Rivers of Sand: Creek Indian Emigration, Relocation, and Ethnic Cleansing in the American South by Christopher D. Haveman (review)

For the past three decades, The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis(Lincoln, Neb., 1982), by Michael D. Green, has set a high standard for examinations of removal in general and the removal of Creeks in particular. Christopher D. Haveman is very familiar with Green’s study but also knows that the Creek removal experience remains a subject worthy of examination. In Rivers of Sand: Creek Indian Emigration, Relocation, and Ethnic Cleansing in the American South, Haveman intends “to provide the most comprehensive account available of a native population transfer to the West” (p. 3). This book successfully documents that transfer by demonstrating the relentless pressures that forced nearly 20,000 men, women, and children from their homes in Alabama and Georgia. Haveman is less effective, however, in providing a broader narrative for those same events.

The process and context of removal are at the heart of Rivers of Sand. Of the ten chapters, not including the introduction and conclusion, eight focus on the period from the mid-1820s to the late 1830s, when a combination of voluntary emigrations, forced removals, and coerced relocations effectively moved the Creek Nation into present-day Oklahoma. The contents of these chapters represent two specific strengths of the book. First, Haveman has conducted a substantial amount of research, and it shows in his ability to explain in great detail the movements of different parties of Creeks as they made their way west. The numerous accompanying maps enhance the descriptions his research supports. The second strength of the book is its treatment of the national, local, and internal politics that influenced events from the 1820s to the 1830s. Haveman is quick to indict the hypocrisies of Andrew Jackson’s removal policy as well as the discriminatory laws passed by state legislatures and the never-ending invasion of white squatters. The ethnic cleansing he describes is one implemented at all levels of American society. Yet he does not spare the internal tensions and fractures of Creek politics that often exacerbated an already difficult situation. Haveman specifically points out ways that Creek leaders who opposed removal at times damaged the lives of those Creeks who considered leaving their eastern lands.

Rivers of Sandis a difficult read because of the pain that comes through in the stories told. Chapter after chapter presents the reader with tragedy and suffering that blanketed these two decades of Creek history. That relentless narrative, however, also has its weak points. For instance, there is little analysis of removal’s impact on the Creek slave population. While illustrating the unyielding push for removal, Haveman does find places to discuss the persistent strands of Creek culture and moments of resistance that indicate how and why the Creek Nation survived into the twenty-first century. But those moments are relatively unpersuasive, in part because next to the detail provided in the descriptions of removal the narrative of persistence is less comprehensive. This disparity is particularly evident in the last chapter that covers the Creeks in Indian Territory from 1837 to 1882. In trying to cover so much material the chapter does not effectively conclude the overall discussion, even leaving questions as to why Haveman selected 1882 as the chronological endpoint.

In the end, however, no work since Grant Foreman’s Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes(Norman, Okla., 1953) has provided such a singularly detailed description of the removal process for the Creeks. For that, Haveman should be praised, and scholars interested in knowing more about not only the Creek experience but also the logistics that shaped the removal process on the ground should read Rivers of Sand.