The Five Civilized Tribes were a group of Native American nations that were officially and unofficially called such to collectively designate the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes. The term was applied by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because these tribes had adopted many of the colonists' customs and generally, had good relations with the white settlers

The term appears in the reports of the Indian Office as early as 1876, when the agent reported that each tribe had a constitutional government, with legislative, judicial, and executive departments, conducted upon the same plan as our State governments, the entire expenses of which, are paid out of their own funds." However, at that time there was no court with jurisdiction to try cases where an Indian was one party and a citizen of the United States or a corporation was the other.

These five tribes differed from most others in the fact that their lands were held not on the same basis as reservations, but, by patents or deeds, with certain restrictions as to alienation and reversion, as well as other restrictions regarding timber, mining and grazing within their respective tracts. .

All of the Five Civilized Tribes lived in the Southeastern United States before the government forced their relocation under Indian Removal Act to other parts of the country, especially the future state of Oklahoma. This act, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in May, 1830, required that all Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River relocate to lands west of the river.

Over the next several decades the Five Civilized Tribes were relocated from their homes to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during a series of removals, authorized by federal legislation.

The title of the Chickasaw Nation to their lands in Indian Territory was obtained from the Choctaw in accordance with treaties with the United States, while that of the Seminole was obtained from the Creek tribe. The territory assigned to these five tribes within the limits of Indian Territory, in present-day eastern Oklahoma, was approximately 30,431 square miles.

When the Civil War began in 1861, the Five Tribes were divided in politics, with the Choctaw and Chickasaw fighting on the Confederate side, the Creek and Seminole supporting the Union, and the Cherokee fighting a civil war within their own nation between the majority Confederates and the minority pro-Union men.

Though the number of slaveholders was small, members of each tribe held black slaves. There were also free African Americans who lived with them, especially the Seminole. Many of these became known as Black Indians. Following the Civil War, the Federal government's peace treaties with the tribes required the emancipation of slaves and guarantees of citizenship in each nation. These former slaves became known as tribal Freedmen, such as Cherokee Freedmen. However, determining the status of the freedmen within the tribes became a difficult one, even though, in the treaties of 1866, it was agreed that they should be subject to the same laws as the Indians and be entitled to a portion of the land and rights in differing in the different tribes.

Cherokee Civil War Veterans in 1903