September 15. Edd’s Land: A Novel of Four Cherokee Brothers in Early Oklahoma, a novel by Stan Rice, part two. Edd Making the Best of It, continued

Author Stan Rice has just published the third of three novels (Edd’s Land) in the series Trail of Tears: Novels of Cherokee Identity. Because Kindle has unreliable availability and formatting, the author has also posted a free PDF download. This third novel is about four Cherokee brothers in early Oklahoma.

 

 Here is Rice’s summary from Kindle:

 Four mixed-blood Cherokee brothers, and the white swindler who steals their land and oil allotments, greet Oklahoma statehood in different ways. Edd Hicks loses not just his land but his fiancée to Averd Hargrove, a Claremore banker. Edd remains confident and upright, and brings order to his farmland and family. Frank Hicks learns confidence as he plots his dramatic revenge against Hargrove. Lon Hicks leaves his past behind in pursuit of a failed Hollywood career. William Hicks is ill with tuberculosis when he meets the great Oklahoma socialist crusader Kate Barnard. Frank, to the disapproval of his racist family and friends, falls in love and moves in with Bert Hicks, a black woman descended from slaves owned by Frank’s ancestors. Frank nearly gives up on his plan to scalp Hargrove until he sees Hargrove leading a lynch mob against Bert’s brother. The net effect of the vast wealth of the former Cherokee Nation is that Edd’s daughter Nina finally gets enough money back from the United States government to buy a new pair of shoes.

Each adult Cherokee received a land allotment on which to establish a farm. It sounds simple and fair enough, and Edd was willing to make the best of it. But it was the white guardians who had actual legal control over the land, which means they could sell it and keep the money for themselves. They usually did this by having the Cherokee land recipients declared legally incompetent. Clearly nobody could do this to Edd Hicks, who was highly educated by rural Oklahoma standards.

But Edd saw what happened to other Cherokees, including his own brothers (see later essays). White government officials continued to steal land from Natives long after the last shots were fired in the Indian Wars. In one case, Native children who owned land worth millions of dollars (due to oil reserves under the land) were living in a tree, while their guardians lived as wealthy men. This is a shameful part of American history that is almost never taught in courses.

But Edd, an upright man who believed he was doing God’s will, made the best of it.