Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith

Author: Barton H. Barbour

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0806183225

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Mountain man and fur trader Jedediah Smith casts a heroic shadow. He was the first Anglo-American to travel overland to California via the Southwest, and he roamed through more of the West than anyone else of his era. His adventures quickly became the stuff of legend. Using new information and sifting fact from folklore, Barton H. Barbour now offers a fresh look at this dynamic figure. Barbour tells how a youthful Smith was influenced by notable men who were his family’s neighbors, including a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. When he was twenty-three, hard times leavened with wanderlust set him on the road west. Barbour delves into Smith’s journals to a greater extent than previous scholars and teases out compelling insights into the trader’s itineraries and personality. Use of an important letter Smith wrote late in life deepens the author’s perspective on the legendary trapper. Through Smith’s own voice, this larger-than-life hero is shown to be a man concerned with business obligations and his comrades’ welfare, and even a person who yearned for his childhood. Barbour also takes a hard look at Smith’s views of American Indians, Mexicans in California, and Hudson’s Bay Company competitors and evaluates his dealings with these groups in the fur trade. Dozens of monuments commemorate Smith today. This readable book is another, giving modern readers new insight into the character and remarkable achievements of one of the West’s most complex characters.

Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief
Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief

Author: William T. Hagan

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1995-09-01

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780806127729

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Quanah Parker is a figure of almost mythical proportions on the Southern Plains. The son of Cynthia Parker, a white captive whose subsequent return to white society and early death had become a Texas frontier legend, Quanah rose from able warrior to tribal leader on the Comanche reservation. Other books about Quanah Parker have been incomplete, are outdated, or are lacking in scholarly analysis. William T. Hagan, the author of United States-Comanche Relations, knows Comanche history. This new biography, written in a crisp and readable style, is a well-balanced portrait of Quanah Parker, the chief, and Quanah, the man torn between two worlds. Between 1875 and his death in 1911, Quanah strove to cope with the changes confronting tribal members. Dealing with local Indian agents and with presidents and other high officials in Washington, he faced the classic dilemma of a leader caught between the dictates of an occupying power and the wrenching physical and spiritual needs of his people. Quanah was never one to decline the perquisites of leadership. Texas cattlemen who used his influence to gain access to reservation grass for their herds rewarded him liberally. They financed some of his many trips to Washington and helped him build a home that remains to this day a tourist attraction. Such was his fame that Teddy Roosevelt invited him to take part in his inaugural parade and subsequently intervened personally to help him and the Comanches as their reservation dissolved. Maintaining a remarkable blend of progressive and traditional beliefs, Quanah epitomized the Indian caught in the middle. Valued by almost all Indian agents with whom he dealt, he nevertheless practiced polygamy and the peyote religion - both contrary to government policy. Other Indians functioned as middlemen, but through his force and intelligence, and his romantic origins, Quanah Parker achieved unparalleled success and enduring renown. -- Publisher description

Letters from the Dust Bowl
Letters from the Dust Bowl

Author: Caroline Henderson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780806135403

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A collection of letters and articles written by Caroline Henderson between 1908 and 1966 which provide insight into her life in the Great Plains, featuring both published materials and private correspondence. Includes a biographical profile, chapter introductions, and annotations.

Churches of Christ in Oklahoma
Churches of Christ in Oklahoma

Author: W. David Baird

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2020-01-23

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 0806166371

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In the 1950s and 1960s, Churches of Christ were the fastest growing religious organization in the United States. The churches flourished especially in southern and western states, including Oklahoma. In this compelling history, historian W. David Baird examines the key characteristics, individuals, and debates that have shaped the Churches of Christ in Oklahoma from the early nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Baird’s narrative begins with an account of the Stone-Campbell movement, which emerged along the American frontier in the early 1800s. Representatives of this movement in Oklahoma first came as missionaries to American Indians, mainly to the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws. Baird highlights the role of two prominent missionaries during this period, and he next describes a second generation of missionaries who came along during the era of the Twin Territories, prior to statehood. In 1906, as a result of disagreements regarding faith and practice, followers of the Stone-Campbell Movement divided into two organizations: Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ. Baird then focuses solely on Churches of Christ in Oklahoma, all the while keeping a broader national context in view. Drawing on extensive research, Baird delves into theological and political debates and explores the role of the Churches of Christ during the two world wars. As Churches of Christ grew in number and size throughout the country during the mid-twentieth century, controversy loomed. Oklahoma’s Churches of Christ argued over everything from Sunday schools and the support of orphan’s homes to worship elements, gender roles in the church, and biblical interpretation. And nobody could agree on why church membership began to decline in the 1970s, despite exciting new community outreach efforts. This history by an accomplished scholar provides solid background and new insight into the question of whether Churches of Christ locally and nationally will be able to reverse course and rebuild their membership in the twenty-first century.