Chronicles of Oklahoma
Volume 8, No. 3
September, 1930
BOOK REVIEW
Page 335
Adair's History of the American Indians, Edited under the auspice of the National Society of the Colonial Dames, in Tennessee, by John Cole Williams, LLD. octavo,
508 pp., cloth. The Watauga Press, Johnson City, Tennessee, Price $6.00.
No class of historical research workers and writers in recent years has conferred a greater benefit on the modern student
than that which has edited and annotated for republication books pertaining to early American history, long out of print and
not easily accessible. Such a book was James Adair's "History of the American Indians," which was published in London, in
1775. Copies of this volume are comparatively scarce and command high prices in consequence. Libraries, which own such violumes,
therefore, keep them off the shelves and are somewhat chary about permitting the promiscuous use of the same by the patronizing
public. James Adair, the author, was a cion of British nobility, a native of Ireland and of mixed Irish, English and Scottish
decent. Coming to America about 1735, he is believed to have settled in South Carolina for a time. Engaging in the Indian
trade of the, then, western frontier, south of Virginia, his operations extended over much of the region embraced in the present
states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, during the course of the ensuing forty
years, when his book was published, just about the time of the outbreak of the War for American Independence. He was therefore
well acquainted with the peoples of the Cherokee, Muskogee (Creek) Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, or nations of Indians, to
which the subject matter of his brook was largely devoted. This volume, now reproduced for the first time in the form of an
American edition, has appeared as the result of the careful and painstaking research and editorial work of Hon. Samuel Cole
Williams, of Tennessee, the author or editor of several previously published volumes pertaining to the early history of the
same region, all of which are recognized as being accurate and meritorious. In addition to the reproduction of the original
text, verbatim and in type of approximately the same size, Judge Williams presents a brief preface and a somewhat extended
but very illuminating introduction. In this introduction, the editor
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presents a sketch of the life and career of Adair which is far more complete than anything of the kind that has hitherto been
available. He also appends no less than 270 references, comments and explanations in the form of footnotes, all of which add
to the interest and value of the work, which is carefully indexed.
It is apparent, however, that his acquaintance with the history of each of the several Indian tribes which is included in
the scope of Adair's work is not as complete and thorough as his knowledge of the life story of the author. This is a matter
of regret, since there a wealth of pertinent material which, in condensed form, might have been included, very profitably,
for supplemental purposes. As a reference work, it is, of course, far superior to the original publication, beside being thus
put in form where it will be much more readily available for the use of the average student or investigator.
J. B. T.
Indians and Pioneers: The Story of the American Southwest before 1830, by Grant Foreman; Yale University Press, $4.00.
The American Southwest, the region from which the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas were formed, has been neglected by the historian,
while the Spanish Southwest, the West and the Northwest of the United States have been much written about. That our Oklahoma
country is rich in history as important and interesting as that of any other region west of the Mississippi, is proven by
Mr. Foreman.
The period covered by this book, which was a period of preparation of the country for the coming of the emigrant Indians from
the Southern states, has been practically unknown to the reader. Of conditions and events here during that time the reader
and student have had almost no source of information, lack which is now supplied. From Mr. Foreman's book one learns of an
almost constant state of warfare and strife extending over what is now Oklahoma.
Since the Revolutionary War eastern Indians had been drifting across the Mississippi to hunt and some to find new houses for
themselves. Of these the Shawnee, Delaware, Cherokee, and Choctaw were famous hunters and after the Louisiana Purchase as
their numbers increased, and they ex-
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tended their hunting enterprises when white traders began buying their peltries to ship down the Arkansas River and other
streams, they found themselves opposed by the Osage Indians who then claimed most of the present state of Oklahoma. As the
game began to diminish in this country, the Osages who lived by the chase, obviously foresaw the ruin in store for them, and
waged bitter warfare against all intruders, which continued for many years.
One of the most interesting phases of our history now for the first time brought out from official archives and old newspaper
files, is the account of the first white settlers in the eastern part of this state, who were driven to Arkansas and Texas
to make room for the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians.
Before they were forced to move they had established farms and mills and the government of the Territory of Arkansas had been
extended over part of what is now Oklahoma; McCurtain, LeFlore, Sequoyah, Cherokee, Adair and parts of other eastern Oklaoma
counties were then in Arkansas, sending representatives to the Arkansas legislature. John Nicks living at Fort Gibson and
others living in what is now McCurtain county on the Kiamichi River and Clear Creek represented their sections in the legislature
at Little Rock before 1830. Water mills and cotton gins were in operation more than one hundred years ago in what is now McCurtain
county.
The Osage Indians not only warred with other Indians but at times attacked white settlers and hunters intruding in this country
claimed by them. And how the slaughter by the Osage of a hunting camp of white men on Blue River was the occasion for the
beginning of Fort Gibson in 1824, is narrated in this book.
Mr. Foreman prepared his book in large part from original sources and early newspapers so that it speaks with authority of
conditions described by him. He spent several years in the examination of files in the War Department. These manuscripts as
he explains "are usually records of officials intercourse, the statements of persons in possession of information about the
country and people which it was their duty or interest faithfully to convey to others. As they are contemporary accounts,
of scenes, conditions, and events observed by the writers, they are the best authority, and in
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many cases the only testimony in existence, concerning the matters described."
Information was derived also from the early territorial records in the State Department in Washington, from the manuscript
division of the Library of Congress, the Department of Indian Affairs, from the missionary records in Boston, and from manuscript
material in the Oklahoma Historical Society, and other historical societies' archives from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.
Contemporary newspapers printed in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, New York and at Washington,
D. C., were drawn upon.
Mr. Foreman has been a resident of Muskogee, Oklahoma, formerly Indian Territory, for nearly thirty years. His wife was Miss
Carolyn Thomas, daughter of the late John R. Thomas, a United States Judge in the Indian Territory and a former Congressman
from Illinois. He and she are patrons of art and letters, and are devoted to travel and research. He is a director and prominent
leader in the Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Historical Society. His friends appreciate this valuable contribution to
the State of Oklahoma and the Southwest.
R. L. WILLIAMS.
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