James F. Doster papers

The James F. Doster papers include materials this Tuscaloosa native and history professor at The University of Alabama created and collected. During his career, Doster researched and published on railroads and Alabama politics; settlement of the Upper Tombigbee Valley; and Native American history, particularly that of the Creeks. His collection includes research files and various drafts of both unpublished and published manuscripts relating to these broad subjects. He retained extensive, detailed resource notes for each library, archives, and museum in which he conducted research. Unpublished manuscripts include The Mission of David Taitt: 1772 (1992) and Gun Merchant and the Three Wolfs.

As a consultant for the Creek Nation on claims with the Indian Claims Commission, Doster conducted research in archival repositories in the Americas, England, and Spain. Doster’s research helped substantiate their case against the government by documenting the Creek Nation’s history. His wide-reaching investigation and vast documentation shows the Creek’s history and how colonization by European countries and later the United States affected the Creek Nation and other Native Americans in the area. These research materials and his final reports make up the bulk of the collection. His collection therefore offers rich resources on the history of the Deep South in general and Alabama and the Creeks specifically. These people, events, and subjects include the following: figures in early Alabama and Creek Indian history including Henry Stiggins and David Taitt; Edmund Atkin, superintendent for the southern district of the British Indian Department; brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (Iberville founded the French colony of Louisiana; his brother Bienville founded the cities of Mobile, New Orleans, and Biloxi); relations between the French and the Natchez Indians on the Mississippi River in the early 1700s; and colonial South Carolina governor James Moore's attacks against Christian Indians north of the Florida line in 1702 and 1704.

In addition to his own research and writings, the collection contains notes and other teaching materials he used during his long career as a professor of history.