부산대학교 도서관

The Indian-Pioneer History Project began in the spring of 1937, when scores of young field workers set out to interview elderly Oklahomans who could recall life during territorial days. Funded by the federal government's Works Progress Administration and sponsored by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) in cooperation with the University of Oklahoma, this ambitious experiment in oral history documented a time in the not-too-distant past when Native peoples ruled Indian Territory. When the project ended in the summer of 1938, it had generated some 11,000 manuscripts bound in more than 100 weighty volumes. Presented in this journal for the first time, this article includes an assemblage of long-forgotten poetry that offers an effective method for recovering orality and insight into Indigenous storytelling. The three found poems that that are presented are part of a book-length manuscript drawn from Muscogee interviews in the Indian-Pioneer History Collection. These particular pieces address three key moments in Muscogee history: origins, removal, and statehood: (1) "Backbone of the World"; (2) "Designated by the Removal"; and (3) "Statehood in Any Form." (To read more Muscogee found poetry, visit tribalcollegejournal.org.)