Native America: History

AMERICAN INDIANS
by William T. Hagan. B&W era photos & drawings. Condition: UNREAD 1993 University of Chicago Press Trade Paperback, third edition. Light shelf wear. Interior clean & tight. Content: Hagan's concise account of Indian-white relations has become one of the standard histories of the subject. For this third edition, Hagan has updated information throughout the book and added a new chapter, "Domestic, Dependent Nations," in which he discusses developments in Native American life in the 1970s and 1980s. In his new bibliographic essay, Hagan surveys recent research and offers suggestions for further reading. "The author has reduced the long story - often as tangled as a five-year-old's fishing line - into a brief, clear, and highly interesting book. . . . A remarkable achievement." Excellent read. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

BUCKSKIN & BUFFALO: The Artistry of the Plains Indians
by Colin F. Taylor. Beautiful color photos plus B&W era photos. Condition: Gently pre-read, IF at all, 1998 Vega-Salamander Books (UK) hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first prnting. Content: Reviewer: "This book eatures excellent color photos, both full-size and detail, of dozens of circa 19th century Plains Indian works of leather, including shirts, leggings, robes, and other practical artwork. Beadwork, quillwork adn paint adorn these works of buffalo deer, elk, antelope and bighorn sheep hides, and the author selected some astoundingly lovely pieces. The text that accompanies each one goes into the source, the components, and the cultural significance of both the objects themselves and their adornment, as well as interesting bits of information about certain details, such as a particular type of bead or feather used, or the importance of the piece in its culture. The tribal origins of each entry are also discussed, including cases where the author disagreed with the museum or collection that held the piece, and details explaining why (ie, this detail resembles this tribe instead of that tribe). Overall, it is a really nicely done work. However, one question is left unasked. We've seen the pretty artwork and have learned its immense importance. Now can we please return these to the people to whom they are so very important?" Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 12.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. International shipping available.

DRESSING IN FEATHERS: The Construction of the Indian in American Popular Culture
edited by S. Elizabeth Bird. B&W era photos, drawings, & movie stills. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Westview Press Trade Paperback, third printing. Content: An insightful if occasionally dry collection of historical and sociological studies by academics demonstrating how whites have portrayed Native Americans in a wide range of media for the last two centuries. Bird (Anthropology and Humanities/Univ. of Minn.) sounds the central theme of these pieces in her introduction: From the popular, early 19th century play Metamora to Disney's recent animated rendering of Pocahontas, Native Americans have been predominantly depicted in ways that suit the mythic, psychological, and political needs of white America. An essay titled "The Narrative of Sitting Bull's Surrender" describes how a series of staged photographs shot in the 1880s show not only the capture of the famous warrior but also the "civilizing" of the Sioux Indians. An account of how newspapers and public relations pronouncements covered an Indian boarding school homecoming and football game in the 1920s reveals a vision of a similar "progression" of Native Americans from "noble savages" to assimilation and the removal of "long-dead traditions that were no longer a threat to white people." A chapter discussing Seminole tourist sites in the Florida Everglades notes how white entrepeneurs first sought to display the Indians as primitives at one with nature in the early 20th century; by mid-century, the Seminoles were depicted as sharing in the technological benefits of modern civilization while still portrayed as "noble children of the swamp." There is an especially persuasive study of the cultural myths reflected in recent television shows and films, covering movies such as Dances With Wolves and Little Big Man, the lack of cultural identity afforded the Native Americans depicted in the TV series Northern Exposure, and even worse, the lack of any realistic portrayal of the Cheyenne in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. For the serious reader, this volume of essays will have a decided impact on how the next western is viewed. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 18.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

GAMBLER WAY: Indian Gaming in Mythology, History and Archaeology in North America
by Kathryn Gabriel. B&W drawings and photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 1996 Johnson Books Trade Paperback, first printing. Tiny, tiny edgewear cover corners. Content: Everything old is new again, it seems. The gambling that during the past decade has blossomed on Indian land across America is not, as many assume, a new ruination heaped upon noble savages by a corrupt capitalist culture. Far from it. Rather, gambling is like tobacco -- deeply rooted in the religious and spiritual beliefs of Native North Americans. In this fascinating study, Gabriel not only relays some of the many myths connected with Indian gaming but examines the symbolic importance to Indians of gambling as a way of keeping the cosmic order from descending into chaos. In addition, she scrutinizes the way in which gambling formerly had economic importance for Indians, as a method of wealth redistribution. Amply researched and fluidly written, this is an exemplary and intriguing work of anthropology. Excellent read. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 9.59 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

IMAGINING INDIANS IN THE SOUTHWEST: Persistent Visions of a Primitive Past
by Leah Dilworth. B&W era maps and photos illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read (2 dogearred pages) 1998 Smithsonian Trade Paperback, first printing. Very light edgewear. Content: With the advent of the railroads, Americans flocked to the Southwest. Visitors were fascinated by the Native cultures, particularly those of the Pueblos, seeing in their "primitive" societies values lost to the mainstream industrialized culture. Dilworth (English, Long Island Univ.) contends that tourists, collectors, and anthropologists alike re-created the image of the Native societies to conform to Euro-American primitivist ideals. In exploring this thesis, Dilworth evaluates turn-of-the-century descriptions of the Hopi Snake Dance and discusses the crucial role played by the Fred Harvey Company in exploitation of these cultures. Arguing that Native realities were marginalized by those who purported to describe them, the author includes a consideration of two contemporary artists, Pueblo poet and sculptor Nora Naranjo-Morse and Hopi photographer Victor Masayesva, who re-create the Native-white exchange from a Native point of view. This thoughtful study merits inclusion in most collections. The author examines the creation and enduring potency of the early 20th-century myth of the primitive Indian. She demonstrates how visions of Indians--created by tour companies, collectors of Indian crafts, and modernist writers--have reflected white anxieties about such issues as the value of labor in an industrialized society, racial assimilation, and the perceived loss of cultural authenticity. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 7.59 + $ 3.19 media shipping. International shipping available.

INDIAN CHIEFS
by Russell Freedman. B&W drawings (including some Remingtons) and era photos illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 1989 Scholastic large soft cover, first printing. Tiny edge wear. Content: Freedman presents six Indian leaders from western tribes, each of whom faced the challenge of dealing with the encroachment upon his land in his own way. Included are Red Cloud of the Oglala Sioux, Santanta of the Kiowas, Quanah Parker of the Comanches, Washakie of the Shoshonis, Joseph of the Nez Perces, and Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Sioux. With hindsight, it is apparent that none of these men could totally win against the white culture, but they each found a different compromise. Freedman does not romanticize the Indian viewpoint, nor is he judgmental against the whites. He presents a factual, human account of cultures in conflict. The black-and-white photographs and prints reinforce the well-written biographies. Because the coverage is limited to leaders of western tribes, only two of the men in this book are also included in Lynne Deur's more general Indian Chiefs. Freedman's narrative flows smoothly. The bibliography and index add to the book's usefulness as a resource for research as well. [1 copy available]
$ 4.00 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

NATIVE AMERICANS OF THE WEST: A Sourcebook on the American West
edited by Carter Smith. Illustrated with color and B&W maps, color art repros, and era B&W art and drawings . Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1992 Library of Congress soft cover, second printing. Edge wear with rubbings along hinges. Interior clean, tight, perfect. Content: Describes and illustrates the Native Americans of the West, from before the arrival of Europeans to the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, through a variety of images created during that period. The illustrations alone are a reason to own this book. Ages 12+. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 3.59 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN COLLECTION OF THE LOWE ART MUSEUM
by Lowe Art Museum & University of Miami. B&W and color photos. Condition: 1988 University of Miami - Lowe Art Museum soft cover catalogue, no edition or printing given. If read, it was gently - but there is a name on the inside front cover. Content: Museum catalogue of Lowe Museum exhibition of Native American artifacts. Heavy on Southwestern textiles, but the other tribal regions are also represented, especially the Plains Indians. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 22.59 + $ 3.39 media shipping.

RED SHADOWS: The History Native Americans from 1600 to 1900 from the Desert to the Pacific Coast
by Dan Georgakas. Great B&W maps detailing the locations of the tribes plus B&W era photos. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1973 Zenith Trade Paperback, no printing given. Tanning to white cover edges with light edge wear. No tanning to interior pages. Content: The history of the tribes living in the Southwest, California, and the Pacific Northwest. A bit dated, of course, but definitely worth the read. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

STOLEN CONTINENTS: Conquest and Resistance In The Americas
by Ronald Wright. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 2000 Phoenix (UK) large Trade Paperback 424 pages), no printing given. Content: Clear and concise history detailing the experiences of Native Americans on both continents from 1492 to 1990, from travel-writer and Mayan specialist Wright. Rather than attempt a comprehensive rendering of the centuries of genocide practiced by those who came in the wake of Columbus, Wright sensibly opts to present a few of the "highlights." The savagery practiced against five major cultures - the Maya, Inca, Aztec, Cherokee, and Iroquois - and their responses appear in three stages, encompassing five hundred years: the initial periods of contact in each case; the hard and bloody struggles of these peoples once the battle was joined; and the modern phase, in which resistance continues along with the resolve to endure. Using contemporary native accounts wherever possible, in the belief that the white version has been heard often enough, Wright recounts Montezuma's failed strategy to welcome Cortes as an equal, which led to his palace becoming his prison; the Cherokee Nation's willingness two centuries later to emulate Western civilization, which only brought forced removal to Oklahoma and death along the Trail of Tears; and other base betrayals. Even with their societies largely destroyed, however, retention of an indigenous identity for the Incan descendants in Peru and their Mayan counterparts in Guatemala, and events such as last year's tense standoff between defiant Iroquois and thousands of Canadian troops can be seen, Wright says, as evidence that a determined native resistance continues. Familiar facts but a distinctive viewpoint: an intensely partisan chronicle of centuries of dishonor, written in a fluid, vivid style. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
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TURTLE ISLAND ALPHABET; A Lexicon of Native American Symbols and Culture
by Gerald Hausman. Foreword by N. Scott Momaday. B&W and sepia-tone photos illustrate throughout. Condition: Gently pre-read, IF at all, 1993 St. Martin's Press soft cover, first printing. Tiny edge wear, but no major problems. Content: In this elegant volume, Hausman examines major themes of Native American culture as observed in poetry, experience and collective memory. Hausman has produced a list of some 50 common Native American terms, artifacts, objects, and concepts in an illustrated dictionary format. This book is not intended to be a dictionary like John Stoutenberg Jr.'s classic Dictionary of the American Indian, but rather a sensitive examination of these words as seen through the cultural eye of Native Americans. The "story" of each word is presented in art, poetry, and text giving the reader an explanation of how this word has been historically and mythically passed down through centuries of Native American storytelling. Objects and artifacts are described practically with a history of their use and development. All terms are given a mythological explanation indicating the word's significance to society. This fascinating browser for general readers is a unique mix of art, explanation, and philosophy. [Wonderful book!] [1 copy available]
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