READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Minnie Atkins’ life represents a microhistory of federal Indigenous policy. How did/does her life reflect policies of Removal, assimilation, and, finally, revitalization?

2. Cobb says the Tommy Atkins case was probably the most hotly contested trial in Oklahoma history, with repercussions for the entire nation. What made it so divisive and contested? Why has such an important story been almost entirely forgotten? How and why are some legal cases remembered in the public imagination and others forgotten?

3. The Muscogee National Attorney R.C. Allen argued that Tommy’s allotment should be canceled, and the oil money should be returned to the tribe. What do you think should have happened with the money? Discuss the implications for the Sand Springs Home, the tribe, and Minnie and her descendants. 

4. There were many claimants to the Tommy Atkins fortune, including three Atkins women and several men. Why did Charles Page emerge victorious? What set his claim apart from the others? Were you convinced that he had found Tommy’s true mother? 

5. Descendents of the Atkins family stretch across racial and national identities today. What are some of the different identities of the Atkins families and what unites them? How have those of Indigenous descent attained citizenship in the Muscogee Nation?

6. How is Charles Page remembered today in the cities of Sand Springs and Tulsa? What are the media and political forces that constructed this sort of memory, and how does the story of Ghosts of Crook County complicate that public memory? How do you think Page should be remembered?