A Resilient Government

A Resilient Government. . After Oklahoma statehood, the federal government suspended Chickasaw elections and appointed a governor to carry out the tribe's unfinished business. President Theodore Roosevelt gave Douglas H. Johnston, who had served as the Chickasaw Nation's last elected governor, a lifetime appointment to the position. Governor Johnston oversaw the allotment of the Chickasaw Nation's lands and worked hard to serve the Chickasaw people until his death in 1939., In Chickasaw communities, strategies for restoration of the government were frequently debated. Churches maintained the cultural identity of the Chickasaw people at a time when the federal government sought to dissolve Native American interests and identity., Prominent among these churches was Seeley Chapel, which served as a central location outside of Tishomingo where a grassroots movement grew in support of Chickasaw self-governance., The grassroots movement continued to press for direct elections. In 1970, Congress passed the Principal Chiefs Act, which restored the right of the citizens of the Five Tribes to elect their own leadership to govern their tribe. In 1971, Governor Overton James, who had already served eight years as a federally appointed governor, became the Chickasaw Nation's first elected governor since Oklahoma statehood., On August 27, 1983, a new constitution was ratified. It includes the location of the seat of government, the length of terms for elected officials as well as the establishment of a three-branch system of government. This constitution serves the needs of the Chickasaw people and remains the foundation of its government structure today.