This lesson encourages students to study a variety of documents to understand the impact of a particular piece of legislation and relates to the powers granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8 , of the Constitution, related to making laws. It correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with with history, government, global studies, and music.

This module is a republication of the following essay: Frank G. Speck. 1911. Missions in the Creek Nation. Southern Workman 40, no. 4: 206-208. Based on ethnographic field research undertaken in the Creek Nation in 1904, 1905 and 1908, Speck's essay describes the history and consequences of Christian missionary activity among the peoples of the Creek Nation. The essay's wider focus is the nature of native cultural and social change under the uneven and often disruptive effects of contact with non-native people and American economic, political and social institutions. Under U.S. copyright law, this essay is now in the public domain and is being republished on this basis.

The book collects together and republishes a set of essays by Frank G. Speck that were originally issued as separate articles in The Southern Workman. The papers, which were written early in Speck's career, during the period 1907-1911, draw upon his first-hand observations in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories on the eve of Oklahoma statehood. In contrast to his more dispassionate ethnographic writings, which were published in venues read primarily by professional anthropologists and folklorists, these essays were published for a popular audience in the journal of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, an important college serving African American and Native American students. Reflecting the sensibilities of Speck and his anthropological circle at the time, these brief essays are accessible, provocative and sometimes biting in tone and represent the work of a young scholar seeking to develop a public, progressive, critical and engaged stance relative to the social problems faced by the peoples--particularly Native American and African American peoples--of Oklahoma and of the United States more broadly. For modern readers, the essays are little utilized sources for the study of Oklahoma, Freedmen, and Muscogee (Creek) Indian cultural history. They also deepen historical understandings of Speck and his work and enrich scholarly knowledge of early efforts at developing anthropology as a means of cultural critique. Under U.S. copyright law, these essays are now in the public domain and is being republished on this basis.

This module is a republication of the following essay: Frank G. Speck. 1907. Negro and White Exclusion Towns in Indian Territory. Southern Workman 36, no. 8: 430-432. Based on ethnographic field research undertaken in Oklahoma and Indian Territories in 1904 and 1905, Speck's essay describes the racial polarization and violence that was unfolding in the territories at the time of Oklahoma statehood. Under U.S. copyright law, this essay is now in the public domain and is being republished on this basis.

This module is a republication of the following essay: Frank G. Speck. 1908. The Negroes and the Creek Nation. Southern Workman 37, no. 2: 106-110. Based on ethnographic field research undertaken in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory in 1904 and 1905, Speck's essay describes the history and present-day circumstances of the Creek Freedmen and other peoples of African American ancestry then living in the Creek Nation on the eve of Oklahoma Statehood. He generalizes about the status of African American peoples in the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole Nations on the basis of his observations among the Creeks and his travels throughout Indian Territory. Under U.S. copyright law, this essay is now in the public domain and is being republished on this basis.

This module is a republication of the following essay: Speck, Frank G. 1909. Notes on Creek Mythology. Southern Workman 38, no. 1: 9-11. Based on ethnographic field research undertaken in the Creek Nation in 1904, 1905, and 1908, Speck's essay describes the major tale types and motifs characterizing the folklore and sacred narratives of the Creek people. Under U.S. copyright law, this essay is now in the public domain and is being republished on this basis.