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Reviews of Books
| Choctaws
in a Revolutionary Age, 1750–1830. By GREG
O'BRIEN. Indians of
the Southeast. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. Pp.
xxx, 158. $45.00.)
Reviewed by James Taylor Carson
, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
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In Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, Greg O'Brien traces the evolution of Choctaw power, authority, and spirituality, chiefly through control of trade and diplomacy during a time of tremendous tumult. From the shifting imperial alliances of the Seven Years' War to the flood of settlers who followed the American Revolution, the world the Choctaws had made after their initial contact with the French in the early 1700s slipped away. A much sharper collision with American imperialism replaced the give and take of their trade relationships with the French, English, and Spanish, and the consumerism that followed opened Choctaw society to a number of important changes. |
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O'Brien's approach to Choctaw politics and economics echoes Richard White and Sandra Faiman-Silva, although he turns world systems theory on its head and understands power in reference to Choctaw rather than to European assumptions. At the heart of his formulation of Choctaw power lies creativity. Women held power because of their fertility as mothers and farmers, whereas men's creativity rested in their roles as hunters and warriors. He revises John R. Swanton's anthropology of the native Southeast and its emphasis on sharp dualities and dichotomies and focuses instead on the complementary nature of male and female power in creating Choctaw society.1 Moving from the cosmological to the political, the author develops a Choctaw theory of politics that, in the 1750s, vested political power in entree to resources that chiefs enjoyed, whether it be overseeing the village deerskin trade or doling out to supporters scarce guns or cloth. Access to such trade goods bespoke great spiritual power as well, and a chief 's relationship with Europeans, whom Choctaws saw as beloved and supernatural beings, augmented his spiritual authority, his relations with the productive forces of the Choctaw universe, and his ability to marshal support among the commoners. By the early nineteenth century, trade had exploded out of the control of chiefs as commoners worked out their own relationships with traders. Unable to control the flow of goods, chiefs had to justify their authority on the basis of possessions. |
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O'Brien gives life to the transformation of Choctaw politics by following the careers of two chiefs who both hailed from the town of West Yazoo. Taboca ("all sunshine" or "midday") was the diplomat. His career rested on long-distance travel to negotiate relationships, and he commanded formidable sacred power. In concluding the Hopewell treaty with the United States in 1786, for example, he waved white eagle feathers to demonstrate his good intentions and exchanged burning embers with his new allies to create a common world they could share. His counterpart, Franchimastabeé ("he-took-a-Frenchman-and-killed-him"), was a war leader. By bearing arms alongside British troops, Franchimastabeé and his warriors won respect on the battlefield and goods and commissions on the council ground. But while Franchimastabeé sought to control his people's trade just as his predecessors had, the profusion of traders worked against him. Instead, he took to marrying traders into his lineage, housing them in his town, and advocating for their business against all competitors. |
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