John Milton Oskison

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John Milton Oskison (September 21, 1874 - 1947, Vinita, Indian Territory) (Cherokee) was educated at Willie Halsell College, M.L., 1894, Stanford University, B.A., 1898, and studied literature at Harvard University, 1898-99. During World War I he served in the North American Cavalry where he became asecond lieutenant in 1917. He became a first lieutenant in the Infantry of North America in 1918. He served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, 1918-19.

Hw won a competition for college graduates sponsored by Century magazine in 1898, for his short story "Only the Master Shall Praise". He took the Black Cat Prize in 1904 for his short story "The Greater Appeal."

He was the exchange editor and editorial writer for the New York Evening Post, New York City, 1903-06; atCollier's Weekly he was associate editor and special writer from 1907-10, financial editor, 1910-12. He served as a special writer for a syndicate of newspapers on financial topics and a special writer on Native American affairs for newspapers and magazines.

John Oskison is best known for his novels and short stories in which he depicts life in the Cherokee Indian Territory of the American West during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the time these works were published, his Cherokee heritage was unknown, and only in recent years have they been examined as Native American literature.

[edit] Books

• Wild Harvest: A Novel of Transition Days in Oklahoma, Appleton (New York), 1925.
• Black Jack Davy, Appleton, 1926.
• A Texas Titan: The Story of Sam Houston, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1929.
• Vision Victorious, 1931.
• Brothers Three, Macmillan (New York), 1935.
• Tecumseh and His Times: The Story of a Great Indian, Putnam (New York), 1938.
• American Indian Spirit Tales: Redbirds, Ravens, and Coyotes, Indian Heritage Association (Muskogee, OK), 1974.
• Cherokee Spirit Tales and Indian Women Spirit Tales, Indian Heritage Association, 1974.
• Cherokee Tales, (With Rennard Strickland) Indian Heritage Association, 1974.
• The Singing Bird, University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.

[edit] Writing Available Online

• The Man Who Interfered from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• 'The Quality of Mercy': A Story of the Indian Territory from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• Only the Master Shall Praise from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• When the Grass Grew Long from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• The Biologist's Quest from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• Friends of the Indian from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• Remaining Causes of Indian Discontent from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• The Problem of Old Harjo from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• Young Henry and the Old Man from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• Diverse Tongues: A Sketch from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

• The Apples of Hesperides, Kansas from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia

[edit] See Also

• John Milton Oskison (Cherokee) (1874-1947) Classroom Issues and Strategies

• Oskison biography

• A short biography from the Native American Authors Project at the Internet Public Library