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This webpage reproduces part of The Five Civilized Tribes by Grant Foreman University of Oklahoma Press Norman, Oklahoma, 1934 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Introductory Note

 (p7)  Preface

One of the most interesting phases of American history embraces the removal of 60,000 Indians from the southern states and their adaptation to a new home within what is now the State of Oklahoma. These tribes, the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole, were distinguished by character and intelligence far above the average aboriginal. From their geographical and historical association with the white man in the South they acquired a measure of his culture as well as of his vices. Through the influence of their leading men they had copied some of the customs and institutions of the whites and four of the tribes crudely modeled their governments on those of the states. Because of their progress and achievements they came to be known as The Five Civilized Tribes.

In proportion as these Indians improved in intelligence and culture, wealth, and enterprise, did the white man covet their country in the South. Individually and in concert, by law and without law, he oppressed these owners of the soil and depredated upon their country until they were driven forth to find a refuge in the wilderness west of the Mississippi River. The story of this tragic enterprise covering the decade 1830‑1840, is related by the Author in Indian Removal (Norman, 1932). He has treated an earlier phase, the unorganized emigration of a few thousand of these Indians prior to 1830 in Indians and Pioneers (New Haven, 1930).

Upon arrival at their destination the immigrants were confronted with the problem of adjusting themselves to a strange country and establishing amicable relations with indigenous wild tribes who were required by the Federal Government to make room for the newcomers. This interesting phase of their history was described by the author in Advancing the Frontier (Norman, 1933). Next in order is the account of the rehabilitation of these immigrants after the  (p8) demoralization and impoverishment caused by their forcible removal. This is the subject of the present volume which covers the three decades from 1830 to the beginning of the Civil War.

The Indians arrived in the West in a state of mixed emotions. The treaties by which they held their homeland had been violated by white men who crowded into their country. New treaties by which they surrendered their lands in the South had been negotiated under the influence of coercion and bribes paid to leading members of the tribes. The journey to their new home was a tragic undertaking characterized by incredible misery, hardship, and suffering; thousands died on the way and the survivors arrived in the West destitute and discouraged. These home-loving, pastoral people, broken in spirit and morale, suspicious of their leaders and bitter at the influences responsible for their unhappy situation were illy prepared to begin life anew in a strange country. The one ray of light and hope was the conviction that at last they were so far removed from the white man that they could look forward to a life free from his devastating blight.

The period under consideration may be regarded as an interlude of peace in the lives of these Indians, a short span reaching from their enforced migration to the devastation of the Civil War; during this period their development and progress were remarkable. Fixed of habit and unused to roving and adaptation to new environments, these simple people found themselves bewildered by strange surroundings and problems of adjustment to unfamiliar conditions and methods of living. The western home of the immigrants was guaranteed to them by solemn assurances in the treaties. This was auspicious but the Government had likewise assured them of its protection in their old homes and they had seen those promises ruthlessly flouted. Suspicion of the government's promise of security inhered in their problems, and rendered difficult their reëstablishment and readjustment, a labor that required faith in the Government, confidence in themselves and their leaders and optimism for the future. But necessity, hope, and resolution came to their aid and they gradually entered into an era of reconstruction and improvement. In spite of tremendous difficulties their progress year after year and their achievements in the field of culture and government have no parallel in the history of our Indians.

Grant Foreman

Muskogee, Oklahoma

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