The Fus Fixico Letters: A Creek Humorist in Early Oklahoma

Abstract

The Fus Fixico Letters: A Creek Humorist in Early Oklahoma. By Alexander Posey. Edited by Daniel F. Littlefield and Carol A. Petty Hunter. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Pp xvii + 302, foreword, preface, introduction, map, photographs, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $19.95 paper) Oklahoma: terminus of the Trail of Tears, removal site for Eastern and Plains nations, Territory. Oklahoma's history is inextricably intertwined with that of American Indians, and one cannot understand the history of the American West without learning about the history of Oklahoma. The Fus Fixico Letters: A Creek Humorist in Early Oklahoma opens a window onto turn-of-the-century Oklahoma through the eyes of a young Muscogee Creek journalist-humorist, Alexander Posey. For the folklorist whose historical resources regarding American Indian culture may be limited to accounts written by non-Indians, this enlightening book provides a refreshing and instructive voice. Alexander Posey (1873-1908) was born in the territory of the Creek Nation into the Harjo family, the child of a Chickasaw Creek mother and a White father who had been raised in Indian territory, spoke fluent Creek, and had been adopted into the Broken Arrow tribal town. Fourteen-year-old Alexander was sent to learn English and eventually to attend the Indian university at Bacone, near Muskogee. He studied British and American literature and began his own writing career, concentrating on poetry and humor. After college, he was appointed to a number of political positions within the Creek nation and he continued to write. In 1902 he bought a weekly newspaper, the Indian Journal, published in Eufaula. It was while he was publishing the Indian Journal that he wrote the Fus Fixico letters. So called because they were signed by a fictional Creek man and Posey's alter-ego named Fus Fixico (a jocular name meaning something like Heartless Bird), the letters were about happenings around Eufaula, but at the same time they addressed matters of concern in the wider sphere, principally the process of allotment, which the Creek nation was facing at the time. Under pressure from the Dawes Commission, which had persuaded one Nation, the Seminole, to begin privatization of its holdings in 1897, the last of the Indian Territory areas had begun to crumble. In 1898, the Curtis Act was passed by Congress in order to force the remaining Nations, including the Creek, to negotiate allotment agreements in order to salvage as much of their land and other resources for their people as possible (p. 4). Some Creeks voluntarily filed for an allotment, while others resisted. …