Arriving from the west ages ago, the people who became the Chickasaws settled in a portion of southeastern North America. As they emerged from the mound building culture into historical times, they became embroiled in the deadly European colonial conquest to extend their empires to the New World. By the 1730s, the Chickasaws were targeted for extermination. But the Chickasaw people survived and prospered until their one-time ally, the United States, became their adversary and forced the tribe to move west to Indian Territory. After some years of despondency, l the people began rebuilding a great nation. Simultaneously, a great horde of Americans settled illegally on their new land. The United States set a date to extinguish the tribe's government and land base. Volume one of a three-part series, this collection of essays details this history, as well as how the tribe was able to keep body and soul together until tribal government could be reconstituted and revitalized in the 1960s.