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

by Tanis C. Thorne

The first biography of Jackson Barnett, who gained unexpected wealth from oil found on his property. This book explores how control of his fortune was violently contested by his guardian, the state of Oklahoma, the Baptist Church, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and an adventuress who kidnapped and married him. Coming into national prominence as a case of Bureau of Indian Affairs mismanagement of Indian property, the litigation over Barnett's wealth lasted two decades and stimulated Congress to make long-overdue reforms in its policies towards Indians. Highlighting the paradoxical role played by the federal government as both purported protector and pilferer of Indian money, and replete with many of the major agents in twentieth-century Native American history, this remarkable story is not only captivating in its own right but highly symbolic of America's diseased and corrupt national Indian policy.

The World's Richest Indian was the winner of the Sierra Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians.

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mervyn Tano · Rating 4 out of 5]

The publisher calls The World's Richest Indian the first biography of Jackson Barnett, a Creek Indian from Oklahoma who owned 160 acres in the middle of the world's most productive oil field. This well-researched, elegantly written book by Tanis C. Thorne is much more than that. Professor Thorne places Barnett and his wealth in the middle of the quagmire that was, and as she demonstrates with the Cobell case, still is, American Indian policy. Barnett's generosity and apparent disinterest in his wealth were manifestations of a worldview incomprehensible to white America. Senator Henry Dawes, for example, explained that selfishness was the root of advanced civilization and he could not understand why the Native Americans were not motivated to possess and achieve more than their neighbors. But if Barnett was not so motivated, there were many others who were. Jackson Barnett's story is the story of the machinations, intrigue, cupidity, racism, paternalism, good and bad intentions of individuals and institutions including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Baptist Church, and the State of Oklahoma who competed for control of his fortune. His is the human face behind the ambiguous policies that encouraged and prolonged that competition.