The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes

OKLAHOMA Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run: And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Betrayal of the Five Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940. Civilized Tribes The purpose of Angie Debo’s work “And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal The Curtis Act of 1898 dissolved what of the Five Civilized Tribes” was to show how the Five Civilized Tribes were little power Indian nations had and forced by invading whites, through treaty and coercion, into giving up their land, subjected all people in the territory to Courtesy Princeton University resources and sovereignty. The treaties made with the tribes were promised federal law. The Curtis Act was drafted by Press. ©1940 by Princeton to last “as long as the waters run, Kansas senator Charles Curtis, a mixed University Press; Copyright ©renewed 1968 by Princeton as long as the grass grows.” This blood Kansa Indian. Although Curtis was University Press; New material promise was not kept. Debo’s work the original drafter, Congress made several copyright ©1972 by Princeton detailing this story was finished in changes to the document to effectively University Press. 1936. However, the University of strip most of the Indians rights away. The Oklahoma Press refused to publish it end result was bitterly ironic, for an Indian unless it was changed. Debo refused. had thus drafted the legislation that led to It was only in 1940 that Princeton the end of Indian sovereignty. The age of military University Press published her now “conquest was succeeded classic book. by the age of economic The forced Indian Removal began absorption, when the long when Andrew Jackson became rifle of the frontiersman was president. The Indian Removal Act Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller, displaced by the legislative of 1830 began the government’s 1986. Courtesy Special Collections and enactment and court decree University Archives, OSU. relocation of Native Americans across of the legal exploiter, and the the Mississippi. They were moved to lease, mortgage, and deed of modern day Oklahoma. As a punishment for siding with the Confederacy during the land shark. the Civil War, they then lost the western half of today’s Oklahoma. (Debo, p. ix) ” Before whites arrived in America, Indians shared land among everyone in the tribe. This concept caused many problems for whites when they sought trade Geronimo in his favorite bonnet. Courtesy Research Division, Oklahoma agreements, purchases of Indian land and the rights to minerals in Indian Territory. Historical Society, W.P. Campbell In 1893, President Grover Cleveland appointed Henry Dawes to a commission Collection. whose purpose was to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to renounce Activities: their tribal ownership of land and adopt an individual allotment system. As a 1) Develop a tri-fold handout that explains the “Trail of Tears.” Create drawings result, whites could now purchase land from individual Indians instead of having to and explain each with a caption. broker deals with an entire tribe. Although Indians received money for their land, 2) Create a “spatial poem” dealing with the issues of Indian removal. Design a they were essentially giving back all of what the white man had given them when layout and background for the poem that reflects the intended effect on the they were moved to Oklahoma. That led to more white settlements. viewers and readers. Content developed by Andrew Caldwell and Ryan Linden 5.

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