Native American Series

In 1851, nine members of the Oatman family — on their way by covered wagon to California — were savagely attacked by Apache Indians near Fort Yuma, Arizona. Two girls in the family, Olive Ann, 14, and Mary Ann, 8, were taken captive by their attackers. An older brother, Lorenzo, 15, was left for dead but managed, though gravely wounded, to make his way back to civilization. The rest of the family had been brutally massacred. The story of the Oatman girls — their despairing life in captivity, the tragic death of little Mary Ann from shock, poor food, and severe conditions a year after their capture, and their brother's five-year search for them — is vividly described in this riveting true-life story.

Crow, Blackfoot, Pawnee, Sioux, Comanche, Mandan, Choctaw, Cheyenne, Winnebago, Creek, Assiniboin; wild prairies teeming with buffalo; the sacred site of Catlinite stone — all were subjects of Catlin's letters and paintings. For eight years (1832–39) George Catlin ventured among the Indians of the North American Plains capturing in verbal and visual pictures every facet of their lives. For the rest of his life, Catlin carried to Eastern America and Europe the true pictures of the North American Indians enjoying their last years of freedom and dignity in their native home. Catlin's book is an adventure. It is an adventure of the painter who was called "the great white medicine man" for his ability to paint. It is an adventure of a self-taught painter who vowed: "…nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me visiting their country, and of becoming their historian." It is a story of the great mysteries of the many tribes of Indians he visited — the mysteries of costume, posture and myth, the mystery of weapons, hunts, and manly games, the mystery of a life still close in connection with the Great Spirit, with the buffalo and with the traditions of thousands of years, all which would soon be destroyed. "Art may mourn," said Catlin, "when these people are swept from the earth." Most importantly, his book is a book of direct, fresh, and accurate illustrations, illustrations that keep the best in Indian life alive. Now for the first time Catlin's illustrations are shown as he meant them to be seen. Through a process unknown when his book was first published, photographs of his actual paintings have been used to capture the many layers of depth and accurate depiction that could only be hinted at in the line drawings of the early editions. Two-hundred and fifty-seven photographs of Catlin's original oil paintings are included together with fifty-five of the original book illustrations. As a result this is the definitive edition of Catlin that can never be superseded, far more useful than any earlier edition. George Catlin's North American Indians is still one of the most readable books about the Indians of the Plains, capturing, as it does, the tribes when they were still in touch with their most important traditions. It has also become an invaluable historic and ethnographic document for study of the American West. The Mandan tribe, which Catlin so carefully set down, disappeared in a small-pox epidemic only five years after his visit. Other tribes changed radically, their traditional mode of life seen only in Catlin's notes and illustrations. As Marjorie Halpin says in her introduction, " ... we can share the feeling of gratitude he expressed when he said, 'I was luckily born in time to see these people in their native dignity, and beauty, and independence … '"

"Learn the natural ways of the Chippewa Indians with this great book from Dover." — Texas Kitchen and Garden and More The uses of plants — for food, for medicine, for arts, crafts, and dyeing — among the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota and Wisconsin show the great extent to which they understood and utilized natural resources. In this book those traditions are captured, providing a wealth of new material for those interested in natural food, natural cures, and native crafts. In separate sections describing the major areas of use, Miss Densmore, an ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution, details the uses of nearly 200 plants with emphasis on wild plants and lesser-known uses. For those interested in natural foods she gives extensive coverage to the gathering and preparation of maple sugar and wild rice, as well as preparations for beverages from leaves and twigs of common plants, seasonings including mint and bearberry, the methods of preparing wild rice and corn, cultivated and wild vegetables, and wild fruits and berries. On Indian medicines she tells the basic methods of gathering plants and the basic surgical and medical methods. Then she gives a complete list of the plants with their botanical names, uses, parts used, preparation and administration, and other notes and references. Also covered are plants used as charms, plants used in natural dyes, and plants in the useful and decorative arts including uses for household items, toys, mats, twine, baskets, bows, and tools, with special emphasis on the uses of birch bark and cedar. This section will be especially useful for supplying new and unusual craft ideas. In addition, 36 plates show the many stages of plant gathering and preparation and many of the artistic uses. While a number of the plants discussed are native only to the Great Lakes region, many are found throughout a wide range. Those studying the Indians of the Great Lakes region, or those trying to get back to nature through understanding and using natural materials, will find much about the use of plants in all areas of community life. Because of Miss Densmore’s deep knowledge and clear presentation, her study remains a rich and useful source for learning about or using native foods, native cures, and native crafts.

In this, one of Native American history's most extraordinary documents, a legendary warrior and shaman recounts the beliefs and customs of his people. Completely and utterly authentic, its captivating narrator is the most famous member of the Apache tribe: Geronimo. The spiritual and intellectual leader of the American Indians who defended their land from both Mexico and the United States for many years, Geronimo surrendered in 1886. Two decades later, while under arrest, he told his story through a native interpreter to S. M. Barrett, an Oklahoma school superintendent. Barrett explains in his introduction, "I wrote to President Roosevelt that here was an old Indian who had been held a prisoner of war for twenty years and had never been given a chance to tell his side of the story, and asked that Geronimo be granted permission to tell for publication, in his own way, the story of his life." This remarkable testament is the result. It begins with Geronimo's retelling of an Apache creation myth and his descriptions of his youth and family. He explains his military tactics as well as traditional practices, including hunting and religious rituals, and reflects upon his hope for the survival of his people and their culture.

This remarkable study rescues from undeserved obscurity the name and reputation of Sacajawea — a true Native American heroine. The volume also unravels the tangled threads of her family life and traces the career of her son Baptiste, the "papoose" of the Lewis and Clark expedition. 21 illustrations, including a map. Bibliography. Index. 6 Appendices.

This rare manuscript — written by a Spanish military officer and dedicated to King Philip II of Spain in 1572 — is considered one of the primary sources of information on the pre-Conquest history, traditions, and chronology of the Incas. One of the most authentic and reliable records of the period, it was based on carefully verified evidence provided by the Incas themselves. Rich in details, this authentic study not only contains full accounts of ceremonies, festivals, and religious beliefs, it also includes detailed narratives of the origin of the Incas, ancient systems of land division, early settlements, biographical sketches of major rulers, the Incas’ law and administration, the coming of the Spanish conquistadores, the execution of Atahualpa — the last Inca emperor — and much more. Sarmiento’s fascinating history is followed by Captain Baltasar de Ocampo’s sensitively written account of events leading up to the 1571 execution of the ill-fated Tupac Amaru, a young heir of the Inca rulers, and Ocampo’s description of events in the province of Vilcapampa during the first decades of Spanish settlement. Accompanied by a lexicon of Quechua words, a list of place names, and an extensive bibliography that includes important contemporary documents, this affordable reprint of History of the Incas will be of great interest to students of the ancient cultures of South America, and of the Incas in particular.

Fascinating anthropological study of a group of Kickapoo Indians who left their Wisconsin homeland for Mexico over a century ago. Focus on why they left, why they settled in northern Mexico, how they live. "One of the most thorough and authentic studies...yet produced..." — Publishers Weekly. 26 illustrations. Map. Introduction. Bibliography. Index.

Concentrating primarily on the Natchez Indians, but also profiling the Muskhogean tribes, the Tunican group, the Chitimacha, and the Atakapa, the comprehensive study describes each tribe's material culture, religion, language and social organization, with engrossing accounts of practices related to war, marriage, medicine, hunting, feasts, funeral ceremonies, and other customs.

Naturalist and artist Ernest Thompson Seton was a founding pioneer of the Boy Scouts of America who introduced many elements of Native American lore to scouting rituals. In this comprehensive collection of his most interesting stories, crafts, games, and other activities related to outdoor life, Seton offers a respectful and informative tribute to Native American culture. More than 500 of his drawings illustrate this practical guide for campers of all ages. In addition to briefly outlining the principles of scouting, Seton discusses Indian customs and laws as well as songs, dances, and ceremonies. He suggests both indoor and outdoor activities and provides a wealth of information on Indian sign language and games, campfire tales, forestry, and many other captivating facts and fancies.

The myths and legends of the Algonquins, Iroquois, Pawnees, Sioux, and northern and northwestern Indians offer rich insights into the character and beliefs of the tribes that once dominated extensive territories of North America. The distinguished British anthropologist and folklorist Lewis Spence has collected many of the most interesting and compelling of these myths and presented them here according to ethnic grouping, prefacing the collection with important historical and ethnological information that will give the reader an accurate view of the conditions under which these fascinating tribal cultures once flourished. The myths range in theme from steadfast love to rivalry between warriors to victory over powerful forces, and in their unfolding lie powerful images of the innermost fears and aspirations that motivated the behavior of Algonquin, Iroquois, Pawnees, Sioux, and northwestern Indians alike. Lewis Spence relates each tale in a simple, direct way that will appeal to children as well as to adults. The book includes photographs and drawings that depict various tribes in their typical costumes and dwellings. It contains as well a map of the geographical areas where primary language families were spoken. This fascinating book, a major forerunner of modern studies of myth, combines an appealing presentation of Indian legend with factual and illustrative material that gives each myth meaningful perspective. Students of anthropology and ethnology will enjoy the especially rich variety of mythical imagery in this generous collection, and general readers in search of a good story for themselves and for their children will find in these pages a treasury of suspenseful tales that reveal much of the spirit of North America’s original cultures.

This exciting autobiography of Jim Whitewolf, a Kiowa Apache born in the second half of the 19th-century, offers an excellent inside-look at Indian culture. An ethnological classic, it details childhood, tribal customs, contact with whites, government attitudes toward tribe, much more. Preface. Introduction & Epilogue. Index. 1 map.

Among the first individuals to penetrate the vast wilderness of the American Far West were rugged trappers and traders. Many, in their dealings with Native Americans, witnessed a broad spectrum of tribal life. Peter Skeene Ogden (1794-1854), explorer, author, and Hudson’s Bay Company employee, was one such observer — astute, immensely literate for his time, and knowledgeable in a number of regional Indian languages. This fascinating volume, attributed to Ogden, provides an illuminating and sometimes startling account of day-to-day life among the original inhabitants of the Oregon Territory. Identifying himself only as “A Fur Trader,” Ogden presents intimate sketches of tribal life collected over two decades of encounters with Indians of the Northwest. More than just brief glimpses into warlike habits, this book describes in graphic and often touching prose a wealth of customs, traditions, beliefs, rituals, and daily activities of Indian life — even including scenes of domestic tragedy. Originally published in 1853, this rare document offers authentic insight into the Indian character and intratribal life during a period in which only few hardened adventurers had gained access to the isolated areas of the Far West. A splendid tribute to those who did, Ogden’s painstakingly detailed yet immensely readable firsthand account will be welcomed by anthropologists, students of Native American society and life, and general readers alike.

Raised among the Sioux until the age of 15, Charles Alexander Eastman (1858–1939) resolved to become a physician in order to be of the greatest service to his people. Upon completing his education at Boston University School of Medicine, he accepted an appointment to a South Dakota Indian reservation, where he was the only doctor available to the victims of the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. With the encouragement of his wife, he further distinguished himself both as a writer and as a uniquely qualified interpreter of Native American ways. His writings offer authentic, sometimes stirring views of a world that has forever changed. In The Soul of the Indian, Eastman brings to life the rich spirituality and morality of the Native Americans as they existed before contact with missionaries and other whites. This is a rare firsthand expression of native religion, without the filters imposed by translators or anthropologists. Rather than a scientific treatise, Eastman has written a book, "as true as I can make it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint." His discussions of the forms of ceremonial and symbolic worship, the unwritten scriptures, and the spirit world emphasize the universal quality and personal appeal of Native American religion.

Noted anthropologist James Mooney (1861–1921) spent much of his life studying American Indians. In North Carolina, he lived for several years with the Cherokee, studying their language, culture, and mythology. His research resulted in this comprehensive volume, comprising 126 Cherokee myths, including sacred stories, animal myths, local legends, wonder stories, historical traditions, and miscellaneous myths and legends. Among the myths included are these: How the World Was Made; Origin of Strawberries; Why the Deer's Teeth Are Blunt; How the Turkey Got His Beard; The Rattlesnake's Vengeance; The Ice Man; The First Fire; Why the Possum's Tail Is Bare; The Bride from the South; The Water Cannibals; The Haunted Whirlpool; The War Medicine, and many more. In addition to his clear retelling of the myths themselves, the author provides extensive background information on Cherokee history, notes on the myths, parallels between Cherokee and other myths, and further important information. Anyone interested in mythology or Native American legend and lore will welcome this treasury of authentic tales presented in the context of Cherokee history, life, and culture.

In the late 1920s, an elderly Navaho leader, anxious to preserve the myths of his people before they were lost in the tide of modern civilization, asked Aileen O'Bryan to record the tales he told her and to publish them in a book. The storyteller was Sandoval, Hastin Tlo'tsi hee (or Old Man Buffalo Grass), the first of the four chiefs of the Navaho People. Ms. O'Bryan, then living in Mesa Verde National Park, wrote down the old man's stories — as well as many chants — for the most part just as he told them. This book is the result — a unique compilation of authentic age-old Navaho origin and creation myth, from which many Navaho tribal ceremonies eventually evolved. Besides their value as mythologic literature, these tales are also intriguing for their revelation of Navaho knowledge of climatic and astronomical phenomena: seasonal changes, the equinox, the moon's effect on the earth and tides and more. Among the myths retold here are: The Creation of the Sun and Moon, The People of the Stone Houses, The Making of the Headdress, The Maiden who Became a Bear, The White Bead Maiden's Marriage with the Sun, The Story of the Rain Ceremony and Its Hogan, The Story of the Two Boys and the Coming of the Horses, The Story of the Navaho and the Apache Peoples, and many others. Over 20 illustrations enhance the text, which will be welcomed by students of Native American culture, anthropologists, folklorists, and anyone intrigued by the myths evolved by the earth's peoples to give meaning to the world and their lives.

Classic text-and-picture record includes over 100 lithographs and drawings of dances, fiestas, processions, chants and daily life among Zuni, Navajo, Apache, other tribes.

Fun-loving youngsters will find new trails to amusement in this varied collection of 150 spirited, entertaining and easy-to-play games once played by Indian tribes across America. Indian lore and recreation specialists Allan and Paulette Macfarlan present a rich assortment of active, quiet, competitive, and instructive games for boys and girls of all ages that offer hours of enjoyment and provide insight into how American Indians thought, lived, and played. You’ll find running, relay, kicking, stalking, throwing and rolling, tossing and catching, guessing, group-challenge, and many other games chosen for their skill-building and character-building qualities. These authentic Indian sports develop dexterity, strength, endurance, patience, logic, power of observation, good sportsmanship, and other desirable attributes. The games can be played indoors or out with little or no equipment and are suitable for small and large groups for every occasion. Complete step-by-step instructions plus numerous diagrams make them easy to learn and play — an ideal source of recreation for campers, scouts, school groups, and others. Parents, teachers, group leaders, camp counselors, and anyone who works with young people will find the Handbook of American Indian Games a wonderful source of safe, healthy, and amusing recreations.

The folklore and mythology of North American Indians is varied and wide-ranging, as shown in this carefully chosen representative sampling of Native American folktales. Assembled by noted folklorist Stith Thompson, the collection includes marvelous narratives from points as distant from one another as Southern California, Labrador, and the Great Plains. Yet despite the diversity of tribes represented, many of the tales share similar themes and elements. They have been grouped here into such categories as mythological stories, mythical incidents, trickster tales, hero tales, journeys to the otherworld, animal wives and husbands, and tales borrowed from Europeans. There are even Indians stories based on such biblical subjects as Noah’s flood, the tower of Babel, and crossing the Red Sea. Included are "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky" (Seneca), "The Creation" (Maidu), "Coyote and Porcupine" (Nez Percé), "The Jealous Father" (Cree), "The False Bridegroom" (Gros Ventre), "The Star Husband" (Ojibwa), "The Bear-Woman" (Blackfoot), "Cinderella" (Zuñi), "Making the Princess Laugh" (Micmac), "Crossing the Red Sea" (Cheyenne), and scores more. Of great interest to students of folklore and Native American mythology, Tales of the North American Indians will appeal to the general reader as well because the tales are full of color and imagination and fascinating in themselves.

Nearly 100 authentic tales offer an unparalleled glimpse into beliefs and culture of the Pueblo Indians: "The Kachina Suitors and Coyote," "Magpie and the Corn Mothers," "Turquoise Boy Races the Deer Boys," "The Envious Hunter," "The Jealous Girls," "Echo Boy," "Escape Up the Tree," and many more.

27 fictionalized essays by noted anthropologists provide entertaining and insightful reading about religion, customs, government, social psychology, and other facets of Indian life. Studies by Paul Radin on the Winnebago, Robert H. Lowie on the Crow, Stewart Culin and Elsie Clews Parson on the Zuni, Franz Boas on the Eskimo, many more.

Native American artists are among the most skilled practitioners of beadwork, and this classic study — based on the extensive collections in the Heye Foundation's Museum of the American Indian — offers a well-illustrated look at the extraordinary variety of beadwork methods and their spectacular results. A much-admired genre of folk art, beadwork appears on not only clothing and other forms of personal adornment but also on ceremonial and everyday objects. The ample illustrations in this survey include photographs of decorated items: baskets and bowls, necklaces, robes, cradles, and other items, richly embellished in beads made from gold and precious stones, shells, and bone. In addition, numerous figures depict details of the stitchery techniques. Needleworkers, crafters, and aficionados of Native American culture will find much within these pages to excite their interest and enthusiasm.

"I love that this book is the real deal. A truly unique and informative read." — Texas Kitchen and Garden and More Originally written in the Aztec language, Nahuatl, in 1552, this classic codex was the first herbal and medical text compiled in the New World. The author of this extraordinarily rare and valuable document was Martín de la Cruz, an Aztec physician, whose work was subsequently translated into Latin by an Aztec nobleman, Juan Badiano. The book was translated into English in 1939 by William Gates. In these pages are centuries-old Aztec remedies for boils, hair loss, cataracts, insomnia, sore throats, hiccups, gout, lesions, wounds, joint diseases, tumors, and scores of other ailments. Over 180 black-and-white figures of the plants augment the text, along with 38 full color illustrations made specially for the Gates edition. Additional supplements include an introduction to the Mexican botanical system, an analytical index of the plants, and a new Introduction by anthropologist Bruce Byland of the City University of New York. Remarkable for its scope, detail, careful observation, and accurate description, An Aztec Herbal stands as a magnificent example of the impressive medical knowledge of indigenous peoples. This handsome and inexpensive edition of a long-unavailable work promises to engender a new appreciation of the skill and inventiveness of Aztec medical practices in particular and of Native American science in general.

Plains Indians from different tribes speaking different languages were nevertheless able to communicate facts and feelings of considerable complexity when they met. They used a language composed of gestures made almost entirely with the hands and fingers, probably the most highly developed gesture language to be found in any part of the world. With this book, you will find it simple to use this language, which the author learned in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, principally from Sioux Indians in Wyoming. Drawings and short descriptions make clear the proper positions and motions of the hands to convey the meaning of over 870 alphabetically arranged common words — hungry, camp, evening, angry, fire, laugh, owl, cat, many times, brave, cold, heart, rain, spotted, together, river, etc. The words are then used in sample sentences. There are also brief sections on the pictography and ideography of the Sioux and Ojibway tribes, and on smoke signals. This is a book for anyone who wants to learn or teach Indian sign language — scouts, school teachers, camp counselors, scout leaders, parents, linguists, and students of Indian culture. To help counselors and teachers, the last chapters give instructions on how to conduct the Indian ceremony for opening a council fire, an Indian initiation ceremony, and suggestions for sign language tests and exercises.

"Has a many-sided appeal …. This stimulating book is one of the few that really deserve the over-worked term, a human document." — Publishers Weekly. In the first of his memoirs, the popular Indian Boyhood, Charles Alexander Eastman recounted his traditional upbringing among the Santee Sioux. From the Deep Woods to Civilization resumes his story, recounting his abrupt departure from tribal life at age 15 to pursue his education among whites — a path that led him to certification as a medical doctor, the publication of many successful books, and a lifetime of tireless efforts to benefit his native culture. Through his social work and his writings, Eastman became one of the best-known Indians of the early twentieth century and an important force in interpreting and relating the spiritual depth and greatness of the Native American traditions. Eastman became a physician in hopes of serving the Native American community; he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Dartmouth in 1887 and a medical degree from Boston University in 1890. He began college just a few months after the Battle of Little Bighorn, and his first job as a physician at Pine Ridge Reservation coincided with the Ghost Dance uprisings that culminated in the U. S. Army's attack at Wounded Knee. The only doctor available to assist the massacre's victims, Eastman writes movingly of the event's appalling inhumanity and injustice. Afterward, he lobbied Capitol Hill on behalf of the Sioux and devoted the rest of his life, both in and out of government service, to helping Indians adapt to the white world while retaining the best of their own culture. His autobiography resonates with the impassioned thoughts and experiences of a profound contributor to the richness of American culture.

In retelling Native American creation myths, Harvard-educated linguist and ethnographer Jeremiah Curtin (1835–1906) provides readers with compelling narratives of the origin of the earth and its creatures. Accounts of conflicts, happenings, and methods by which an earlier world of man changed into the now-existing one, these tribal tales largely describe the struggles between hostile parties. Metamorphoses between combatants produce entirely different characters — sometimes a bird, a plant, or an insect — but always a creature corresponding in power to some leading quality of the character it has replaced. As a collector of myths and tales, few excelled Curtin and his remarkable linguistic abilities.

Born on South Dakota's Yankton Reservation in 1876, Zitkala-Sa felt "as free as the wind that blew my hair, and no less spirited than a bounding deer." At the age of 8, she traded her freedom for the iron discipline of a Quaker boarding school. Forever afterward, the Lakota Sioux author struggled to find a balance between Indian and white society. These autobiographical essays, short stories, and political writings offer her poignant reflections on being stranded between two worlds. Zitkala-Sa, who attended and taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, was a founder of the National Council of American Indians and among the first Native Americans to record tribal legends and oral traditions. This collection opens with her reminiscences of the reservation, her schooling at an institution determined to "civilize" Indians, and her experiences as a teacher. Zitkala-Sa also recounts tales rooted in Sioux traditions, including "A Warrior's Daughter," in which a courageous woman risks everything for her husband-to-be; "The Trial Path," an account of tribal justice after a murder; and "The Sioux," in which a son must kill twice to save his father from starvation. The book concludes with incisive observations on government mistreatment of Indians and a call for the complete enfranchisement of Native Americans into mainstream society.

Volume 1 of the classic account of life among Plains Indians includes fascinating information on ceremonies, rituals, the hunt, warfare, and much more. Total in set: 312 plates.

Sharply critical of the United States government's cruelty toward Native Americans, this monumental study describes the maltreatment of Indians as far back as the American Revolution. Focusing on the Delaware and the Cheyenne, the text goes on to document and deplore the sufferings of the Sioux, Nez Percé, Ponca, Winnebago, and Cherokee — in the process revealing a succession of broken treaties, the government's forced removal of tribes from choice lands, and other examples of inhuman treatment of the nation's 300,000 Indians. Stirring and eloquently stated, A Century of Dishonor was written in the hope of righting the wrongs inflicted upon this nation's first inhabitants. Within a year following its publication (1881), the book helped create the powerful Indian Rights Association. Decades later, author and critic Allen Nevins described the volume as "one of the soundest and most exhaustive works" ever written about Indian rights. Still a valuable reference, this book will be welcomed by students, historians, and others interested in the plight of Native Americans.

Magnificent guide presents 36 sites from Central America and southern Mexico as they appeared more than a thousand years ago: Temple of the Cross, Palenque; Acropolis and Maya sweat bath, Piedras Negras; Red House and north terrace at Chichén Itzá; more. Each illustration features text of archeological finds and line drawing of remains. 95 illustrations.

This well-researched book provides details of the varied steps that certain groups of Native Americans have used to express their dance ideas — from skips, jumps, and hop steps, to an Indian form of the pas de bourrée. Similarities to Oriental dances, classical ballet, Spanish and Russian variants, and steps in other dance forms are also considered. Examples are given of Indian dance music, words, and descriptive sounds that accompany this music, and the choreography of certain typical Indian dances of the Southwest. Authentic illustrations by a Native American artist depict dancers, while outline figures characterize steps and postures. An inportant addition to the libraries of anthropologists and students of Native American culture, this classic will be invaluable to ethnomusicologists and choreographers.