Indian Territory

Indian Territory: Surviving 160 Acres of Betrayal is the true story of a Mvskoke family's dispossession and the larger story of Tulsa, Oklahoma-once known as Tvlse-and the corruption that built it.

Written as a historical memoir, this book journeys through the Allotment Era to reveal how so-called "progress" stripped a young Indian family of land, language, wealth, and culture. Shrouded by the mysterious deaths of family members, the narrative centers on two full-blood Mvskoke sisters-still only pre-teen girls-forced to shoulder a battle no child should face as their Creek-speaking father struggled to defend them. Together they were trapped in a system that purposely ignored them and nullified the very decisions they made to protect their home and future.

Guardians and Tulsa County courts seized the land they owned, the house their father built and the wealth they had begun to build-funneling it into guardianships that left the family impoverished.

This is both an intimate family history and an unflinching indictment of the laws and institutions that turned survival itself into a legal battleground.

A true story of dispossession, survival, and generational trauma told from the bloodline who endured it. This is an Indian story experienced by many Indian families across Indian Territory of all different tribal affiliations.