Green, Michael D. 1941- (Michael Green)

PERSONAL:

Born February 17, 1941. Education: University of Iowa, M.A., 1963, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 3195, Hamilton Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195. E-mail—mgreen@email.unc.edu.

CAREER:

Writer, historian, and educator. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, professor of history and American studies.

WRITINGS:

The Creeks: A Critical Bibliography, Newberry Library/Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1979.

The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1982.

The Creeks, Chelsea House (New York, NY), 1990.

(Editor and author of introduction, with Theda Perdue) The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents, Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press (Boston, MA), 1995, 2nd edition, 2005.

(With Theda Perdue) The Columbia Guide to the American Indians of the Southeast, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Theda Perdue) The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, Viking (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael D. Green is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he focuses in Native American history, culture, and politics. He specializes in particular on the history of the Creeks during the time period before the tribe's removal to Indian Territory in the 1830s, Green stated in a biography on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of American Studies Web site. Green notes that Creek leaders adapted their notions regarding politics and government in the hopes that their new approach would allow them to remain on their homeland. His research looks at "how the Creeks developed these changes in political theory and practice, how they tried to make them work, and how they impacted the relations between the Creeks and the U.S. and the states," as well as how they ultimately failed, Green stated on the Web site.

With The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents, edited by Green and Theda Perdue, the editors' text "analyzes Cherokee history from modern, contemporary, and most importantly Indigenous perspectives about political and social tensions within the United States during the 1800s," noted reviewer Gary C. Cheek in the American Indian Quarterly. Using a wide range of source materials, Green and Perdue "tell the complex and emotionally-driven stories of the Cherokee prior to, during, and after the removal campaigns of the 1800s." The authors provide a brief history of the Cherokee for context, then look carefully at a number of important documents that had tremendous impact on the Cherokee. These include materials such as the Cherokee constitution from 1827, petitions against Indian removal from women, a last will and testament from a Cherokee named Young Wolf, from 1814, and Wilma Mankiller's "Reflections on Removal," from 1993. The materials included by Green and Perdue not only put the events into historical context, but emotional context as well, detailing in some instances the tremendous psychological toll the Cherokee endured. "Perdue and Green craft a masterful text that forces readers to feel the Cherokee plight of removal," commented Cheek.

Green and Perdue have also collaborated on other reference works. The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast is a "concise synthesis of scholarship related to the Native American tribes of southeastern North America, and a comprehensive reference tool for researchers," commented Melissa A. Stock in an H-Florida Web site review. The authors look at the earliest Native populations of the Southeast and trace them into the modern era. They also provide information on major works in the field, as well as important interpretative themes used throughout the field. "General readers, specialists, researchers, teachers, and students of all ages will find this an essential tool for general reference as well as an aid to further research," noted Kathryn E. Holland Braund in the Journal of Southern History. John Burch, writing in Library Journal, commented: "This will probably be the reference of choice on the topic" of native populations in the Southeastern regions. Stock concluded that the book "is a volume whose strength is its comprehensiveness, evident in scope of the history it presents, in the inclusiveness of its supplementary material, and in the integration of its parts. Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green have succeeded in creating a volume that scholars of all levels will want to consult."

In The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, Green and Perdue produced an "excellent overview of the removal of the Cherokee people to Oklahoma" from their original Appalachian-area homelands, commented John Burch, writing in Library Journal. In particular, they look at issues surrounding U.S. government policies and actions when it came to removing Native Americans from prime land that was coveted by white settlers, Burch noted. They have "written a lucid, readable account of the legal complexities" of the doctrines involved and the legal issues encountered, noted a Publishers Weekly contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 1983, review of The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis, p. 478.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal, fall, 1995, Walter H. Conser, review of The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents.

American Indian Quarterly, summer, 1992, Jane E. Dysart, review of The Creeks: A Critical Bibliography, p. 431; winter-spring, 2005, Gary C. Cheek, review of The Cherokee Removal, p. 313.

Booklist, April 1, 2002, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, p. 1353; May 15, 2007, Deborah Donovan, review of The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, p. 16.

Childhood Education, annual, 1990, review of The Creeks, p. 338.

Choice, April, 2002, D.D. Siles, review of The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, p. 1404.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, December, 2006, Melissa A. Stock, review of The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast.

Journal of Southern History, August, 2003, Kathryn E. Holland Braund, review of The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, p. 666.

Journal of the Early Republic, summer, 1996, Sarah H. Hill, review of The Cherokee Removal.

Library Journal, November 15, 2001, John Burch, review of The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, p. 61; April 1, 2007, John Burch, review of The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, p. 100.

Publishers Weekly, October 15, 2001, "Paper Portals to History," review of The Columbia Guide to the American Indians of the Southeast, p. 62; May 14, 2007, review of The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, p. 44.

Social Education, October, 1993, review of The Creeks, p. 312.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), July 28, 2007, Greg Sarris, "Challenging History: Books about Two American Indian Tribes Engage Readers with Their Human Stories," review of The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, p. 9.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, winter, 2002, Joshua Piker, review of The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, p. 102.

Western Historical Quarterly, winter, 1996, Paul Otto, review of The Cherokee Removal, p. 521.

ONLINE

H-Florida,http://www.h-net.org/~florida/ (January 17, 2008), Melissa A. Stack, review of The Columbia Guide to the American Indians of the Southeast.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of American Studies Web site,http://amerstud.unc.edu/ (January 17, 2008), "Michael Green, Professor, Joint Appointment with History," biography of Michael D. Green.