John Milton Oskison (1874-1947) was an American journalist and writer. He grew up the child of a white father and a one-quarter Cherokee mother. He graduated from Stanford University in 1898. His first publication was a short story in 1887. In the early part of his career he published primarily short fiction. In the 1920s he published three novels. His works include: Only the Master Shall Praise (1900), When the Grass Grew Long (1901), The Biologist's Quest (1901), The Quality of Mercy: A Story of the Indian Territory (1904), Friends of the Indian (1905), The Problem of Old Harjo (1907), Young Henry and the Old Man (1908) and The Man Who Interfered (1915).
The period between the Trail of Tears and the American Civil War was a turbulent time for the Cherokees. Now that epoch is evoked in a newly rediscovered novel by one of the early twentieth century's most prolific Native voices. John Milton Oskison was a mixed-blood Cherokee known for his short stories, essays, and activism on behalf of Indian causes. Although he was the author of several novels set in Oklahoma, The Singing Bird was never published and remained in a university archive until recently. It is his only full-length novel with a Native theme and quite possibly the first historical novel written by a Cherokee. Set in the 1840s and 1850s, the time of the Cherokee removal and of conflicts between the Eastern and Western Cherokees after they settled in Indian Territory, The Singing Bird relates the adventures of missionaries to the Cherokees who participate in the removal. Focusing on the tangled relationships among the missionaries-particularly the kindly, religious Daniel and his promiscuous, selfish wife, Ellen, the "Singing Bird" of the title-the story conveys a sense of the United States inflicting injustices and broken promises upon a peaceful people. The fictional characters mingle with such historical figures as Sequoyah and Sam Houston, embedding the novel in actual events. Through this story, Oskison has fashioned a detailed depiction of the cultural complexity within the Cherokee Nation. The Singing Bird is a vivid account of the Cherokees' genius for survival and celebrates Native American cultural revitalization-the creation, through a diverse alliance of people, of a future based on traditional Cherokee values. A key document in the development both of Oskison's talent as well as Native writing during an underappreciated era, this novel is also a unique addition to American literature and history.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Indian Territory, which would eventually become the state of Oklahoma, was a multicultural space in which various Native tribes, European Americans, and African Americans were equally engaged in struggles to carve out meaningful lives in a harsh landscape. John Milton Oskison, born in the territory to a Cherokee mother and an immigrant English father, was brought up engaging in his Cherokee heritage, including its oral traditions, and appreciating the utilitarian value of an American education. Oskison left Indian Territory to attend college and went on to have a long career in New York City journalism, working for the New YorkEvening Post and Collier’s Magazine. He also wrote short stories and essays for newspapers and magazines, most of which were about contemporary life in Indian Territory and depicted a complex multicultural landscape of cowboys, farmers, outlaws, and families dealing with the consequences of multiple interacting cultures. Though Oskison was a well-known and prolific Cherokee writer, journalist, and activist, few of his works are known today. This first comprehensive collection of Oskison’s unpublished autobiography, short stories, autobiographical essays, and essays about life in Indian Territory at the turn of the twentieth century fills a significant void in the literature and thought of a critical time and place in the history of the United States.
Unconquerable is John Milton Oskison’s biography of John Ross, written in the 1930s but unpublished until now. John Ross was principal chief of the Cherokees from 1828 to his death in 1866. Through the story of John Ross, Oskison also tells the story of the Cherokee Nation through some of its most dramatic events in the nineteenth century: the nation’s difficult struggle against Georgia, its forced removal on the Trail of Tears, its internal factionalism, the Civil War, and the reconstruction of the nation in Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. Ross remains one of the most celebrated Cherokee heroes: his story is an integral part not only of Cherokee history but also of the history of Indian Territory and of the United States. With a critical introduction by noted Oskison scholar Lionel Larré, Unconquerable sheds light on the critical work of an author who deserves more attention from both the public and scholars of Native American studies.
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