The origin of the Chickasaw is not known for certain. Twentieth-century scholars, such as the archeologist Patricia Galloway, think that the Chickasaw and Choctaw came from the Plaquemine culture and other groups whose ancestors had lived in the Lower Mississippi Valley for thousands of years. The Chickasaw and Choctaw then became distinct peoples in the 17th century. When Europeans first encountered them, the Chickasaw were living in villages in present-day South Carolina and northeastern Mississippi.