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Title
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Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830
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Date
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2002
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Bibliographic Citation
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O'Brien, Greg. 2002. Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
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annotates
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O’Brien’s book explores cultural change among the Choctaw from the mid-eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries through the framework of power and authority. O’Brien argues that through this period Choctaw elites increasingly shifted the basis of their authority from traditional mastery of spiritual forces to their ability to acquire manufactured European and then American goods. The chapters are topically organized proceeding chronologically. The first chapter covers the Choctaw cosmology and ideological basis of power, which prioritized the abilities of creation, while the second chapter shows the practical application of those ideas in reunifying the Choctaw nation after their civil war in 1750. Chapter 2 includes a discussion of ancestral Choctaw peoples in Alabama, such as the Eastern Division’s relation to the Moundville Chiefdom and Burial Urn peoples and the Sixtowns Division’s ties to the Bottle Creek people. Per the CNO THPO staff, O'Brien's emphasis on the deep ancestry of the Choctaw in Alabama is a first and well done. There is also some discussion of burial practices in this chapter. The remaining chapters contrast the careers of two prominent chiefs from West Yazoo, Taboca and Franchimastabe, who both gained prominence as warriors. The more traditionalist Taboca cemented his authority through spiritual power gained in his role as a diplomat, while Franchimastabe cultivated relationships with colonial officials and traders to secure access to manufactured goods and material wealth. As chiefs lost their monopoly on trade goods, elites in the mold of Franchimastabe who embraced the market economy eventually came to dominate Choctaw politics into the eighteenth century. O’Brien uses historical documents, oral traditions, linguistic analysis, and archaeological studies to present the Choctaw worldview in greater detail than prior authors, and he disputes Swanton’s description of the Choctaw as a dualistic society. There is some discussion of burial practices in Chapter 2. As Carson did in his book Searching for the Bright Path, O’Brien challenges some of the long-held assumptions of Choctaw culture and reframes their history by centering their cultural perspectives in his narrative.