Customer Reviews

The World's Richest Indian: The Scandal over Jackson Barnett's Oil Fortune

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With some writers, an abunce of detail is mind-numbing, as in the "begat" passages of the Old Testament. In contrast, Tanis Thorne uses a myriad of details as would a pointillistic painter to create a vivid and poignant biography of Afro-Muskogee Jackson Barnett, "The Richest Indian in the World".

Barnett had belonged to the Muskogee faction opposed to individual land allotment, known as Snakes. On the Snakes' refusing to designate choice homesteads, allotments were issued in their names in the hardscrabble hills of Oklahoma. Barnett's 160-acre allotment ironically turned out to be centered over one of the world's great oil pools. Barnett was thereafter placed under state court conservatorship to limit the enormous flow of oil royalties to a meager living allowance.

An attractive "adventuress" heard of Barnett's wealth, located his modest home and eloped with him the following day.

A three-way battle erupted between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Oklahoma state courts and Anna Barnett for control of the fortune. Anna Barnett succeeded in prying free enough income to finance a move to a fashionable suburb of Los Angeles, where Jackson Barnett passed many of his days directing traffic. He became a regular tourist attraction.

Anna ultimately lost after Jackson Barnett's death. The marriage was judicially annulled and Anna was evicted from the home. She died in poverty years later.

Dr. Thorne uses the biography to portray the inherent clash between Creek values of generosity and sharing and the dominant culture of selfishness. Using this theme, Dr. Thorne segues into a brief discussion of today's Cobell litigation challenging the entire federal trust accounting of American Indian funds.

This book is a valuable contribution to American Indian history. Beyond that, the book sets a high standard for combining historic writing with lively and accessible prose.

Earlier I had read a portion of this book, so it is everything I expected.
Thank you to the seller for providing detailed information and quality shipping.
Respectfully,
Rhonda Barnett

The author was a bit talky. However the information was good and interesting. this book gives more information an a relative that I did not know other than other family said I was related.

This book was interesting but BORING!!! I do not like books that hash out court trials and in particular when it revolves around money. That was 85% of this book. How many times can you go over what was done with this money or those funds. Penny pinching in print. I'm not interested in financial reports. I was interested in the world's richest Indian. I got very little of him, but I suppose there wasn't much to say about him. They gave his wife a really bad time, but like witnesses for the defense said, she gave him a better life than he had when she found him and helped him use his money to live a life someone with that much money should. Who was hurt by it? Why did everyone care so much? They wanted their share which they didn't deserve. It was really something how people acted. No different than today, 2006! But when EVERY page had some dollar amount on it-how can you keep track of what's being discussed? How many times can they doubt or affirm the sanity of Jackson Barnett??? The poor old guy lived to 90, so I guess you could say that 'living well is the best revenge'.