Todd Downing

George Todd Downing (March 29, 1902 – January 9, 1974), a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, was one of the first commercially published mystery writers of Native American descent and one of the first successful mystery writers from Oklahoma. He married, Todd Downing's mother, Maude Miller, in 1899.

In 1951, Downing returned to Atoka and cared for his elderly parents in his family home. He began a new career as a high school teacher in Atoka.

When Downing died in 1974, his books were out of print and little remembered. In 1996, the University of Oklahoma Press reissued The Mexican Earth, with a critical introduction by Wolfgang Hochbruck. In recent years, Coachwhip Publications, the Mysterious Press, and Open Road Media have brought Downing's mystery novels back into print.

Some recent scholarship suggests that Downing, who never married, might have been gay.