Do You Know Oklahoma?

For in Oklahoma, all the experiences that went into the making of the nation have been speeded up. Here all the American traits have been intensified.

The one who can interpret Oklahoma can grasp the meaning of America in the modern world."

--Angie Debo, Ph.D., Oklahoma Foot-loose and Fancy-free, 
 University of Oklahoma Press, 1949, 1987.

Dr. Angie Debo, Author and Historian, portrait by Charles Banks Wilson.

The author Michael Wallis described Angie Debo (1890-1988) as “the distinguished historian, teacher, author and editor, an inspiration to so many others, and an Oklahoma pioneer who deserves nothing less than sainthood.”  

In 1940, And Still the Waters Run--probably the most important of Dr. Debo's many award-winning books--was published by Princeton University Press.  

• At the time, the University of Oklahoma Press had declined to publish her meticulously researched nonfiction due to the threat of libel suits from prominent Oklahoma politicians and business people.


• Dr. Debo's documentation of the betrayal and liquidation of the five independent Native American republics of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles proved to be too ugly a story for many of the land-hungry white men who had perpetrated an orgy of criminal exploitation against the rightful owners.

1973 book cover

​​In 1950, Dr. Debo was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

In 1985, Oklahoma honored her work by installing her bigger-than-life-size portrait in the Rotunda of the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City.  As you can see in the portrait by Charles Banks Wilson, Dr. Debo is seated in her favorite chair with a backdrop of the important books she authored.  

​"[My goal is] to discover truth and publish it."
​--Angie Debo, Ph.D.

Dr. Debo wrote or co-authored approximately thirteen books and hundreds of articles during her long life.  She remains an inspiration to truth-seekers.  If you haven't already, you'll want to read And Still the Waters Run. ​

If you're looking for an indispensable reference about Oklahoma, you'll want a copy of Charles Robert Goins and Danney Goble's Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, fourth edition, University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.  This edition builds on previous editions to share 119 topics with you via the work of Goins, Gobles, and seventeen contributing scholars and other professionals.  

Like its predecessors, the fourth edition regales readers with an expanded tale of Oklahoma geography and history.  Explanatory legends, tables, and graphs plus interpretive essays and maps galore will help you make sense of  Oklahoma.  Photos and brief biographies of key Oklahomans in literature, visual arts, music, and sports will share with you the joi de vivre of the Sooner state.

Read the ​Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, fourth edition, from front to back or jump in wherever your fancy takes you.

Until next time, Good Reading!