In the early 1950s the very existence of the Florida Seminoles was in jeopardy. Mired in poverty, poorly educated, underemployed, and without a tribal government, they also faced the possibility that the U.S. Congress would terminate services to them. Fortunately, loss of reservation lands was averted and the situation began to improve. When the federal government approved a charter and constitution for the tribe in 1957, it marked both the official resumption of tribal sovereignty after more than a century and the first agreement that did not force removal of the Seminoles from the...

"In this splendid volume, editors Gregory A. Waselkov and Kathryn E. Holland Braund pull together from a variety of published and archival sources Bartram's observations on Southeastern Indians, particularly the Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokees. . . . With this comprehensive compendium, the scope of Bartram's contributions to the fields of ethnohistory, anthropology, and historical archaeology can finally be understood."-Mississippi Quarterly "An exemplary work. . . . Waselkov and Braund have given scholars and fans of Bartram an invaluable source of his writing on the southeastern Indians...

Much has been written about the forced removal of thousands of Cherokee Indians to present-day Oklahoma in the 1830s. Many of them died on the Trail of Tears. But until recently historians have largely ignored the tribal remnant that avoided removal and remained in North Carolina. John R. Finger shifts attention to the Eastern Band of Cherokees, descended from that remnant and now numbering almost ten thousand, most of whom live on a reservation adjacent to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cherokee Americans is, ironically, the first comprehensive account of the twentieth-century...

Starting with the basic archaeological evidence and the written records of early Spanish and English visitors, Patricia Galloway traces the likely origin of the Choctaw people, their movements and interactions with other native groups in the South, and their response to Euro-American contacts. She thereby creates the first careful and complete history of the tribe in the early modern period. This rich and detailed work-winner of the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize, the James Mooney Award, and the McLemore Prize-not only provides much new information on the Choctaws but illuminates the entire...

This evocative story of the Choctaws is told through the lives of two remarkable leaders, Taboca and Franchimastabe, during a period of revolutionary change, 1750-1830. Both men achieved recognition as warriors in the eighteenth century but then followed very different paths of leadership. Taboca was a traditional Choctaw leader, a "prophet-chief" whose authority was deeply rooted in the spiritual realm. The foundation of Franchimastabe's power was more externally driven, resting on trade with Europeans and American colonists and the acquisition of manufactured goods. Franchimastabe responded...

Theda Perdue examines the roles and responsibilities of Cherokee women during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time of intense cultural change. While building on the research of earlier historians, she develops a uniquely complex view of the effects of contact on Native gender relations, arguing that Cherokee conceptions of gender persisted long after contact. Maintaining traditional gender roles actually allowed Cherokee women and men to adapt to new circumstances and adopt new industries and practices.

The Creeks and Seminoles (Muscogulges) were the largest group of Indians living on the frontier. In Georgia, Alabama, and Florida they manifested a geographical and cultural, but not a political, cohesiveness. This book provides an analysis of the course of Creek and Seminole history. It is suitable for students of southeastern Indian culture.

Keeping the Circle presents an overview of the modern history and identity of the Native peoples in twentieth-century North Carolina, including the Lumbees, the Tuscaroras, the Waccamaw Sioux, the Occaneechis, the Meherrins, the Haliwa-Saponis, and the Coharies. From the late 1800s until the 1930s, Native peoples in the eastern part of the state lived and farmed in small isolated communities. Although relatively insulated, they were acculturated, and few fit the traditional stereotype of an Indian. They spoke English, practiced Christianity, and in general lived and worked like other North...

Deerskins and Duffels documents the trading relationship in the eighteenth century between the Creek Indians and the Anglo-American peoples who settled in what is now the southeastern United States. The Creeks were the largest Indian nation in the Southeast, and through their trade alliance with the British colonies, they became the dominant Native power in the area.
The deerskin trade became the economic lifeblood of the Creeks after European contact. This book is the first to examine extensively the Creek side of this trade, especially the impact of commercial hunting on all...

Frustrated in their attempts to gain official recognition by the United States, a group of Miccosukee Indians met with Fidel Castro in 1959 and were recognized by the Cuban government. The man behind this unprecedented move to provoke the U.S. government into action was Buffalo Tiger, a Miccosukee elder who has become one of the most prominent Indian leaders in the southeastern United States in the modern era. Born in a small village in the Everglades in 1920, Buffalo Tiger grew up immersed in the traditional customs and language of the Miccosukees. As the modern world encroached on the...