Before 1830, Mississippi was the homeland of both the Choctaw and Chickasaw. After the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, the Choctaw began migrating to a new western homeland in Indian Territory, traveling overland and by river to places such as Fort Towson, a U.S. garrison established in 1824 to protect the western frontier. As the Choctaw Nation flourished from the 1830s through the 1850s, the Chickasaw also faced pressure from Mississippi and the U.S. government to relocate. In the Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832, the Chickasaw agreed to cede their lands east of the Mississippi River after a suitable western homeland was chosen. In January 1837, Choctaw and Chickasaw delegations met at Doaksville and agreed on a plan for the Chickasaw to settle within the Choctaw Nation. Through the Treaty of Doaksville, the Chickasaw purchased an interest in the Choctaw Nation, a new Chickasaw District was created, and members of both tribes were allowed to live anywhere in the Choctaw Nation. Chickasaw citizens began moving to Indian Territory in 1837, most arriving by 1840, many by river steamer to Fort Coffee on the Arkansas River or Fort Towson on the Red River. Pressure for an independent Chickasaw Nation led to the Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty of 1855, which politically separated the tribes, physically divided the Choctaw Nation, and transferred rights to its far western portion to the United States.