The Blackland Prairie is a crescent-shaped swath of land extending from central Alabama into northeast Mississippi. Its fertile landscape is dotted with farms, cattle ranches, and the occasional commercial or industrial complex. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the region was one of the United States’ major cotton producers. However, centuries before, it was a vast grassland and home to the Chickasaw Nation, whose heartland was centered around the modern-day city of Tupelo, Mississippi.
Today, a scattering of archaeological sites in the region, including ancient villages, burials, and battlefields, attest to the Chickasaw presence in the Blackland Prairie, but there are no longer any Chickasaw there. The tribe was forcibly removed from its homeland in 1837 and resettled 500 miles away in what is now Oklahoma. Recently, the Chickasaw have partnered with archaeologists from a number of academic institutions in an effort to identify heritage sites in their native Mississippi. “Preserving and reconnecting with our historical cultural heritage is critical for the continuance of a strong Chickasaw cultural identity,” says Brad Lieb, the Chickasaw Nation’s director of Chickasaw archaeology.
This research has enabled a new understanding of the Chickasaw’s traditional home and their long path through the American Southeast. It has also underscored their unique ways of navigating the age of European colonialism. In addition, recent excavations are providing clues to the whereabouts of Chikasha, one of the most historically important Chickasaw sites, and one that has eluded archaeologists for as long as archaeology has been an endeavor in this region. What took place at Chikasha was not only a watershed moment in Chickasaw history, but also a pivotal episode in the story of North America. Sixteenth-century Spanish accounts record that it was at Chikasha that the ancestors of today’s Chickasaw came face-to-face with Europeans—specifically with the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto—for the first time. This encounter ended in a brief but bloody skirmish, known as the Battle of Chikasha, during
