint of the Seal existed even earlier than that. In February 1864, Union forces invaded the Chickasaw Nation. As a result, the tribal governor, Winchester Colbert fled to Texas for several months.[11] According to the story, Colbert carried with him the Seal, and when he returned the next year brought the Seal with him. Some people have heard that the device Colbert is alleged to have carried with him is the same one that is in the custody of Governor Bill Anoatubby.[12]

While that may be so, there is probably no way to be certain. What is known is that the Great Seal that was affixed to copies of some official papers be­fore statehood was made with a rubber stamp. One of these is on display in the Cultural Center.[13] Un­doubtedly there were oth­ers; some official and some counterfeit. Bunco artists knew that commit­ting fraud was easier if papers such as contracts, agreements or laws in­cluded the Seal because, by definition, the Seal authenticated the con­tents of the paper. Those entrusted with the Seal, therefore, ran the risk of having it stolen.

According to Kelley Lunsford, when her great grandfather Martin Van Buren Cheadle was secretary of the Chickasaw Nation and carried the seal in his saddlebags as he made his official rounds, his wife worried constantly that he would be waylaid for the Seal.[14]

Sometime after Oklahoma statehood, the official seals of the Five Tribes were taken into the custody of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We do not know when but we do know that the seals were kept at the BIA headquarters in Muskogee for many, many years. In the mid-1980s, Zane Browning, superintendent of the BIA agency in Ardmore, saw the devices in a walk-in safe in the Realty Department. They had been used by BIA realty employees to stamp papers transferring land. Browning asked if they were still being used and was told no. "Then, I asked could I take the Chickasaw Seal back to the tribe and was told I'd have to put the request in writing. I did and nothing happened. But to make a long story short, after repeated requests by phone and mail, I was able to obtain the Seal when I was in Muskogee and simply signed for it. The man I got it from didn't know the history of those stamping devices, but they all looked the same. I took the one with the Chickasaw Seal back to Ada and presented it to the Nation at a meeting of the Legislature, I think it was."[15]

The stamping device certainly looks very old, but there are no identifying markers. It is made from cast iron, is painted black with fading gold leaf designs and operates by means of a handle protruding from the top. Press the handle down and the metal jaws of the device close on a circular piece of gold foil paper, leaving an imprint of the Seal.

Whether or not it is the Civil War stamping device and whether or not Muriel Wright added any elements to the Seal, and so on, the Seal that we see pictured today is official because the Legislature has proclaimed it to be so. Generations of Chickasaws who have known little or nothing about the Seal and its history have nonetheless been proud of the Great Seal because it has been and is the symbol of a people with a long and proud history.

Endnotes

1. The 1840s were of interest because the Chickasaws were moving toward separation from the Choctaws by enacting laws to that effect and by writing and ratifying a constitution in 1848. Arrell Gibson, The Chickasaws, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 248-49.
2. Muriel Wright, "The Great Seal of the Chickasaw Nation," The Chronicles of Oklahoma (hereafter Chronicles), Vol. 40, No.3, 1962, 388.
3 Muriel Wright, "Official Seals of the Five Civilized Tribes," Chronicles, Vol. 18, No. 4, 357.
4. Ibid., 361-62. Chickasaw Speaker, Pauline Brown, says Ishpani is a Choctaw, not a Chickasaw, word.
5. Ibid., 362.
6. W. David Baird, The Chickasaw People, Indian Tribal Series, Phoenix: 1974.
7. No laws or other data are provided in her article, and no references or citations to the article or the 1940 Alabama flag ceremony are included in the Muriel Wright collection of papers at the Oklahoma Historical Society.
8. Chickasaw Nation Code, Appendix 1, Great Seal of the Chickasaw Nation.
9. In one of her articles on Chickasaw history Wright cited John R. Swanton, the Smithsonian Institution ethnologist, who wrote, "Social and Religious Beliefs and Usages of the Chickasaw Indians," 44th Annual Report, Bureau of America Ethnology, (Washington: 1928).
10. Telephone interviews with Gary Childers, Ted Key and Overton James in March 1996.
11. Telephone interview with Wilson Seawright, May 15, 1996.
12. Gibson, The Chickasaws, 271.
13. Interview with Gary Childers in March 1996.
14. It was donated by Charles Tate, who said he believes it once belonged to the Love family. 
15. Personal Communication, Kelley Lunsford, April 1996.
16. Interview with Zane Browning, May 11, 1996.