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

IN THIS BOOK Haveman offers a thorough and critical investigation of the policies, processes, and effects of the ethnic cleansing of the Creek Indian people through removals from the Southeastern U.S. to Oklahoma in the 1820s to 1840s. This centers on the experiences of Creek people, recounted in their own words, and evidenced by a diverse range of sources.

With many travelers' accounts, Haveman uses the external gaze to reveal manifest injustice writ large as well as the particular sufferings of Creek people through specific observations and encounters. Perspectives of government officials and their associates are included, and interestingly the views of those executing the removal policies often corroborate the accounts of the Creek people. This book is refreshingly free from the deeply problematic trope of portraying Indigenous people as passive victims of government policy. Instead, many instances of Creek peoples' consternation are cited, and their acts of political and legal resistance emphasized. The reader's attention is drawn to appeals to federal politicians and the legal justice system in attempts to address their concerns, and the book ends with an emphasis on the endurance and resilience of the Creek people in maintaining and upholding their culture despite multifaceted attempts to eradicate them.

Haveman does not shy away from describing conflict between federal or state governments and the Creek people or between Creeks and other Indigenous groups. Perhaps most interesting is the close attention paid to social stratification within Creek society itself. He is not only cognizant of differences between Upper and Lower Creeks, but he delves deeper into individual communities as well as disparities in wealth and social standing. This achieves a more holistic portrayal of nineteenth-century Creek society and exposes differential effects of these policies on social groups within Creek society and diverse reactions to these, from early voluntary migration by the McIntosh party to those who migrated decades after the majority of the population.

This is accomplished through explanations of laws, treaties, and the policy contexts from which these emerged, combined with a focus on the minutiae of experiences of removal. Many of these details recount the horrors of illness and death encountered along the journeys west and after arrival. Indeed, the book opens with an individual's narrative tracing that of his people. This typifies Haveman's writing, which continually returns to the experiences of individuals and widens out to explore the general trend or underlying occurrences of which these form a part. In so doing, he explores dissenting views and the myriad effects on different social groupings. Part of this comprehensive approach involves exposing some of the more difficult facts to grapple with, such as Creek re-creation of racial hierarchies, endorsement of slavery, and conflicts between certain leaders. Yet even when confronting unpleasant aspects of Creek life at the time, such as problems of alcoholism and acts of violence, close attention is paid to the context in which these emerged and the factors which enabled them, whether these were explicit policies or laws, or effects of government action or inaction, thus painting a nuanced picture.

Haveman acutely observes the backdrop against which these events took place, including the laws passed by Andrew Jackson, the political context, and, often most important, the practical execution of these laws and policies in particular circumstances. The heterogeneity of the people portrayed and details of their journey, from changes in their diet while traveling to the property they transported west, assist in making this history engaging to read. Rivers of Sand does not merely recount a chronology of legal and political developments, but discusses their effects on Creek society, culture, and individual lives.

This includes the roles of white settlers and contractors employed to facilitate the migration in contributing to Creek suffering, with governmental complicity and even endorsement. Maps complement the stories of individuals on these journeys, exposing not just a loss of geographic territory but the further...