Texas A&M University
The Alabama-Coushatta Indians
by Jonathan Hook

"Not only does Hook provide a basic history of the people, he also delves into one of the most important consequences of Indian contact with Euroamericans—the loss and recreation of culture."—David LaVere, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

What does it mean to be an Alabama-Coushatta Indian on the reservation today, separated from ancestral territory and traditions by the intervention of white missionaries and government agents?

In vivid, efficient prose, author Jonathan Hook focuses on the Alabama-Coushatta Indians as he explores the emotional debate among contemporary Native Americans over how to determine who and what are "Indian."

Tracing the various European intrusions into Creek (Muskhogean) culture and their effect on the tribal life of the Alabamas and Coushattas, Hook shows how the upheavals eventually led the two tribes to the reservation they now share in Southeast Texas.

Supplementing scarce written sources with oral history from tribal members, Hook describes village organization, the matri-clan social pattern and marriage practices, and religion, including pride in being "a peculiar and beloved people of God." With unparalleled access to tribal traditions, he details notions of justice and order as exhibited in the "law of retribution" and the Green Corn Festival, when all crimes except murder were forgiven. He then considers the dual paths of searching for cultural identity today: the reintroduction of former cultural practices and creation of a synthetic new group identity by adopting pan-Indian practices.

Hook's work is a fascinating study of the dynamic nature of personal and communal ethnic identity. It will entertain and inform those interested in Native American history and tradition and will break new ground in ethnohistorians' study of identity.

The dancer felt good, felt that he was a part of the ebb and flow of Indian community life. He didn't notice the young, blonde-haired couple in blue jeans moving toward the folding lawn chairs immediately behind his bench. . . . The slim, attractive woman fingered a crystal pendant hanging from a short silver chain around her neck. Only recently had she learned that a powwow was a Native American celebratory dance and not only a slang verb for conversation. . . .

Still unmindful of the couple, the dancer finished adjusting his intricately embroidered sash. He sat down on the bench and glanced over at the "head" gourd dancer. . . . Turning his head to smile at a friend sitting behind him, the dancer heard the last words of the woman's remark: ". . . really sad. I thought the dancers were going to be real Indians. Half of these guys are white."

As shown in this composite drawn from my personal experience and multiple interviews with mixed-blood powwow participants, questions of personal identity reach into every niche of the Native American experience, in all geographic and cultural regions.

JONATHAN HOOK, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Houston, is an independent scholar living in Livingston, Texas. An enrolled member of the Cherokee nation, he lives near the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation and is actively involved in that community.

Number Seventy-one:
The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students,Texas A&M University

The Alabama-Coushatta Indians
ISBN 0-89096-782-2 cloth $29.95s

LC 97-25945. 6x9. 184 pp. 12 b&w photos. Bib. Index.
Native American Studies. Western History. Ethnography.

Publication Date: November 1997.

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