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We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power
Maybe someday
43
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
47/100Critics
40/100Scholars
Author:
Caleb Gayle
Publisher:
Riverhead Books
Date:
June 7, 2022
Journalist Caleb Gayle tells the story of the Creek Nation, a Native tribe that two centuries ago both owned slaves and accepted Black people as full citizens. Thanks to the efforts of Creek leaders like Cow Tom, a Black Creek citizen who rose to become chief, the U.S. government recognized Creek citizenship in 1866 for its Black members. Yet this equality was shredded in the 1970s when tribal leaders revoked the citizenship of Black Creeks, even those who could trace their history back generationsâeven to Cow Tom himself.
What The Reviewers Say
... absorbing.
Illuminating a little-known aspect of American history, this book will especially appeal to those interested in the history of Indigenous and Black Americans..
... in illuminating look at racial dynamics within Creek Nation.
With a narrative framed by the story of a Black Creek leader named Cow Tom, Gayle ably (if sometimes repetitively) examines the idea that identity can be multifaceted—in this case, that the same Black person 'could be simultaneously free, never enslaved, and fully Creek'.
