And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes

by Angie Debo, Amanda Cobb-Greetham (Preface by)

Overview

The classic book that exposed the scandal of the dispossession of native land by American settlers

And Still the Waters Run tells the tragic story of the liquidation of the independent Indian republics of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles, known as the Five Civilized Tribes. At the turn of the twentieth century, the tribes owned the eastern half of what is now Oklahoma, a territory immensely wealthy in farmland, forests, coal, and oil. Their political and economic status was guaranteed by the federal government—until American settlers arrived. Congress abrogated treaties that it had promised would last “as long as the waters run,” and within a generation, the tribes were systematically stripped of their holdings, and were rescued from starvation only through public charity. Called a “work of art” by writer Oliver La Farge, And Still the Waters Run was so controversial when it was first published that Angie Debo was banned from teaching in Oklahoma for many years. Now with an incisive foreword by Amanda Cobb-Greetham, here is the acclaimed book that first documented the scandalous founding of Oklahoma on native land.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691242149
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	10/25/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	504
Sales rank:	627,507
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Angie Debo (1890–1988) was a writer, lecturer, and historian whose many books include Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place; The Road to Disappearance: A History of the Creek Indians; and The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic. Amanda Cobb-Greetham is professor of Native American studies and founding director of the Native Nations Center at the University of Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

Foreword Amanda Cobb-Greetham ix

Preface xxxix

I The Indians' Country 3

II The White Man's Land System 31

III The White Man's Guardianship 61

IV The "Grafter's" Share 92

V The Voice of the Indian Territory 126

VI The Price of Statehood 159

VII Protection by the State 181

VIII A Tangle of Litigation 203

IX The Fight Between Despoilers and Defenders 230

X Federal Administration within the State 258

XI The Indian's Place in Oklahoma 291

XII The Battle for Spoils 318

XIII The New Trend 351

XIV The Present Situation 379

Thirty-Two Years After: Postscript to the 1973 Edition 396

Bibliography 416

Index 425

Maps

Counties Comprising the Five Civilized Tribes opposite page 181

Oil Fields of the Five Civilized Tribes opposite page 286

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The reader is pulled along by [Debo’s] strength of mind and power of sympathy.”—Larry McMurtry, New York Review of Books

“This book was first published in 1940, not a particularly receptive year for books about the betrayal of the American Indian. [It] is now extremely timely and should be picked up by that increasing number of concerned citizens who want to know the true history.”—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

"This book was first published in 1940, not a particularly receptive year for books about the betrayal of the American Indian. [It] is now extremely timely and should be picked up by that increasing number of concerned citizens who want to know the true history."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher