Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Fall 2010
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 30:4 (Fall 2010).
Abstract
What happens when a Native American nation is gradually and purposefully dismantled in order to make way for a new state government? How do tribal leaders meet the challenges of an impending dissolution of their own government and simultaneously fight against the erosion of their tribal sovereignty? These compelling questions inform A Nation in Transition: Douglas Henry Johnston and the Chickasaws, 1898-1939, a new history of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and its leadership under Governor Douglas Henry Johnston (1898-1902; 1904-1939), whose tenure, according to author Michael W. Lovegrove, was longer than that of any other American Indian executive. Pointing to the "paucity of records" about Johnston and the Chickasaw Nation, Lovegrove nonetheless charts a fascinating history of the complex political negotiations, legal maneuvering, and difficult choices that characterized Johnston's administration in the face of the transition of Indian Territory to Oklahoma statehood in 1907.
Comments
Copyright © 2010 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.