First Governor of the
Chickasaw Nation, Cyrus Harris


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Cyrus Harris
Logan Colbert, the patriarch of the noted Chickasaw family was the father of Mollie Colbert. Mollie married a man named Christopher Oxbury, a mixed Cherokee, and lived in Pontotoc, Mississippi where she gave birth to a daughter named Elizabeth or 'Betty'. Here the story gets a little fuzzy. Elizabeth married a white man named Harrison but the marriage didn't last long. According to the Chickasaw custom, when a marriage dissolves, the woman simply moves back to her mothers house. This Elizabeth did but she was with child by this time. Her first son Cyrus was born (August 22, 1817) at his grandmothers house. Elizabeth shortly thereafter married Malcolm McGee but shortly returned to her mother's house. Cyrus' father at first refused to move to Indian Territory with the Chickasaws but later did come to the Nations. Cyrus refused to have anything to do with him.

Cyrus Harris, mother Elizabeth and family left Lake Huron, Mississippi on November 1, 1837. He stayed for a few weeks at Skullyville, I.T. then moved on to Blue River north of Tishomingo. In 1850 Harris was a Chickasaw delegate to Washington beginning his interest in politics. In 1855, he moved to Old Mill Creek and lived there until his death in 1888.

Upon the ratification of the new Chickasaw Constitution, in August of 1856, Harris was chosen as the first Governor. He was re-elected in 1860 but defeated in the 1862 election by Dougherty Colbert. Amid the Civil War now, the Chickasaw were angry that the U.S. Government had abandoned the military post of Ft. Washita and Ft. Arbuckle, leaving the Chickasaw and Choctaw at the mercy of the wild Tribes of the southwest such as the Comanche and Kiowa. This prompted the Chickasaw to take the Confederacy's side in the War. As the troops marched in review of the Governor, it is said that Harris said "This is the first time in the history of the Chickasaw that we have made war against the English speaking people". It was true, the Chickasaw never went to war against the United States until they were abandoned by that government.

In 1866, Cyrus Harris was re-elected for a third term and for a fourth term in 1868 and a fifth in 1872. He was again elected in 1876, but withdrew after the threat of great bloodshed if his opponent was not seated as Governor. Harris was an advocate of education and appropriated much money and signed much legislation to establish boarding schools in the Nation. The Treaty of 1866 required the Five Civilized Tribes to free their slaves. The Chickasaw and Choctaw also never received the promised payment for the land given to the slaves or the payment of the western one third of their land called the Leased Lands where the Comanche, Kiowa and other plains Indians were relocated.

Cyrus Harris saw the coming of the allotments of Indian Land and cautioned the Chickasaw Legislature thirty years in advance to prepare for it. He saw the white settlers come into Mississippi do the same thing fifty years earlier. He could see the end of the Chickasaw Nation and the lands in common as he had seen them in Mississippi. In 1876, the white intermarried residents of the Nation were admitted as Chickasaw citizens. Whites married Chickasaw women and then divorced them after citizenship was granted. Harris fought to fine the whites or ban divorce in the Nation.

Cyrus Harris had an innate ability to read his constituents and keep his finger on the public pulse. He was a Progressive and was a friend to the white man, the mixed bloods and the full bloods. He was a farmer, a miller, cattleman, politician and grand representative of his people. He was married to Kizzia Kemp, Tenesey and Hettie Frazier. Cyrus Harris was truly a man of integrity, patriotism, generosity and self sacrifice. We could sure use a few men like this today in our Capitols.

Information from; Dennis Muncrief - October, 2001