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Home , Angie Debo, Edward Everett Dale

Volume 5 Article 13 Issue 1 Fall

10-15-1985 : First Lady of History Ernestine Gravley

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Recommended Citation Gravley, Ernestine (1985) "Angie Debo: First Lady of Oklahoma History," Westview: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 13. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/westview/vol5/iss1/13

This Nonfiction is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Westview by an authorized administrator of SWOSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Angie Debo First Lady of Oklahoma History By Ernestine Gravley

30 We s t v ie w , Fa l l 1 985 Eighty-six years ago last fall, a cover­ the college level. research,” she says with a smile. She is ed wagon creaked across the plain and “I was in for a dreadful shock,” she a member of the Association of American into a raw little frontier settlement in says. “I discovered that the history Indian Affairs (and member of the . The village of field was strictly off limits to women-the board of directors from 1956-1966) and Marshall drowsed in an early November old discrimination syndrome even the American Civil Liberties Union sun sunounded by greening fields of then.” Thirty colleges applied that (board of directors, 1973-1977). winter wheat. Edward Peter Debo, his year to the for Highlight of her life? There are so wife, Lina Elbertha Cooper Debo, and history teachers; all but one said that many highlights, and Dr. Debo could the children lumbered along to the they wouldn’t accept a woman under never play favorites among the organi­ farm Mr. Debo had bought on land any circumstances, and the other zations that have honored her. She was opened to white settlement. The spot college indicated that it would take a inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of was in the extreme northwest corner woman instructor only if no qualified Fame in 1950; received the John H. of Logan County. man could be found.” Dunning Award from the American Nine-year-old Angie looked from the That was when she turned to writing. Historical Association in 1935 for THE wagon with lively interest at a land “I found no sex discrimination against RISE AND FALL OF THE later to be known as the home of one of scholarly books, and I’ve been writing REPUBLIC; the Alfred A Knopf History the foremost author-historians of Okla­ them ever since.” Fellowship, 1942; fellow of the Univer­ homa and nationally recognized author­ She credits Dr. sity of Oklahoma, 1946; extraordinary ity on Western and Indian history-Dr. with steering her toward the topic of service award from Navajo Community Angie Debo. Indians. “I was looking about for a College, 1972; Henry G. Bennett Service “Miss Angie,” as she is called in Award from OSU, 1976. In addition, Marshall, where the 95-year-old scholar “I have had only one she is an honorary life member of the still lives, says she never particularly Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc., intended at the beginning to be a goal, ” she comment­ t h e Oklahoma Historical champion of the Indian. ed. “And that is to Society, and the Stillwater Writers. “I have had only one goal,” she Yes, and the Rebekkah Lodge and commented. “And that is to discover discover truth and Marshall Women’s Club. This little truth and publish it. My research is publish it. five-foot-two, 110-pound dynamo is objective, but .vhen I find all the truth loyally proud to include even a small on one side, as has sometimes happened subject for my doctoral dissertation at local club. in my study of Indian history, I have the when my Connie Cronley said in an OKLA­ the same obligation to become involved mentor suggested I write a history of HOMA TODAY article a few years ago as any other citizen.” That was putting the .” The result was THE that Miss Angie somtimes smiles at it mildly. She has devoted a very long RISE AND FALL OF THE CHOCTAW her fame as an Oklahoma historian life to being involved. REPUBLIC, a book so successful that and quoted Dr. Debo as saying, “I’ve Angie Debo was born January 30, she left the classroom for fulltime told moneunpleasanttruthsabout Oklahoma 1890, near Beattie, Kansas and attended authorship, except for summer terms than anybody else whoever pecked out one-room country schools in Kansas teaching history at Oklahoma State the name on a typewriter.” A powerful a n d Oklahoma Territory. University and acting as OSU’s curator case in point was her book AND STILL “There was no library,” she said. of maps for eight years to the mid-50’s. THE WATERS RUN: THE BETRAYAL “Never a library. No magazines, and Her "fulltime writing” didn’t totally OF THE . only the one book our parents managed eliminate academe. She taught briefly With typical candor, the author told to buy for each of us children as a at West Texas State Teachers College the story of the liquidation of the Five Christmas present.” (now West Texas State University) Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma and She waited-and waited-for a high while curator of the Panhandle-Plains disclosed the corruption she found in school to open--“The most anxious Historical Museum of Canyon, Texas, governmental, social, and religious time of my life,” she declared. and one summer at Stephen F. Austin organizations. Meanwhile, at sixteen, she passed a State Teachers College. Everything about that story was Territorial examination and got a Angie Debo was the logical choice for slimy,” Miss Angie told Cronley. “It position teaching in a rural school near state director of the Federal Writers was so unpleasant that it might have home. And then it happened. The Project in Oklahoma during which destroyed the University of Oklahoma small town of Marshall opened a four-year time she was editor of OKLAHOMA: A Press had they published it.” So she high school, and Angie enrolled as a GUIDE TO THE SOONER STATE. withdrew the manuscript. Four years student. In 1913, at the age of 23, she Dr. Debo’s devotion to duty blossomed later, the expose was published by the received her diploma. She served as during the Second World War when Princeton University Press. principal and history teacher of a small most men of her town went into the This brilliant and energetic historian school in Enid for two terms and then armed forces. She consented to teach at has written and edited 13 books. Other went away to the University of Okla­ Marshall High School and to fill the titles are: THE HISTORICAL BACK­ homa where she earned a B.A. degree pulpit as minister of the local Methodist GROUND OF THE AMERICAN POL in 1918. Six years later, she was church, though her religious affiliation ICY OF ISOLATION; THE ROAD TO awarded a Master’s degree from the is the United Church of Christ. DISAPPEARANCE: A HISTORY OF prestigious University of Chicago. A lifetime Democrat, Angie Debo has THE CREEK INDIANS; TULSA: FROM There, she was a well-known student the courage of her convictions, especially CREEK TOWN TO OIL CAPITAL; at the top of her classes-and looking when it comes to the Native American. PRAIRIE CITY: THE STORY OF AN forward to a career teaching history on “I simply report facts based on careful AMERICAN COMMUNITY; OKLA- continued on p. 38 Westview, F a l l 1 985 31 continued from p. 27 row with one of two excuses. It burst, and your wife’s considering an under separate cover. sounds too much like something else extended vacation with her mother. Sick at heart, your mind a blank, that has been done, or they don’t You calmly pick up the wrinkled you stagger into the den and slump accept new clients unless they have package and drop it into the waste into your chair; the ragged envelope sold ten thousand dollars worth of basket along with the notes on your seems to mock and laugh at you. work. You’re furious again. If you latest idea. You wash your hands of With an explosive curse, you grab already had ten thousand dollars the whole idea of becoming a writer. the envelope and fling it across the from sales, why would you need an It’s a quick way to starvation and to room where it bursts open spilling agent? getting rid of your entire family. out a shower of white pages which Finally, one agent agrees to have a The only job available is frying float down around you like snow. look. Your hopes soar to the heavens; hamburgers at the local diner. You Your wife rushes in to see if you have this is your big chance. He’ll have grit your teeth and tackle it. You feel hurt yourself. But the only thing connections and make a sale right that you’ll never be able to wash the that’s hurt is your pride. away. You pop a fresh copy in the smell of fried onions out of your skin, With a knowing nod, she retreats mail and dive into your work with and you never did like hamburgers and quietly closes the door behind better feelings. anyway. her. After a few tears of disgust and Almost before it has had time to A few weeks later, you happen by two full glasses of a cold drink, you reach the agent, it’s back. He’s got to the typewriter. The manuscript still feel somewhat better. be the quickest reader you’ve ever lies in the waste basket. Maybe the The time has come to get an agent. seen, and he did it without denting a small houses would be interested; Why go through all the torture of sheet. The note enclosed tells you it’s just to get the book published would rejection? After all, let him do the pretty good but nothing he’d care to be a start — you have to crawl before worrying; he gets ten percent. You handle — maybe one of the small you can run. pick a good-sounding name from a list publishing houses would be What do you do now? Will you try of over two hundred and off your interested. By now, you’re a nervous that small house or simply give up in query goes. wreck of a person; you’re worrying despair? \Y It comes back to you six times in a too much; your ulcer is threatening to

continued from p. 31 Television Network on Indian-white published in 1976 when “Indianism HOMA: FOOT LOOSE AND FANCY- relations in the settlement of the was a popular social issue and turquoise FREE; THE COWMAN’S SOUTH­ Northern Great Plains, as told by jewelry one of the best selling items in WEST: BEING THE REMINIS­ Indian participants. America.” CENCES OF OLIVER NELSON; THE One might assume that the Debo Angie Debo has a special feeling FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES OF OKLA­ style is altogether too stiff and scholarly about her OKLAHOMA: FOOT LOOSE HOMA: A REPORT ON SOCIAL AND for the average reader. Not so. She is a AND FANCY-FREE. When Greenwood ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; HISTORY masterful storyteller whose writings Press reissued it from the 1949 release OF THE CHOCTAW, CHICKASAW, entertain with warmth and homespun in time for Oklahoma's Diamond Jubilee, AND NATCHEZ INDIANS; A HIS­ philosophy while incorporating results she said, “I have a special affection for TORY OF THE INDIANS OF THE of her exacting research. She says she this evaluation of the Sooner spirit, but UNITED STATES; and : did research in Washington before the it marks the golden anniversary of the THE MAN, HIS TIME, HIS PLACE. National Archives wereestablished. day I became an Oklahoman. It never Dr. Debo was a contributor to EN­ When researching, she does nothing occurred to me that one day I should be CYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA, wrote a else. She stays at it eight hours a day, asked to write an interpretation of the column, “This Week in Oklahoma six days a week, writing in longhand society I entered. . Many outward History,” for the on half sheets of paper. The result is changes have come. . .but here are the TIMES, 1952-1954, and published a such meticulous organization that she roots of the past, present, and future. great many articles and reviews in can use whole blocks of these half The Oklahoma spirit is ever the same. magazines and newspapers. Debo’s pages as chapters in her books. She This work is not a history nor a historical works are so numerous, in used original notes from interviews description of the physical background fact, that five years ago Oklaoma State with the Apaches made many years of the state but my definition of the University produced a complete biblio­ earlier when writing the Geronimo special quality of its people.” graphy of her published books and biography, adding later research as A quality exemplified by Angie Debo, articles. She continues in an advisory needed. This is her most recent, and First Lady of Oklahoma history, flf capacity for the Nebraska Educatioal possibly last, book, an award winner

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