Chief Pushmataha, American Patriot: The Story of the Choctaws’ Struggle for Survival
About this ebook
“THE NAME OF THE CHOCTAW CHIEFTAIN Pushmataha heads the list of great chiefs in Choctaw history. This volume is an attempt to serve the double purpose of a biography of Pushmataha and a history of his people during their struggle to survive white aggression, both European and American. The position taken by Pushmataha in this transition period was to accept white civilization as much as possible, yet to remain Choctaw. For this reason, he aided the Americans in the War of 1812 and signed the Treaty of Doak’s Stand. By this treaty he agreed to exchange lands in Mississippi for a large tract of land west, in the present state of Oklahoma. He was a simple, primitive Indian, but he had to deal with land-hungry Americans, who were not simple in their knowledge of the power of flattery and bribery.”—Anna Lewis, Foreword
About the author
Anna Lewis (1885-1961) was a noted teacher, historian and writer, who specialized in American History, and particularly the History of the Southwest. She was born on October 25, 1885 near Poteau, which was then Indian Territory to a family of mixed Choctaw and European Ancestry, and reared on a ranch in the Choctaw Nation. Her formal schooling began in the National Choctaw Boarding School for Girls, and she earned doctoral degrees from University of California, Berkeley (1915) and University of Oklahoma (1930). She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Lewis spent her educational career from at the Oklahoma College for Women, now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO), where she was Professor Emeritus of History until her retirement. She was the author of several books, including Outlines of Oklahoma History (1926) and Along the Arkansas (1932), and numerous articles for publications in her area of interest before retiring in 1956 to a home she had built in southern Oklahoma (the former Choctaw Nation before Oklahoma became a state). She died in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma on August 1, 1961, aged 75.
