Book Description
Religion was as central in the day-to-day lives of prehistoric southwestern people just as it is in the lives of their descendants today. Examining the role of religion can help to explain architecture, pottery, agriculture, even commerce. But archaeologists have only recently developed the theoretical and methodological tools with which to study this topic. Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest marks the first book-length study of prehistoric religion in the region. Drawing on a rich array of empirical approaches, the contributors show the importance of understanding beliefs and ritual for a range of time periods and southwestern societies. For professional and avocational archaeologists, for religion scholars and students, Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest represents an important contribution. ... Read more

Book Description
Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest offers a complete picture of Puebloan culture from its prehistoric beginnings through twenty-five hundred years of growth and change, ending with the modern-day Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona.

Aerial and ground photographs, over 325 in color, and sixty settlement plans provide an armchair trip to ruins that are open to the public and that may be visited or viewed from nearby. Included, too, are the living pueblos from Taos in north central New Mexico along the Rio Grande Valley to Isleta, and westward through Acoma and Zuni to the Hopi pueblos in Arizona.

In addition to the architecture of the ruins, Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest gives a detailed overview of the Pueblo Indians’ lifestyles including their spiritual practices, food, clothing, shelter, physical appearance, tools, government, water management, trade, ceramics, and migrations.

Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest offers over 325 color photos showing Puebloan culture from its prehistoric beginnings through twenty-five hundred years of growth and change, ending with the modern-day Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. ... Read more

Book Description
The road from dispossessed people to successful nation was a long one, but for the Choctaws it has been worth the journey. This book examines how one tribe moved beyond setbacks to establish a powerful modern tribal government.

The Choctaws in Oklahoma begins with the Choctaws' removal from Mississippi to Indian Territory in the 1830s and then traces the history of the tribe's subsequent efforts to retain and expand its rights and to reassert tribal sovereignty in the late twentieth century. As Kidwell explains, Choctaws adapted to the very structures imposed on them by their colonizers: courts and laws. Tribal politicians quickly learned to use the rhetoric of dependency on the government, but they also demanded justice in the form of fulfillment of their treaty rights, and the Choctaw Nation confronted the government as a legal adversary to achieve its own ends. The Choctaws have adroitly negotiated with the United States and created the Choctaw Nation that exists today.

The Choctaws' story illuminates a key point in contemporary scholarship on the history of American Indians: that they were not passive victims of colonization and did not assimilate quietly into American society. The Choctaws in Oklahoma illustrates one tribe's remarkable success in asserting its sovereignty and establishing a national identity in the face of seemingly insurmountable legal obstacles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Indeed Contested Territory
As a resident of Oklahoma, I found this book to be particularly fascinating. While we are often taught about the history of America as a nation, we are many times left with somewhat of a void as far as history of individual states are concerned.This book demonstrates excellent research skills as told by the many many primary sources. Wickett quite obviously has done his RESEARCH.While many historans today choose to rely on other historians research, Wickett has decided to sift through the abundant primary sources in order to break new ground.His information was thorough, well documented and completely enjoyable to read.My only complaint of the book is that it was not longer; I wanted to read more.Wickett's book would be an asset to the education of history students in Oklahoma as well as anyone interested in our unique history.

Indeed Contested Territory
As a resident of Oklahoma, I found this book to be particularly fascinating. While we are often taught about the history of America as a nation, we are many times left with somewhat of a void as far as history of individual states are concerned.This book demonstrates excellent research skills as told by the many many primary sources. Wickett quite obviously has done his RESEARCH.While many historans today choose to rely on other historians research, Wickett has decided to sift through the abundant primary sources in order to break new ground.His information was thorough, well documented and completely enjoyable to read.My only complaint of the book is that it was not longer; I wanted to read more.Wickett's book would be an asset to the education of history students in Oklahoma as well as anyone interested in our unique history.

Contested Territory: Whites, Native Americans and African Am
I feel this book has great importance and significance in the turbulent field of race relations.While reading this book I was continually struck by the extensive amount of research this historian has completed. I found Wickett's comparison and analysis of African Americans and Native Americans in white society to be fascinating.He clearly points out that while Native Americans were being invited into white society, African Americans were being segregated and pushed to the periphery of American society. The irony of course is that Native Americans did not wish to join white society, while African Americans were more than willing to do so.I feel this book has made an important contribution in the field of race relations.

Well-Trod Territory
Contested Territory purports to be an examination of the interactions between whites, blacks and Native Americans in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories prior to statehood. Instead, it offers an old-fashioned, well-worn tale of white oppression and Native American and black reaction. That story might need to be told, but Wickett's attempt is a frustrating failure on many levels. First is Wickett's race-relations model. Wickett seems content to write a history that ignores much of the last three decades of scholarship on race, gender, identity, cultural formation, community building, acts of resistance, etc. (Since I am most familiar with the historiography of African American scholarship, I will use examples from that literature). Wickett shows no familiarity with the body of work produced by Joe Trotter Jr., Darlene Clark Hine, Robin D.G. Kelley, Quintard Taylor (and others of their generation) who have produced masterful, critical analyses of the lived worlds of African American men and women. Black Oklahomans, in Wickett's world, are one amorphous class, reduced for the most part to reacting to whites and, on occasion, Native Americans.Too often Wickett relies on scholarship that is thirty to forty years old. In fact, when I finished the first two chapters, I was certain that Contested Territory was the work of a venerable professor who finally had gotten around to turning 30-year-old lecture notes into a monograph. Instead, we have a scholar who unstintingly relies on the work and subtle biases of historians writing in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He even quotes some of these works at length. Wickett also relies uncritically on the reminisces of early white settlers. He does not challenge any of these recollections of life in early Oklahoma nor consider that the memories of these settlers, most of which cast Native Americans and African Americans in a negative light and were collected by the WPA more than four decades later, might be based more in the settlers' biases than in fact. Contested Territory does offer some new information and Wickett is to be commended for his work in the archives. But the shortcomings of this work more than outweigh its value. I had considered using this as a text in a course that I teach, but I can't in good conscious require that my students purchase such a flawed work. Nor would I want to spend the time trying to erase the negative images that Contested Territory would leave with them. ... Read more

Product Description
"Southwestern Indian Tribes" is a detailed and beautifully photographed book that showcases the many different Native tribes that are a part of the American Southwest. Tom Bahti was recognized as an authority on the arts and crafts of the southwestern Indian. ... Read more

Product Description
By Tom Bahti, a graduate of the ANthropology Department of the University of New Mexico, dealer and collector of Indian art in Tucson. Comprehensive discussion of Southwestern tribe arts and crafts with lovely color photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

did not ever receive the book
I ordered it and was emailed it was not available.

Hopi by Jake Page
Outstanding book!GREAT pictures that probably could not be duplicated today, as the Hopi gave remarkable access to the Pages for this book.The Pages have not abused that trust.

An intimate portrait...
I have Hopi in laws and adoptive family members whose pictures appear in this loving--and accurate--portrayal of a world into which I was honored to be invited.I lived on the reservation itself for 8 years, and continue to be a family member and trusted friend.But having moved away, whenever I need to be reminded of what a rich and wondrous world in which my Hopi relations still reside...this book brings it all back in beautiful photos and delightful accounts of village life.And, as I recall, it was one of the first books of its kind to be openly "endorsed" by many of the Hopi locals in their own art galleries on the mesas.They were very proud of this book!

A masterpiece!
Being someone who knows many traditional Hopi families and visits often, I find this a very accurate account of America's most traditional Native tribe.Although much of their culture is private, Susanne and Jake have done a great job in depicting the social apsect of Hopi culture.The Hopi people are a joy to know....

Hopi
This book is absolutly amazing, with magnificint photographs, which are hard to find of the Hopi, and terrific information. ... Read more

Book Description

First published in 1974, this best-selling book was lauded by Choice as 'an important, ground-breaking study of the Assiniboine and western Cree Indians who inhabited southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan' and 'essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Canadian west before 1870.'

Indians in the Fur Trade makes extensive use of previously unpublished Hudson's Bay Company archival materials and other available data to reconstruct the cultural geography of the West at the time of early contact, illustrating many of the rapid cultural transformations with maps and diagrams.Now with a new introduction and an update on sources, it will continue to be of great use to students and scholars of Native and Canadian history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Indians and the Hudson Bay Company
There are probably only about three people in the world interested in this subject: you, me, and the author.That being said this is a jewel of a book in the genre of academic histories.Not the least of its virtues is that the author has included the astonishing total of 46 maps and charts to help the reader along.Given the usual sparse and inadequate maps of low-budget academic books this is much-appreciated.

The focus of the book is the trade relations between the Cree and Assiniboine Indians of Manitoba and Saskatchewan with French and English traders.In describing the trade the author drops in numerous pearls of wisdom about wildlife and ecology of the Canadian plains, Indian hunting strategies, inter-tribal relations, epidemics, and even details about the trade items most popular with the Indians and their prices in beaver pelts.One of the most interesting sections of the book concerns the role of firearms versus bows and arrows in Indian hunting and warfare. Another little gem concerns the Indian dislike of eating "red deer" meat.It took me a while to figure out that the Canadian author was talking about what we would call "elk" in the US.

This is a sound and scholarly history that delves deeply into the files of the Hudson Bay Company and other trading companies to paint what seems to be an authentic picture of Indian life on the Canadian plains in the early days of White/Indian contact.Highly recommended!

Smallchief ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Walk the talk
An enlightening read about the nomadic Apaches of northern Mexico and the bordering states, primarily Arizona and New Mexico.The author, John C.Cremony, a military officer, stays focused on the Apache tribe admirably recording his observations without divergence. What I found fascinating is his description about their culture and the difference of it from other Indian tribes, his personal bias notwithstanding. Example, the Apache's "whole system of life and training is to plunder, murder and deceive, they cannot comprehend opposite attributes in others. He whom we would denounce as the greatest scoundrel they regard with special esteem and honor. With no people are they on amicable terms, and never hesitate to rob from each other when it can be done with impunity. There is no sympathy among them; the quality is unknown."

This and Cremony's other comments regarding dealing with the Apache, like: "...other devices were resorted to for the purpose of quietly infiltrating the Apache mind with a sense of our superiority, but always most carefully guarding against any appearance of seeking to contrast American attainment with savage ignorance." caused this reviewer to wonder about the current American exposure to cultures worldwide and how we relate with "those" people. Do we understand them or do we presuppose that our values are superior and so operate according to our personal biases? Hmmm, a labeling of "ugly American" comes to mind.

I continued to wonder, when dealing with another culture do we Americans comport ourselves with an impartiality and an open-mindedness; do we allow for a bilateral exchange of ideas and perhaps a better understanding of our differing stations? Would not that be beneficial to both cultures?

Captain Cremony explains how he learned to deal with the Apache and their "savage" ways by learning their language, then listening and observing. This book is such a lesson.

Obviously Biased
Cremony was known to gloat and fictionalize his stories. And as noted in the book description, Cremony's main intent was to further suppress those who were here in America before himself, in particular the Apaches. If you read this book, also read Cochise by Ed Sweeney and Mangas Coloradas to get a view from both sides of the fence.

Superb
Here is what I would call the perfect antidote to the rampant and insane Politically Correct Dogma that is now being relentlessly promoted as "FACT" concerning the history of the Western Frontier. Cremony dealt with the Apache during their "guerilla phase" ( a time when their numbers had been reduced too low due to being slaughtered by Comanches for them to offer any head-to-head battle with enemy forces ). The author, a member of the famed California Volunteers, dealth with ( and knew ) chiefs like Delgadito, Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and other notables personally. He gives great details of his struggles with them and of their habits in war and in confinement BEFORE reservations were actually established.

Furthermore, he gives good details concerning his friendships with some Apaches and of their psychological make-up and motivations, as well as their advancement over other tribes in terms of understanding a decimal system in their concept of mathematics. Cremony offers details on their hunting and food-gathering tactics and habits, and he TRUTHFULLY AND ACCURATELY recommends actions be taken against them in order to spare the settlers of the region harm and distress AT A TIME BEFORE SETTLERS BEGAN MOVING INTO THE SOUTHWEST. If Cremony's recomendations had been taken seriously by Washington, the entire Southwest would have been spared the wide-spread and tragic events that took place long after Cremony had retired to California. Countless lives could have been spared. The economic picture of New Mexico, Arizona, and west Texas would have been much brighter much sooner. The whole sorry, sordid, winding series of events filled with brutality, torture, mutilation, and butchery could have been avoided.
This is an absolutely wonderful book of the "couldn't put it down" variety. It utterly destroys the Politically Correct ideal which holds the American Indian as some sort of Red Aristocrat or Feathered Philosopher/Sage who was so hard done by. A perfect antidote to the drek spewed out by leftist "educators" and pseudo-historians by an eye-witness who was THERE.
Get this book whatever you do! Also, get THREE YEARS AMONG THE COMANCHES and SCALP DANCE. They're also available right here at amazon.com and they're just as good as this one is!

Apache Through the Eyes of a Calvary Man
Though this book was written well over a hundred year ago by a dedicated American calvary man, I couldn't help but be struck by the amazing relevance of fighting terror to today's current events!

Many of Mr. Cremony's accounts of Indian terror are very similiar to the war we are fighting today.Including his lamenting of the huge cost the American government was spending to fight the Indian wars!Sound familiar about the war on terror today???

Unbeknownst to Mr. Cremony at that time also, the character of the Apaches as he described them are in many ways very similiar to the tactics and character of terrorist today.(This is not to say the Apache were terrorist, I just find the similiarities remarkable). One would think some of the things learned in his book could certainly be applied today.

There is also much praise of the physical prowess, preserverance, and cunning of the Apache.If what he writes is true, I have come to respect the prowess of the Apache as nearly unmatched!There is even one amazing story of an Apache who took on a rampaging buffalo armed only with his large knife.

My only regret with this book is he did not dwelve into the Apache diet enough.It was the perfect time to take a scientific look at their diet from this fading, but very active tribe.One gets the sense that he really didn't care, or didn't bother to write much more about it.He was after all, a tactical soldier, not a dietician.And what he writes about their diet certainly reflects that.I believe much precious knowledge was lost.

One may not always have to read Spartan-Greek wars book to learn about fighting wars. (As if reading classics alludes one to some kind of sophistication.)A good simple cowboy-indian book may be all you need.

I might add his story is also a good Western read when most of America's West was a no-man's land.Like any good life story it tells much more than the title suggest.It truly was another era that we will never see again.

Fascinating and Authentic
Life Among The Apaches is one of the most interesting and fascinating historical nonfiction works that I have ever come across.It's a first-hand account of John C. Cremony's personal adventures with Apache indians in the latter part of the 19th century, in particular the Chiricahua Apaches.I've never come across a better or more explanatory or descriptive account of Apache peoples, culture, or way of life in the 1800's than in Life Among The Apaches.

This book was given to me as a present some years ago, and it has proven to be one of the most authentic Native American historical pieces of literature that has ever been abridged. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Native Americans of the Southwest
A good student's and traveler's introduction to the native peoples of Arizona and New Mexico.Well illustrated with photos, maps and drawings, the text starts in earliest times, goes through European contact and concludes with sections on separate tribes.
Tom Bahti was a graduate of the Anthropology Department of the University of New Mexico and was for many years a dealer and collector of Indian art in his Tucson shop.He and his son workedto improve the welfare of Indians through self-help programs.Mr. Bahti is also the author of Southwestern Indian Arts and Crafts and Southwestern Indian Ceremonials.

Index of Indian Tribes
Acoma
Apache
Jicarilia
Mescalero
San Carolos
White Mountain
Chemehuevi
Cochiti
Colorado River Tribes
Cocopa
Mohave
Maricopa
Yuma
Havasupai
Hopi
Haualapai
Isleta
Jemez
Laguna
Nambe
Navajo
Pauite
Papago
Picuris
Pima
Pojoaque
San Felipe
San Ildefonso
San Juan
Sandia
Santa Ana
Santa Clara
Santo Domingo
Taos
Tesuque
Ute
Yavapai
Yaqui
Zia
Zuni ... Read more

Book Description
This volume-only the third full O'odham telling of ancientness in print-brings together dozens of stories collected in 1927 by anthropologist Ruth Benedict during her only visit to the Pimas. Never before published, it contains more stories than any other source of Pima tales, plus more of the songs and orations that accompanied a telling. It also includes a previously unpublished text by Benedict, "Figures of Speech among the Pima." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Quiet but Charming
"The Old Hogan" is a charming little story told from the point of view of the hogan, as she watches a more modern home being built for her family. She listens to the children as they joyfully chant about moving into a REAL HOUSE. What is a "real" house? She reflects on the life that has gone on inside of her. Will there still be a place for her when the family moves out? Although this book was first published in 1993, it has a much older feel to it. The illustrations are soft, simplistic images. The text is slow and sentimental, but not overly long. I love this book for its simplicity and the cultural significance of its use in teaching reading in Navajo schools. Visually, it may not be a book that a child would pick out on their own, but the cultural information is valuable and it is a nice book for a quiet moment of shared reading. ... Read more