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Title
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Pre-Removal Choctaw History: Exploring New Paths
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Date
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2008
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Bibliographic Citation
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O'Brien, Greg (editor). 2008. Pre-Removal Choctaw History: Exploring New Paths. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
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annotates
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This edited volume features ten works of Choctaw ethnohistory covering the period from contact to removal. Four chapters by Greg O’Brien include a survey of Choctaw historiography, two chapters on the Choctaw war with the Creeks in the 1760s and their participation in the Siege of Pensacola during the American Revolution, and a study of early Choctaw-U.S. relations during the negotiations of the Hopewell Treaty in 1786. Patricia Galloway contributes two chapters, one recounting her experience in bridging the gap between historical and archaeological Choctaw scholarship and another examining internal factionalism during the Choctaw Civil War of 1746-50. Two chapters from James Taylor Carson cover the Choctaw cattle economy and Greenwood LeFlore’s role in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Choctaw authors LeAnne Howe and Clara Sue Kidwell contribute chapters on Choctaw oral traditions and missionary activity in the Choctaw nation, respectively. The appendix is a previously unpublished record of negotiations for the 1786 Hopewell Treaty, and the text of the treaty itself. Several of the authors allude to the presence of Choctaw in Alabama. For example, Howe’s analysis of a Choctaw oral tradition regarding the introduction of corn to the nation locates the narrative as occurring along the Alabama River. This volume covers a wide array of topics and issues in Choctaw ethnohistory, with suggestions for avenues of further investigation, and would serve as a good introductory guide for researchers studying the Choctaw prior to removal.