the state of that name.
Here they were visited by De Soto in 1540. From the first they were
hostile to the French colonists. With the English, on the other hand,
their relations were more satisfactory. In 1786 they made a treaty with
the United States; and in 1793 they assisted the whites in their
operations against the Creeks. In the early years of the 19th century
part of their territory was ceded for certain annuities, and a portion
of the tribe migrated to Arkansas; and in 1832-1834, the remainder,
amounting to about 3600, surrendered to the United States the 6,442,400
acres of which they were still possessed, and entered into a treaty with
the Choctaws for incorporation with that tribe. In 1855, however, they
effected a separation of this union, with which they had soon grown
dissatisfied, and by payment to the Choctaws of $150,000 obtained a
complete right to their present territory. In the Civil War they joined
the Confederates and suffered in consequence; but their rights were
restored by the treaty of 1865. In 1866 they surrendered 7,000,000
acres; and in 1873 they adopted their former slaves. They had an
independent government consisting of a governor, a senate, and a house
of representatives; but tribal government virtually ceased in 1906. The
Chickasaws of pure or mixed blood numbered 4826 in 1900, and with the
fully admitted "citizens," i.e. the freed slaves and adopted whites, the
whole nation amounted to some 10,000.

See _Handbook of American Indians_ (Washington, 1907).

CHICKASHA, a city and the county-seat of Grady county, Oklahoma, U.S.A.,
near the Washita river, about 45 m. S.S.W. of Oklahoma city. Pop. (1900)
3209; (1907) 7862, including 1643 negroes; (1910) 10,320. Chickasha is
served by the St Louis & San Francisco, the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific and the Oklahoma Central railways. It is the trade centre of a
very fertile section of the Washita Valley, whose principal products are
Indian corn, cotton, fruits and vegetables and live-stock. The city has
various manufactures, including flour, cotton-seed oil, lumber,
furniture and farm implements. Chickasha was founded in 1892 and was
chartered as a city in 1899.

CHICKEN-POX (Syn. _varicella_, a Low Latin diminutive of _variola_), a
specific contagious disease characterized by an eruption of vesicles in
the skin. The disease usually occurs in epidemics, and is one of
childhood, the patients being generally between two and six ye