When eleven-year-old Tommy Thompson arrived at a government-run Indian boarding school in 1915, it seemed a last resort for the youngster. Instead, it turned out to be the first step toward a life dedicated to helping others. Thompson went on to become a star athlete and football coach—a Cherokee legend whose story is remembered by many and is now finally told for a wider audience. Following gridiron fame at Northeastern State College, Thompson returned to Sequoyah Vocational School in 1947 as Boys’ Coach and Advisor. More than a thousand boys attended the boarding school during the eleven years he coached there. Writing for readers old and young, Patti Dickinson tells the inspiring story of how this one man made a difference in the lives of a generation of Indian youth. Through football, Thompson taught his boys the skills and values they would need to succeed in life, and twice led his team to the state finals. Dickinson describes the success of that program, including one epic, rain-soaked championship game. She paints compelling portraits of Thompson’s boys—the men whose firsthand stories and reminiscences form the basis of the narrative—and re-creates daily life at the school. To his boys, Thompson was Ah-sky-uh, “the man,” a Cherokee term of respect. Half a century after his death, Sequoyah High School still reveres his memory. This book secures his place in history as it opens a new window on the boarding school experience.

Standing Rock Sioux activist, professor, and attorney Vine Deloria, Jr., shares his thoughts about U.S. race relations, federal bureaucracies, Christian churches, and social scientists in a collection of eleven eye-opening essays infused with humor. This “manifesto” provides valuable insights on American Indian history, Native American culture, and context for minority protest movements mobilizing across the country throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Originally published in 1969, this book remains a timeless classic and is one of the most significant nonfiction works written by a Native American.

Based on extensive fieldwork in the community of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina, this book uses a semiotic approach to investigate the historic and contemporary role of the Sequoyan syllabary--the written system for representing the sounds of the Cherokee language--in Eastern Cherokee life. The Cherokee syllabary was invented in the 1820s by the respected Cherokee Sequoyah. The syllabary quickly replaced alternative writing systems for Cherokee and was reportedly in widespread use by the mid-nineteenth century. After that, literacy in Cherokee declined, except in specialized religious contexts. But as Bender shows, recent interest in cultural revitalization among the Cherokees has increased the use of the syllabary in education, publications, and even signage. Bender also explores the role played by the syllabary within the ever more important context of tourism. (The Eastern Cherokee Band hosts millions of visitors each year in the Great Smoky Mountains.) English is the predominant language used in the Cherokee community, but Bender shows how the syllabary is used in special and subtle ways that help to shape a shared cultural and linguistic identity among the Cherokees. Signs of Cherokee Culture thus makes an important contribution to the ethnographic literature on culturally specific literacies.

Progressive Oklahoma traces Oklahoma’s rapid evolution from pioneer territory to statehood under a model Progressive constitution. Author Danney Goble reasons that the Progressive movement grew as a reaction to an exaggerated species of Gilded Age social values—the notion that an expanding marketplace and unfettered individualism would properly regulate progress. Near the end of the territorial era, that notion was challenged: commercial farmers and trade unionists saw a need to control the market through collective effort, and the sudden appearance of new corporate powers convinced many that the invisible hand of the marketplace had become palsied. After years of territorial setbacks, Oklahoma Democrats readily embraced the Progressive agenda and swept the 1906 constitutional convention elections. They went on to produce for their state a constitution that incorporated such landmark Progressive features as the initiative and referendum, strict corporate regulation, sweeping tax reform, a battery of social justice measures, and provisions for state-owned enterprises. Goble is keenly aware that the Oklahoma experience was closely related to broader changes that shaped the nation at the turn of the century. Progressive Oklahoma examines the elemental changes that transformed Indian Territory into a new kind of state, and its inhabitants into Oklahomans—and modern Americans.

A biography of Sequoyah, inventor of a writing system for the Cherokee language.

In the early 1800s, white settlers and missionaries were intent on bringing the English language to the illiterate Native Americans. Sequoyah was intrigued by these leaves of paper with strange marks that talked. Doing what no one had ever done before, Sequoyah set about creating a written Cherokee language—helping preserve the tribe's history and culture even today.

Through a unique combination of narrative history and primary documents, this book provides an engrossing biography of Sequoyah, the creator of the Cherokee writing system, and clearly documents the importance of written language in the preservation of culture. Sequoyah's creation of an easy-to-learn syllabary for the Cherokee nation enabled far more than the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper of the Cherokee Nation, and the ability for Native Americans to communicate far more effectively than word of mouth can allow. In many ways, the effects of Sequoyah's syllabary demonstrate the critical role of written language in cultural preservation and persistence. Sequoyah and the Invention of the Cherokee Alphabet is a readable study of Sequoyah's life that also discusses Cherokee culture as well as the historical and current usage and impact of the Cherokee syllabary he created. While the emphasis of the work is on Sequoyah's adult life between 1800 and 1840, enough pre- and post-history information is provided to allow any reader to fully grasp the contextual significance of his accomplishments. The book includes a biography section of key individuals and contains a collection of primary documents that helps illustrate the usage of Sequoyah's syllabary.

The story of Sequoyah is the tale of an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea—to create a writing system for the Cherokee Indians and turn his people into a nation of readers and writers. The task he set for himself was daunting. Sequoyah knew no English and had no idea how to capture speech on paper. But slowly and painstakingly, ignoring the hoots and jibes of his neighbors and friends, he worked out a system that surprised the Cherokee Nation—and the world of the 1820s—with its beauty and simplicity. James Rumford’s Sequoyah is a poem to celebrate literacy, a song of a people’s struggle to stand tall and proud.

Although this is not a partisan statement for or against tribal sovereignty, Burton demonstrates how judicial reform, by extending the authority of the United States in Indian Territory, undermined the governments of the five republics until abolition of the tribal courts spelled the end of self-rule.