Published in 1894 by the U.S. Department of Interior, this is a report of the conditions of the five "civilized" tribes in 1890, the details being drawn from the 1tth United States Census (1890). The five civilized tribes were those originally located in the southeastern US: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, and Choctaw. They were called "civilized" because they got along with the European-Americans better than other tribes.

A researcher's dream, this book is full of the history of Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). It Includes church statistics, towns, revenue, Creeks in South Carolina, Delaware Indians, laws of the Creek Nation, education, sanitary conditions, and much more. More than thirty black and white photographs, and all sorts of charts and tables, are included.

It seems that the original report was written by Thomas Donaldson, Fletcher Meredith, John Davidson, and John W. Lane and the revised by revised by editors of the United States Census Office.