Race and culture: Writing the ethnohistory of the early south

Ethnohistory

Volumn 51, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 701-723

  Perdue, Theda ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 8644225602     PISSN: 00141801     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/00141801-51-4-701     Document Type: Review

References (100)

1. Lewis Cass, "Removal of the Indians," North American Review 30 (1830): 64, 69-71.
2. William G. McLoughlin, "Accepting Christianity, 1839-1860," in The Cherokees and Christianity, 1794-1870, ed. Walter H. Conser (Athens, GA, 1994), 189-90.
3. In addition to McLoughlin, other recent works on the southeast use the language of blood. See Joel W. Martin, Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World (Boston, 1991); Duane Champagne, Social Order and Political Change: Constitutional Governments among the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Creek (Stanford, CA, 1992); Clara Sue Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818-1918 (Norman, OK, 1995); and Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 (Cambridge, UK, 1999). Champagne's racial analysis is particularly surprising, as he recognized that "some traders strategically married into the lineages of local chiefs in order to enhance their trade possibilities, and their children often stood in line for positions of authority and political leadership" (54). Martin uses métis and Saunt mestizo, rather than mixed blood, perhaps because they sound less racist, but those terms commonly refer to specific categories of persons in the French and Spanish empires, whose circumstances differ culturally, socially, legally, and historically from "mixed bloods" in the Southeast.
4. In addition to McLoughlin, other recent works on the southeast use the language of blood. See Joel W. Martin, Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World (Boston, 1991); Duane Champagne, Social Order and Political Change: Constitutional Governments among the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Creek (Stanford, CA, 1992); Clara Sue Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818-1918 (Norman, OK, 1995); and Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 (Cambridge, UK, 1999). Champagne's racial analysis is particularly surprising, as he recognized that "some traders strategically married into the lineages of local chiefs in order to enhance their trade possibilities, and their children often stood in line for positions of authority and political leadership" (54). Martin uses métis and Saunt mestizo, rather than mixed blood, perhaps because they sound less racist, but those terms commonly refer to specific categories of persons in the French and Spanish empires, whose circumstances differ culturally, socially, legally, and historically from "mixed bloods" in the Southeast.
5. In addition to McLoughlin, other recent works on the southeast use the language of blood. See Joel W. Martin, Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World (Boston, 1991); Duane Champagne, Social Order and Political Change: Constitutional Governments among the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Creek (Stanford, CA, 1992); Clara Sue Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818-1918 (Norman, OK, 1995); and Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 (Cambridge, UK, 1999). Champagne's racial analysis is particularly surprising, as he recognized that "some traders strategically married into the lineages of local chiefs in order to enhance their trade possibilities, and their children often stood in line for positions of authority and political leadership" (54). Martin uses métis and Saunt mestizo, rather than mixed blood, perhaps because they sound less racist, but those terms commonly refer to specific categories of persons in the French and Spanish empires, whose circumstances differ culturally, socially, legally, and historically from "mixed bloods" in the Southeast.
6. In addition to McLoughlin, other recent works on the southeast use the language of blood. See Joel W. Martin, Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World (Boston, 1991); Duane Champagne, Social Order and Political Change: Constitutional Governments among the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Creek (Stanford, CA, 1992); Clara Sue Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818-1918 (Norman, OK, 1995); and Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 (Cambridge, UK, 1999). Champagne's racial analysis is particularly surprising, as he recognized that "some traders strategically married into the lineages of local chiefs in order to enhance their trade possibilities, and their children often stood in line for positions of authority and political leadership" (54). Martin uses métis and Saunt mestizo, rather than mixed blood, perhaps because they sound less racist, but those terms commonly refer to specific categories of persons in the French and Spanish empires, whose circumstances differ culturally, socially, legally, and historically from "mixed bloods" in the Southeast.
7. Adriane Strenk, "Tradition and Transformation: Shoe Boots and the Creation of a Cherokee Culture," Master's thesis, University of Kentucky, 1993.
8. "Journal of David Taitt's Travels from Pensacola, West Florida, to and through the Country of the Upper and the Lower Creeks, 1772.," in Travels in the American Colonies, ed. Newton D. Mereness (New York, 1916), 558.
9. Florette Henri, The Southern Indians and Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1816 (Norman, OK, 1986), 127, 147.
10. Horatio B. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians (Norman, OK, 1999), 375.
11. Benjamin Hawkins's journal, 11 December 1796, Letters, Journals, and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, ed. C. L. Grant, vol. 1 (Savannah, GA, 1980), 15.
12. John Norton, The Journal of Major John Norton, 1816, ed. Carl Frederick Klinck and James John Talman (Toronto, 1970), 76.
13. John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, ed. HughTalmage Lefler (Chapel Hill, NC, 1967), 190.
14. Lawson, A New Voyage, 190.
15. Hawkins's journal, 18 December 1796, in Letters, vol. 1, 21.
16. Michael D. Green, "Mary Musgrove: Creating a New World," in Sifters: Native American Women's Lives, ed. Theda Perdue (New York, 2001), 29.
17. Emmet Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore (Muskogee, OK, 1984), 468-71; John P. Brown, Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from the Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838 (Kingsport, TN, 1938), 275.
18. Emmet Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore (Muskogee, OK, 1984), 468-71; John P. Brown, Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from the Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838 (Kingsport, TN, 1938), 275.
19. Brown, Old Frontiers, 277-28, 348.
20. George Strother Gaines, The Reminiscences of George Strother Gaines, Pioneer and Statesman of Early Alabama and Mississippi, 1805-1843, ed. James P. Pate (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1998), 47.
21. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, 328.
22. Lawson, A New Voyage, 35-36.
23. Louis-Philippe, Diary of My Travels in America, trans. Stephen Becker (New York, 1977), 76-77.
24. Benjamin Hawkins to James McHenry, 6 January 1797, Letters, vol. 1, 63.
25. Rufus Anderson, Memoir of Catherine Brown, A Christian Indian of the Cherokee Nation (Boston, 1825; reprint, Signal Mountain, TN, n.d.), 124.
26. Norton, The Journal of Major John Norton, 60.
27. William Bartram, "Travels through North and South Carolina," in William Bartram on the Southeastern Indians, ed. Gregory A. Waselkov and Kathryn E. Holland Braund (Lincoln, NE, 1995), 102.
28. Hawkins's journal, 16 February 1797, Letters, vol. 1, 47-48.
29. Norton, The Journal of Major John Norton, 51-52.
30. Hawkins to addressee unknown, n.d., Letters, vol. 2, 457; William G. McLoughlin, "Cherokee Anomie, 1794-1810," in The Cherokee Ghost Dance: Essays on the Southeastern Indians, 1789-1861 (Macon, GA, 1984), 3-38.
31. Hawkins to addressee unknown, n.d., Letters, vol. 2, 457; William G. McLoughlin, "Cherokee Anomie, 1794-1810," in The Cherokee Ghost Dance: Essays on the Southeastern Indians, 1789-1861 (Macon, GA, 1984), 3-38.
32. Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1935), 178-93; "Alabama Indian Chiefs," Alabama Historical Quarterly 13 (1951): 45-49.
33. Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1935), 178-93; "Alabama Indian Chiefs," Alabama Historical Quarterly 13 (1951): 45-49.
34. Doublehead to J. D. Chisolm, 20 November 1802, Records of the Cherokee Agency in Tennessee, 1801-35, Record group 75, National Archives, Washington, DC, Microcopy M-208.
35. Quoted in Daniel F. Littlefield Jr., The Chickasaw Freedmen: A People without a Country (Westport, CT, 1980), 9-10.
36. The grave of the war chief Oconostota, for example, contained beads, vermillion, an iron cup, a knife, eyeglasses, and stone pipes, but no gun. James C. Kelley, "Oconostota," Journal of Cherokee Studies 3 (1979): 233.
37. Saunt, A New Order of Things, 176-77.
38. Young Wolf's Last Will and Testament, 12 March 1814, John Howard Payne Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL; reprinted in Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (Boston, 1995), 29.
39. Young Wolf's Last Will and Testament, 12 March 1814, John Howard Payne Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL; reprinted in Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (Boston, 1995), 29.
40. For policy in this period, see Reginald Horsman, Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783-1812 (East Lansing, MI, 1967).
41. Louis-Philippe, Diary of My Travels, 77.
42. Arturo O'Neill to Josef de Ezpeleta, 19 October 1783, John Walton Caughey, McGillivray of the Creeks (Norman, OK, 1938), 62-63.
43. James Taylor Carson, Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal (Lincoln, NE, 1999), 95-96. There is disagreement over the identity of John Pitchlynn's wives. For a discussion of the conflicting evidence, see James Taylor Carson's dissertation rather than his book, "Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal," Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1996, 12, 8-29.
44. James Taylor Carson, Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal (Lincoln, NE, 1999), 95-96. There is disagreement over the identity of John Pitchlynn's wives. For a discussion of the conflicting evidence, see James Taylor Carson's dissertation rather than his book, "Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal," Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1996, 128-29.
45. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, 355; Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 156-84; William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1993), 229. John Ross's sister Elizabeth married John Golden Ross, who was not related. William Potter Ross was their son. Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, 410-11.
46. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, 355; Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 156-84; William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1993), 229. John Ross's sister Elizabeth married John Golden Ross, who was not related. William Potter Ross was their son. Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, 410-11.
47. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, 355; Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 156-84; William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1993), 229. John Ross's sister Elizabeth married John Golden Ross, who was not related. William Potter Ross was their son. Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, 410-11.
48. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, 355; Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 156-84; William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1993), 229. John Ross's sister Elizabeth married John Golden Ross, who was not related. William Potter Ross was their son. Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, 410-11.
49. Benjamin Hawkins to Peter Early, 15 February 1815, Letters, vol. 2, 717.
50. J. Leitch Wright Jr., Creeks and Seminoles: Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People (Lincoln, NE, 1986), 60, 167-68.
51. Benjamin Hawkins to James Monroe, 7 January 1815, Letters, vol. 2, 716-17.
52. In addition to Martin and Saunt, cited above, see Michael D. Green, The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (Lincoln, NE, 1982), 38-43; Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 (Baltimore, MD, 1992), 148-90.
53. In addition to Martin and Saunt, cited above, see Michael D. Green, The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (Lincoln, NE, 1982), 38-43; Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 (Baltimore, MD, 1992), 148-90.
54. Carson, Searching for the Bright Path, 86-102.
55. Green, Politics, 69-97; "Treaty with the Creeks, 1825," in Indian Treaties, 1778-1883, ed. Charles J. Kappler (New York, 1972 [1904]), 214-17.
56. Green, Politics, 69-97; "Treaty with the Creeks, 1825," in Indian Treaties, 1778-1883, ed. Charles J. Kappler (New York, 1972 [1904]), 214-17.
57. Joe M. Anoatubby, "Debunking the Mixed-Blood Myth: Alternatives for Interpreting Chickasaw History," presented at the Southern Historical Association, Louisville, Kentucky, November 2000.
58. William G. McLoughlin, Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic (Princeton, NJ, 1986), 191-92.
59. Carson, Searching for the Bright Path, 92-93, 102.
60. William G. McLoughlin, "Thomas Jefferson and the Rise of Cherokee Nationalism, 1806-1809," in Cherokee Ghost Dance, 73-110.
61. Thurman Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy: The Story of the Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People (New York, 1970), 253.
62. Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830-1860 (Norman, OK, 1933), 324-25.
63. Minutes of a conference between Brigadier General James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins, and Andrew Pickens, Esquires, Commissioners of the United States, and the Principal Chiefs of the Choctaw Nation of Indians, held at Fort Adams, 15 December 1801, Hawkins, Letters, vol. 1, 397-98.
64. Carson, Searching for the Bright Path, 79; Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 149.
65. Carson, Searching for the Bright Path, 79; Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 149.
66. Levi Colbert et al. to Andrew Jackson, 22 Nov. 1832, Letters Received, 1824-81, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Groups 75, National Archives, Washington, DC, Microcopy M-234.
67. Benjamin Hawkins to Henry Dearborn, 16 October 1808, Letters, vol. 2, 540.
68. Carson, Searching for the Bright Path, 108.
69. Carson, Searching for the Bright Path, 110.
70. The best source for portraits of Indian men is McKenney and Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America.
71. Quoted in Champagne, Social Order and Political Change, 112.
72. McKenney and Hall contended that Major Ridge's maternal grandfather was an unknown white man, but there is no corroborating evidence. Genealogist Emmet Starr described him and his brother as "full blood Cherokees of the Deer clan"; History of the Cherokee Indians, 473. The Cherokee removal roll substantiates Starr; Cherokee Census of 1835 (Henderson Roll), U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, National Archives, Washington, DC, Microcopy T-496.
73. McKenney and Hall contended that Major Ridge's maternal grandfather was an unknown white man, but there is no corroborating evidence. Genealogist Emmet Starr described him and his brother as "full blood Cherokees of the Deer clan"; History of the Cherokee Indians, 473. The Cherokee removal roll substantiates Starr; Cherokee Census of 1835 (Henderson Roll), U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, National Archives, Washington, DC, Microcopy T-496.
74. Missionary Herald, August 1820, 380.
75. Missionary Herald, September 1824, 2-84.
76. Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, 426-27, 474-75.
77. Mary Jane Warde, George Washington Grayson and the Creek Nation, 1843-1920 (Norman, OK, 1999), 14; Don L. Shadburn, Unhallowed Intrusion: A History of Cherokee Families in Forsyth County, Georgia (Saline, MI, 1993), 113-14.
78. Mary Jane Warde, George Washington Grayson and the Creek Nation, 1843-1920 (Norman, OK, 1999), 14; Don L. Shadburn, Unhallowed Intrusion: A History of Cherokee Families in Forsyth County, Georgia (Saline, MI, 1993), 113-14.
79. Missionary Herald, July 1818, 339.
80. Elias Boudinot, "An Address to the Whites," in Theda Perdue, ed., Cherokee Editor: The Writings of Elias Boudinot (Knoxville, TN, 1983), 69.
81. Missionary Herald, October 1821, 310-11.
82. Warde, George Washington Grayson, 4.
83. Quoted in William G. McLoughlin, Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789-1839 (New Haven, CT, 1984), 135.
84. Members of the Church at Brainerd Exclusive of the Missionaries, Also of the Church at Creek Path, May 1822; Report on the Station at Haweis, January 1828, Papers of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
85. Missionary Herald, September 1824, 284.
86. Missionary Herald, February 1829, 58.
87. Missionary Herald, March 1831, 82.
88. Bernard W. Sheehan, Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian (Chapel Hill, NC, 1973); Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in the Formative years: The Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts, 1790-1834 (Cambridge, MA, 1962).
89. Bernard W. Sheehan, Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian (Chapel Hill, NC, 1973); Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in the Formative years: The Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts, 1790-1834 (Cambridge, MA, 1962).
90. See Ronald N. Satz, American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (Eincoln, NE, 1975).
91. Jackson to Col. Robert Butler, 5 September 1816, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, 1767-1845, ed. John S. Bassett, vol. 2 (Washington, DC, 1926-35) 300.
92. U.S. Commissioners to Secretary Graham, 8 July 1817, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2, 300.
93. Jackson to Butler, 21 June 1817, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2, 299.
94. Missionary Herald, July 1818, 339.
95. U.S. Commissioners to Secretary Graham, 8 July 1817, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2, 303.
96. Jackson to Butler, 21 June 1817, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2, 299.
97. U.S. Commissioners to Secretary Graham, 8 July 1817, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2, 300, 304.
98. Speech of the Honorable Wilson Lumpkin to the U.S. House of Representatives, May 1830, Wilson Lumpkin, The Removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia, 1827-1841 (1907; New York, 1971), 77.
99. Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge, MA, 1981).
100. Circe Sturm, Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (Berkeley, CA, 2002).