The Road to Disappearance. By Angie Debo.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941. Pp. xii, 399. Illus-
trations, maps. $3.50.

The University of Oklahoma Press has added another study
to its excellent series on the civilization of the American Indian.
The Road to Disappearance retells the story of early Creek
Indian life, shifting the emphasis to focus it upon the internal
life of the tribe, and brings to light the history of the Creeks
since the Civil War. This period of Creek history, according
to Miss Debo, has been almost a complete blank. The story of
their life has remained hidden in the tribal records, the ob-
scure newspapers published in their country, the reports of
government agents, and the memories of older Indians. The
title of the book emanates from the reaction of the older Indians
to enforced removal to the West, "The Indian is now on the
road to disappearance."

The Creeks were one of the Five Civilized Tribes and one
of the last of the five to relinquish native customs, language, and
institutions. Two centuries ago they were resting in savage con-
tentment. Encroachment by the avid white settler meant for
them first a protectorate, and then political destruction and
removal to the wilderness west of the Mississippi. There they
rebuilt, but all too soon found themselves encircled by whites
seeking land, minerals, and railway concessions. The Civil War
rent the Creek Nation in twain. Its people were nearly equally
divided in the fratricidal strife, and probably nowhere in the
United States did the conflict leave such bitterness, but they
survived and built again. But the encircling menace of a new
frontier hindered their progress, and the coming of the rail-
roads did more than all else to settle and build the Indian
country according to the white man's customs, likes, and ideas.
By 1906 the tribal government had been shorn of most of its
powers. The end came when the Creeks and their white and
Indian neighbors became citizens of the new state of Oklahoma.

The Road to Disappearance is an ambitious undertaking in
that it tells in one volume "the full Creek story from its an-
thropological beginnings to the loss by the tribe of its inde-
pendent political identity." Perhaps no writer other than the
author of The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic should
have attempted it. An otherwise good narrative is unfortunately
marred at points by ambiguous construction.

The value of the book is enhanced by four maps, three of
which show Creek lands at various stages in the development
of their tribal history, and one from Frank G. Speck's "The
Creek Indians of the Taskigi Town," showing the towns of the
Creek Nation after their political rebuilding following the Civil
War. The index is adequate and the proofreading, on the
whole, carefully done. The bibliography, which lists several
collections, is not annotated, but the text and footnotes show
its value by actual use.

Edinburg Junior College.

Ohland Morton.

How to cite:
"Road to Disappearance", Volume 45, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v045/n4/review_DIVL6890.html
[Accessed Mon Nov 23 20:46:57 CST 2009]