Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory

by David La Vere

Overview

examines relations between Southeastern Indians who were removed to Indian Territory in the early nineteenth century and Southern Plains Indians who claimed this area as their own.

These two Indian groups viewed the world in different ways. The Southeastern Indians, primarily Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, were agricultural peoples. By the nineteenth century they were adopting American "civilization": codified laws, Christianity, market-driven farming, and a formal, Euroamerican style of education. By contrast, the hunter-gathers of the Southern Plains-the Comanches, Kiowas, Wichitas, and Osages-had a culture based on the buffalo. They actively resisted the Removed Indians’ "invasion" of their homelands.

The Removed Indians hoped to lessen Plains Indian raids into Indian Territory by "civilizing" the Plains peoples through diplomatic councils and trade. But the Southern Plains Indians were not interested in "civilization" and saw no use in farming. Even their defeat by the U.S. government could not bridge the cultural gap between the Plains and Removed Indians, a gulf that remains to this day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806132990
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	01/15/2001
Series:	Civilization of the American Indian Series , #237
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

David La Vere is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and author of the award-winning Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
Chapter 2 First Encounters 30
Chapter 3 Where the Trail of Tears Ends 62
Chapter 4 Councils, Trade and Captives 91
Chapter 5 In the Shadow of Whitemen 137
Chapter 6 Civil and Uncivil Wars 167
Chapter 7 One Red Family? 200
Chapter 8 Conclusion 225
Notes 231
Bibliography 263
Index 275