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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from \h e microfilm master. UMI ftlms the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter ^ce, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GR.4DUATE COLLEGE Rural Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles in Oklahoma During the Great Depression A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By James Gribble Hochtritt, Jr. Norman, Oklahoma 2000 UMI Number: 9994077 UMI* UMI Microform 9994077 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 RURAL CHEROKEES, CHICKASAWS, CHOCTAWS, CREEKS, AND SEMINOLES IN OKLAHOMA DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION A Dissertation APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY Copyright by James Gribble Hochtritt, Jr. 2001 All Rights Reserved. Abstract This dissertation analyzes rural Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole communities in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. It examines the impact of Indian New Deal policies in the areas of economic, education, health, and political reform. Moreover, it refutes the commonly held belief that the rural Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes were a largely landless people, starving and spiritually bankrupt by the 1930s. In fact, this study argues that those Indians who continued to live in the small, rural communities of the Five Civilized Tribes region relied upon time proven kin and clan networks to maintain their social and cultural traditions. This better enabled them to endure the economic hardships caused by the Great Depression. The devotion they showed to their communities and traditions also allowed them to assimilate or resist assimilation on their own terms as opposed to the terms set down by whites, more assimilated tribal members, or the federal government. In that sense, it is, more than anything else, very much a study of Indian cultural and social perseverance. Title: Rural Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles in Oklahoma During the Great Depression Student’s Name: James Gribble Hochtritt, Jr. Main Advisor Dr. Donald Pisani, Professor of History, University of Oklahoma Acknowledgments I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my wife, Joyce Marie Bateman- Hochtritt, the most beautiful person I know. I have become a much better man because of her love and friendship. Also, it is warmly shared with my mom, Marie, and my best bud. Bob Mello, their faith in the dreams o f a foolish man, is deep. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Donald Pisani, Dr. Robert Griswold, and Dr. Terry Rugeley for their intelligent insights and constructive criticisms that have made me a better historian. I would also like to give special thanks to Dr. Gary Cohen. Not only is he a fine scholar and teacher, but he is a good person as well; a rarer combination than one might think in the so-called ivory tower of academia. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Paul Gilje. When I first arrived at the University of Oklahoma I was warned to steer clear of this critically sharp and demanding historian. Indeed, many students feared this man with the stem reputation. Instead of mimicking many of my fellow graduate students, I sought out Dr. Gilje and took a number of courses and directed readings under his guidance and tutelage. I am forever indebted to that experience. I learned more from Dr. Gilje than any other professor in the department and his door was always open for scholarly and personal advice. His gruff Brooklyn demeanor is only the outer shell of an intuitive and insightful man. I would also like to say that this dissertation and the Ph.D. it granted me is the rather startling end point of a quest that began 12 years ago when I decided to return to college at the age of 35 to obtain an undergraduate degree. From the age of 18 until that iv time, I lived the fast life, extremely poor, always on the edge, and counted among my friends and acquaintances two-fisted drinkers, brawlers, wild women, and hard working people who possessed very little formal education, but who always had a ready smile, a helping hand, and a sense of things that no college degree could grant; people who never took themselves so seriously that they believed that they were somehow better than others around them. Despite all of my formal education, my roots remain with them, their company, their sweet recklessness, and their wisdom. Lastly, this dissertation is pensively dedicated to those who did not survive its completion: My father, James Hochtritt, John Jacobs, Terry Johnson, Charles Peterson, Paul Gallagher, Kay Mello, and Odis Bateman. My life was greatly rewarded by their lives; my life has been greatly diminished with their passing. Contents List of Tables ..........................................................................................................................vii List of Maps ...........................................................................................................................viii Introduction. 1. Home Is Where The Spirit Lives.................................................................................... 22 2. The Laws And Politics Of Good Intentions ................................................................115 3. Let Us Help You Help Yourselves .................................................................................191 4. A Trained Mind ............................................................................................................. 274 5. Living Just Like In A Machine ...................................................................................... 347 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................403 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 413 VI Tables Table l.l Restricted Indians in the Five Civilized Tribes in 1931 in 20 Selected Counties ............. 27 Table 1.2 Full Bloods and Mixed Bloods in the Five Civilized Tribes in 1930 ................................. 27 V ll Maps Map 1.1 Locations of Some Rural Indian Settlements in the Five Civilized Tribes Region 25 vm Introduction This dissertation examines rural Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles in central and eastern Oklahoma during the Great Depression. More specifically, I focus on those Indians who inhabited small rural communities and settlements and who were less willing than other members of the Five Civilized Tribes to embrace many of the cultural, economic, and social values of twentieth-century America. At times, I use “less integrated” or more “tradition-oriented” to define their behavior, and to better distinguish them from their tribal brethren. Although some rural Indians renounced completely white society and their more integrated tribal members, the majority of rural Indians neither rejected completely nor wholly embraced integration, but rather negotiated a middle ground between the two extremes. When possible, they preferred to distance themselves from whites. But they were also shaped by a combination of both Indian and white values. Their ability to adapt, and yet still retain basic elements of their culture, cushioned the disruption of change. My study is indebted to the work of other scholars such as Loretta Fowler, Arapahoe Politics, 1851-1978 (1982), Richard White, The Roots o f Dependency (\983), Albert L. Hurtado, Indian Survival on the California Frontier (1990), Morris Foster, Being Comanche (1991), Joan Weibel Orlando, Indian Country, LA. (1991), Richard Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland (1992), and K. Tsianina Lomawaima, They Called it Prairie Light (1994), all of whom explain how Indians and other ethnic groups mitigate change so as not to compromise completely their cultural dynamism or identity. They maintain that the ability of subordinate groups to construct dual identities that allow them to satisfy both their own cultural prerogatives, while at the same time appeasing the demands of interlopers or oppressors, determines the