And Still the Waters Run

The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes

Angie Debo

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780691237770
• eBook ISBN: 9780691242149
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The classic book that exposed the scandal of the dispossession of native land by American settlers

And Still the Waters Run tells the tragic story of the liquidation of the independent Indian republics of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles, known as the Five Civilized Tribes. At the turn of the twentieth century, the tribes owned the eastern half of what is now Oklahoma, a territory immensely wealthy in farmland, forests, coal, and oil. Their political and economic status was guaranteed by the federal government—until American settlers arrived. Congress abrogated treaties that it had promised would last "as long as the waters run," and within a generation, the tribes were systematically stripped of their holdings, and were rescued from starvation only through public charity. Called a "work of art" by writer Oliver La Farge, And Still the Waters Run was so controversial when it was first published that Angie Debo was banned from teaching in Oklahoma for many years. Now with an incisive foreword by Amanda Cobb-Greetham, here is the acclaimed book that first documented the scandalous founding of Oklahoma on native land.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• I: The Indians’ Country
• II: The White Man’s Land System
• III: The White Man’s Guardianship
• IV: The “Grafter’s” Share
• V: The Voice of the Indian Territory
• VI: The Price of Statehood
• VII: Protection by the State
• VIII: A Tangle of Litigation
• IX: The Fight Between Despoilers and Defenders
• X: Federal Administration within the State
• XI: The Indian’s Place in Oklahoma
• XII: The Battle for Spoils
• XIII: The New Trend
• XIV: The Present Situation
• Thirty-Two Years After: Postscript to the 1973 Edition
• Bibliography
• Index