Name: Oklahoma Freedmen of the Five Tribes
Brand: Angela Y. Walton-Raji
SKU: 9781467154772
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Oklahoma Freedmen of the Five Tribes

9781467154772

$23.99

Explore accounts of Oklahoma’s Freedmen as told by their descendants in these stories of resistance and resilience on the Western frontier. The Freedmen of Oklahoma were black people, both enslaved and free, who had been living among the Indian nations. After the official abolition of slavery in 1866, they forged an identity as their own people as they faced the challenges of the western frontier. By 1906, before Oklahoma statehood, over 20,000 people were classified as “Freedmen” from Five Tribes: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations. For decades, their descendants have been rediscovering their family history and restoring its place in the larger narrative. Angela Walton-Raji has compiled this collection of stories, told by descendants from all five tribes, to ensure that the Freedmen of Oklahoma claim their vibrant part of the state’s heritage.

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Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

9780738541471

$24.99

Choctaw are the largest tribe belonging to the branch of the Muskogean family that includes the Chickasaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole. According to oral history, the tribe originated from Nanih Waya, a sacred hill near present-day Noxapater, Mississippi. Nanih Waya means productive or fruitful hill, or mountain. During one of their migrations, they carried a tree that would lean, and every day the people would travel in the direction the tree was leaning. They traveled east and south for sometime until the tree quit leaning, and the people stopped to make their home at this location, in present-day Mississippi. The people have made difficult transitions throughout their history. In 1830, the Choctaw who were removed by the United States from their southeastern U.S. homeland to Indian Territory became known as the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

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Spiro Mounds and WPA Archaeology in Oklahoma

9781467160032

$23.99

The Land Run of 1889 and the oil boom in the early 20th century cemented Oklahoma’s reputation as a place where fortunes could be made and lost seemingly overnight. In eastern Oklahoma, a group of men formed the Pocola Mining Company to loot the Spiro Mounds and make a fortune selling their finds. Their remarkable discovery was billed in newspapers as “King Tut’s Tomb in Oklahoma.” With only profit in mind, the looters gave little care to the archaeological value of their finds, allowing many valuable and perishable items to be destroyed. A handful of young archaeologists from the University of Oklahoma and crews of local men were left to salvage what they could at Spiro; their work was funded by relief money provided by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. In three years, the team excavated dozens of sites in eastern Oklahoma. The photographs in this volume tell the story of the looting of Spiro and professional archaeological excavations in eastern Oklahoma.

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An Oral History of Tahlequah and The Cherokee Nation

9780738507828

$24.99

These pages are filled with memories and favorite tales that capture the essence of life in the Cherokee Nation. Ms. Duvall invites the reader to follow the tribe from its pre-historic days in the southeast, to early 20th century life in the Cookson Hills of Oklahoma. Learn about Pretty Woman, who had the power over life and death, or the mystical healing springs of Tahlequah. Spend some time with U.S. Deputy Marshals as they roam the old Cherokee Nation in pursuit of Indian Territory outlaws like Zeke Proctor and Charlie Wickliffe, or wander the famous haunted places where ghost horses still travel an ancient trail and the spirits of long-dead Spaniards still search for gold.

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Pueblos of New Mexico

9781467129428

$23.99

As early as 1851, photographers journeyed along the arduous Santa Fe Trail on horseback and in covered wagons on a quest to capture the magnificent vistas on film. In the ever-changing light of New Mexico's landscape, they photographed the faces of the Pueblo People and helped to document their ancient, unimaginable world. They became witness to millennia of history. New Mexico's first inhabitants are believed to have descended from the Anasazi, the largely nomadic group that settled along the Colorado Plateau around 200 AD. Most likely, drought conditions brought the population centers of the Anasazi villages located in the Four Corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico to settle along the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico and the Mogollon Rim of Arizona in 1300 AD.

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Indian City USA

9781467161336

$24.99 $12.50 Save 50%

Dr. Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee) and Randy Palmer (Kiowa/Choctaw) have collected colorful photographs showcasing one of the earliest, longest-running, and most cherished American Indian cultural attractions in the country, Indian City USA.

Located in Anadarko, Oklahoma, Indian City USA was open from the mid-1950s through the end of the 2000s. Drawing on vibrant postcard images, family photographs, and maps, together with the oral histories of those who worked and lived there, this book provides a unique view into Indian City USA and what made it so special for so many people.

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Arizona's Historic Trading Posts

9781467132497

$24.99

On the sparsely settled Arizona reservation lands, trading posts were important centers for commerce as well as social gathering destinations. With a subsistence economy, the posts offered opportunities to trade sheep, wool, and crafts for necessities such as flour, coffee, sugar (known as sweet-salt), and tools. Most often, traders were Anglos, living as partners among their Indian neighbors. They often were the only contact with the outside culture, and their stores provided an outlet for local arts such as rugs, pottery, baskets, and jewelry. Traders helped with correspondence, transportation, and sickness, and they even buried the dead. Trading posts were the sites of marriages and murders; they were destinations for artists, scientists, and adventurous tourists. With the coming of roads and automobiles, trading posts have all but disappeared, but the stories and photographs shared in this volume offer a glimpse into a vanishing time in the Southwest.

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The Cherokee Nation and Tahlequah

9780738502892

$24.99

The Cherokee Nation, world-famous for its turbulent and colorful past, is home to the second-largest American Indian tribe in the United States. This fascinating visual history spans 14 counties of northeast Oklahoma, from the Arkansas River to the Kansas border,
and features the capital, Tahlequah. The U.S. government's harsh treatment of the Cherokees culminating in the notorious Trail of Tears is documented here. In Indian Territory, the Cherokees quickly established systems of democratic government, education,
and communication. Many lived in the same manner as their white counterparts of the time, as wealthy plantation owners and ranchers. They were completely literate in their own written language, printing newspapers, magazines, and books. Devastation struck as the Civil War split the Cherokees into factions, dividing families and neighbors and destroying communities and homes. Again, the resilient Cherokees rebuilt their nation,
enjoying growth and renewed prosperity until land allotment and statehood stripped away their self-governance. The progressive, accomplished character of the Cherokees is evidenced by the pictures and stories in this book. Here you will meet the leaders who helped rebuild the great Cherokee Nation, legendary figures like Sequoyah and Will Rogers, and the patriots and artisans who have kept the tribe's culture and tradition alive throughout history.

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The Hopi People

9780738556482

$23.99

The diverse people of the Hopi, whose name means "the peaceful ones," are today united on the Hopi Reservation, which is composed of 12 villages on more than 2,500 square miles in northeastern Arizona. In fact, the village of Orayvi is considered the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States, dating back more than a millennium. Often referred to as a "corn culture," the Hopis have developed dry-farming techniques that have sustained them in the harsh, arid landscape, where annual precipitation is often only 12 inches or less. The Hopi people are hardworking and spiritual, and their lifestyle has survived for centuries, only minimally changed by influences from the outside world.

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New Mexico Native American Lore

9781467150545

$23.99

Pull on the uncanny threads from the legendary tapestry of New Mexico’s Native American heritage.

Ancient Indian history and present Native American cultures are woven together in the Land of Enchantment. The threads of these tales stretch back to Mimbres burial grounds and prehistoric trade routes. Stories and traditions tie the land to its people, in spite of the cycles of slaughter and theft that have threatened to pluck them apart. Descend into the kivas of Chaco Canyon or seek out the high mountains where the clouds mark the stones. From legends of the Salt Woman to the legacy of the Ghost Dance, Ray John de Aragon examines the mysteries of the mesas.

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Santa Fe Art and Architecture

9780738595986

$24.99 $12.50 Save 50%

The oldest capital city in the United States is Santa Fe, which has a rich and varied cultural history as well as the oldest public building still in use. Ancestral Puebloan Indians inhabited the area as early as 500 AD, and Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1540s. When Mexico gained independence from Spain, Santa Fe became the capital of Nuevo Mejico. It was not until 1912 that New Mexico achieved statehood. In the late 19th century, the Southwest became a haven for tuberculosis patients, and a number of sanatoriums were built in Santa Fe. Many creative individuals, including poets, artists and architects, stayed and significantly contributed to the city's cultural and architectural development. In 2005, Santa Fe received the distinction of being the first America community to be designated a Creative City by UNESCO.

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The Tohono O'odham and Pimeria Alta

9780738556338

$24.99

The Tohono O'odham have lived in southern Arizona's Sonoran Desert for millennia. Formerly known as the Papago, the people, acting as a nation in 1986, voted to change the colonial applied name, Papago, to their true name, Tohono O'odham, a name literally meaning "desert people." Living within a region the Spanish termed Pimeria Alta, the Tohono O'odham, from the time of Spanish Jesuit Kino's first missionary efforts in the late 1680s, have been witness to numerous governmental, philosophical, and religious intrusions. Yet throughout, they have adapted and survived. Today the Tohono O'odham Nation occupies the second largest land reserve in the United States, covering more than 2.8 million acres. The images in this volume date largely between 1870 and 1950, a period that documents great change in Tohono O'odham traditions, culture, and identity.

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Apache Legends & Lore of Southern New Mexico

9781626194861

$23.99

Storytelling has been a vital and vivid tradition in Apache life. Coyote tales, the creation legend and stories of historic battles with Comanche and Anglo intruders create a colorful mosaic of tribal heritage. Percy Bigmouth, a prominent oral historian of the Mescalero and Lipan Apache tribes, realized in the early twentieth century that the old ways were waning. He wrote in longhand what he had learned from his father, Scout Bigmouth, a prison camp survivor at Fort Sumner and participant in the turbulent Apache Wars. Join author Lynda Sanchez as she brings to light the ancient legends and lore of the Apaches living in the shadow of Mescalero's Sacred Mountain. Seventy-five years in the making, this collection is a loving tribute to a way of life nearly lost to history.

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The Jicarilla Apache of Dulce

9780738595290

$24.99

Now the headquarters of the Jicarilla Apache, Dulce (meaning sweet in Spanish) was named by the impoverished and relocated Indians who associated the place with the sugar and candy that came with government-supplied rations. Since the establishment of the reservation in 1887, Dulce has become the hub of everything associated with the Jicarillas. From the early timber operations, farming, and livestock raising, the Jicarilla Apache have become an economic powerhouse of northern New Mexico. Dulce is now a community living in two worlds, fully immersed in the American mainstream economy with a world-class hunting lodge, significant oil and gas operations, and widely diversified investments while fiercely maintaining the centuries-old language, culture, religion, and ceremonies of Jicarilla Apache Indians.

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Enslaved on the Trail of Tears

9781467171540

$24.99

A Harrowing Heritage of Resilience

Beginning in the 1820s, Indian removal saw scores of families of African descent forced west alongside the so-called Five Civilized Tribes. The Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations all brought their own slaves on the arduous, obligatory journey. These tribes demonstrated shared patterns—including Native women enslavers—as well as important distinctions. Seminole records more frequently preserved the names of their enslaved, reflecting resistance to removal and the central role of Black Seminoles. But enslaved people were present at every stage of removal, even when misclassified or omitted entirely from official records. Power operated differently within each tribe. Gender shaped vulnerability and authority. Enslavement and forced migration reconfigured tribal societies during one of the most traumatic periods in their histories. Drawing on oral accounts and extensive documentation, Terry J. Ligon’s unique scholarship restores voice and lineage to the remarkable survival of those carried west in bondage on the Trail of Tears.

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Apache Sunrise

9781626198616

$21.99

In July of 1970, a red Volkswagen bus pulled into the dirt parking lot of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' offices on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona. It was 113 degrees as Sonja and Richard David, with their three children, stepped into a new world. On a job reassignment, the family left the turbulence of Chicago for a new start on the expansive high desert where the Apache leader Geronimo fought for his freedom against the United States Cavalry a century earlier. Over five years, the family immersed themselves in the community and formed deep bonds, some of which remain strong. In this poignant collection of true stories, author and activist Sonja White David vividly describes those years at San Carlos with delicacy and respect for the local Apaches.

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Native Americans of Arizona

9780738548845

$23.99

For more than a century, Arizona's 21 Native American tribes and nations have played an important role in the state's tourism industry. Postcard images of Southwestern tribes became the staple of an advertising campaign to promote the region to potential travelers beginning around 1900 and quickly became popular with visitors. Hundreds of images captured the beauty of the Native American peoples' homelands and villages, along with views of economic and domestic activities, craft arts, and religious aspects of the various communities. This book offers a wide-ranging overview of the vintage postcards that captured the visual essence of Native Americans in Arizona during the first half of the 20th century.

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Pueblo Indians of New Mexico

9780738548364

$24.99

Beginning about 1900, tourism greatly increased in the American Southwest, chiefly a response to the combined promotional efforts of the Santa Fe Railway and the Fred Harvey Company. Postcard images of Southwestern Native Americans in particular became a mainstay of a widespread advertising campaign to promote the region to potential travelers. Postcards also quickly became popular with visitors as collectibles and for expedient communications with friends and family back home. In New Mexico, hundreds of published images portrayed the beauty of the Pueblo villages, as well as views of economic and domestic activities, arts and crafts, and religious aspects of the various Pueblo communities in the northern part of the state.

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Oklahoma Black Cherokees

9781625859952

$21.99

Over the generations, Cherokee citizens became a conglomerate people. Early in the nineteenth century, tribal leaders adapted their government to mirror the new American model. While accommodating institutional slavery of black people, they abandoned the Cherokee matrilineal clan structure that once determined their citizenship. The 1851 census revealed a total population nearing 18,000, which included 1,844 slaves and 64 free blacks. What it means to be Cherokee has continued to evolve over the past century, yet the histories assembled here by Ty Wilson, Karen Coody Cooper and other contributing authors reveal a meaningful story of identity and survival.

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Oklahoma Cherokee Baskets

9781467119825

$21.99

The forced relocation of fifteen thousand Cherokee to Oklahoma nearly two centuries ago left them in a foreign landscape. Coping with loss and new economic challenges, the Cherokee united under a new constitution and exploited the Victorian affinity for decorative crafts. Cherokee women had always created patterned baskets for everyday use and trade, and soon their practical work became lucrative items of beauty. Adapting the tradition to the new land, the industrious weavers transformed Oklahoma's vast natural resources into art that aided their survival. The Civil War found the Cherokee again in jeopardy, but resilient, they persevered and still thrive today. Author and Cherokee citizen Karen Coody Cooper presents the story of this beautiful legacy.

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Hidden History of the Llano Estacado

9781625858863

$24.99

The Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain, of Texas and eastern New Mexico spreads two hundred miles across what early visitors called an ocean of land. No other place on Earth is quite like it. Humans first inhabited the area more than twelve thousand years ago. Subsequently, settlers came to convert the grassland to ranches and then to sprawling farms. Every new generation performed its duty at this cultural crossroads, from the trade routes established by the comancheros to the fateful meeting between Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley at Lubbock's Cotton Club. Noted West Texas historians Paul H. Carlson and David J. Murrah compiled and edited fifty-six brief stories presenting the Llano Estacado's heritage at its liveliest and most unfamiliar.

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Enslaved on the Trail of Tears

9781540299390

$34.99

A Harrowing Heritage of Resilience

During the era of Indian Removal, scores of men, women and children of African descent were forced west alongside the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations.

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The Choctaw Freedmen of Skullyville

9781467170024

$24.99

From settlement to sediment

Unlike the freedman communities in Spiro, Ft. Coffee and Poteau, the town of Skullyville faded into a forgotten ghost town. Dr. G. E. Hartshorne’s 1950 “Skullyville and Its People in 1889” chronicled the inhabitants’ lifestyle and culture. Yet he excluded many that arrived in the 1830s, having survived the long and arduous journey of the Trail of Tears. Enslaved people of African descent, arriving alongside their Choctaw masters, were seldom mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. They labored for decades without pay, or the comforts of freedom. Their tribal oppressors joined the Confederates, vowing to maintain their slaveholding lifestyle. Conversely, some from Skullyville resisted by joining the Union Army. Many lived to see freedom, and established livelihoods after abolition. In April of 1866, Choctaw leaders joined the Chickasaw at Fort Smith to sign a peace treaty that abolished slavery and promised citizenship and suffrage to those once enslaved by their nations. Freedman descendent Angela Walton-Raji resurrects the lost voices of Skullyville and champions a legacy that outlasted the town itself.

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New Mexico's Pueblo Baseball League

9781467132800

$24.99

Baseball began in the New Mexico pueblos before 1900. The game was learned by watching soldiers and settlers and by playing in the Indian schools throughout the country. The first competition was with Albuquerque teams, mining teams, other pueblo teams, and the state penitentiary. Today, the game has evolved into a family and tribal tradition. The games are played on barren fields with enthusiastic spectator support. The players' objective is to win that game, with little thought of individual achievement; they are playing for family and tribe.

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Legendary Locals of Gallup

9781467125673

$24.99

Geography has conspired to make Gallup, New Mexico, a special place with unique people and a colorful history. It has been a place of struggle and extremes where cultures have clashed, mixed, and melded. Gallup is a community that is simultaneously challenging and uplifting, heartrending, and redemptive. To local Native Americans, the Navajo and Pueblo people, Gallup is located on their ancestral homeland and bordered by their sacred sites. To early settlers, Gallup was a place that permitted transportation across the continent, first by foot and horseback, then by stagecoach and railroad, and ultimately, by America's Mother Road, Route 66. With its founding, Gallup became a place where European, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants—with hands that built America—came to construct a transcontinental rail line, harvest timber, mine coal, and establish businesses, while seeking a new life among the region's original native people.

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Navajo Weavers of the American Southwest

9781467129725

$24.99

From the mid-17th century to the present day, herding sheep, carding wool, spinning yarn, dyeing with native plants, and weaving on iconic upright looms have all been steps in the intricate process of Navajo blanket and rug making in the American Southwest. Beginning in the late 1800s, amateur and professional photographers documented the Diné (Navajo) weavers and their artwork, and the images they captured tell the stories of the artists, their homes, and the materials, techniques, and designs they used. Many postcards illustrate popular interest surrounding weaving as an indigenous art form, even as economic, social, and political realities influenced the craft. These historical pictures illuminate perceived traditional weaving practices. The authors' accompanying narratives deepen the perspective and relate imagery to modern life.

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Navajo and Hopi Art in Arizona

9781467117890

$24.99

Arizona's Navajo and Hopi cultures span multiple generations, and their descendants continue to honor customs from thousands of years ago. Contemporary artists like Hopi katsina doll carver Manuel Chavarria and Navajo weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas use traditional crafts and techniques to preserve the stories of their ancestors. Meanwhile, emerging mixed-media artists like Melanie Yazzie expand the boundaries of tradition by combining Navajo influences with contemporary culture and styles. Local author Rory Schmitt presents the region's outstanding native artists and their work, studios and inspirations.