Angie Debo, Remembered in the Round
Angie Debo’s portrait is in the rotunda of the Oklahoma State Capitol (N.E. 23rd and Lincoln Blvd) in Oklahoma City as a memorial to the writer and advocate because of her pioneering writing about the unfair treatment of Native American tribes in Oklahoma.
The Writer
Angie Debo (1890-1988) was originally from Kansas but moved to a farm in Oklahoma as a child. There she became an historian with a special interest in the rights of Native Americans.
“I am sometimes asked to state my ‘goals and ambitions in writing.’ I suppose I have only one: to discover truth and publish it.” – Angie Debo
Her Most Popular Book
The best-known published work of Angie Debo is entitled And Still the Waters Run, a nonfiction book. According to https://info.library.okstate.edu/debo: “Debo’s research projects were numerous. Paramount among them was the research in preparation for publication of And Still the Waters Run, which exposed the injustices suffered by the Five Civilized Tribes at the hands of the federal and state officials. This book and her The Road to Disappearance: A History of the Creek Indians served as a basis for a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Harjo v. Kleppe, in which important land rights for the Creek nation were recognized.”
Touring the Oklahoma Capitol
Self-guided tours of the Capitol are available daily, and 45-minute tours led by trained volunteers are available Monday – Friday. When you visit, you will notice portraits of several other authors listed on the authoradventures.org website.
Another Debo Site
Scholars may research Angie Debo through the Edmon Low Library of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, which holds a rich archive of the writer’s records.
The Oklahoma State Capitol is the first stop on our Oklahoma Author Adventures Trail.
Patricia Smart
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