Book Description
First published in 1992 and now available only from the University of New Mexico Press, this is a firsthand account of life at a famous archaeological ruin. Married to Richard Wetherill, the rancher and amateur archaeologist who ran a trading post in Chaco Canyon from 1896 until he was murdered by a Navajo in 1910, Marietta Wetherill got to know her Navajo neighbors as intimately as an Anglo could. While Richard was excavating at Pueblo Bonito, Marietta managed the trading post. She befriended a singer who adopted her into his clan and gave her a close-up view of Navajo medicine and religion. ... Read more

Book Description
Surviving Conquest is a history of the Yavapai Indians, who have lived for centuries in central Arizona. Although primarily concerned with survival in a desert environment, early Yavapais were also involved in a complex network of alliances, rivalries, and trade. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries European missionaries and colonizers moved into the region, bringing diseases, livestock, and a desire for Indian labor. Beginning in 1863, U.S. settlers and soldiers invaded Yavapai lands, established farms, towns, and forts, and initiated murderous campaigns against Yavapai families. Historian Timothy Braatz shows how Yavapais responded in a variety of ways to the violations that disrupted their hunting and gathering economies and threatened their survival. In the 1860s, some stole from American settlements and some turned to wage work. Yavapais also asked U.S. officials to establish reservations where they could live, safe from attack, in their homelands.Despite the Yavapais' successful efforts to become sedentary farmers, in 1875 U.S. officials relocated them across Arizona to the San Carlos Apache Reservation. For the next twenty-five years, they remained in exile but were determined to return home. They joined the commercial Arizona economy, repeatedly requested permission to leave San Carlos, and, repeatedly denied, left anyway, a few families at a time. By 1901 nearly all had returned to Yavapai lands, and through persistence and savvy lobbying eventually received three federally recognized reservations. Drawing on in-depth archival research and accounts recorded in the early twentieth century by a Yavapai named Mike Burns, Braatz tells the story of the Yavapais and their changing world. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1935 under the title "The Texas Indians." The text was retitled, enlarged and revised in 1963.Here is the Indian's story - not a tale of blood, thunder and war, but a study of his home life, manners, and religious customs. A through ethnological treatise, "Indians of the Southwest" tells of the Indians' arts and sciences and of the laws by which he lived before the advent of white man. In vivid readable style, this volume reports actual eyewitness accounts of those who saw and took part in marriages, deaths, burial rites, feasts, and celebrations. Here are seen the exultations following war, the scalpdances and tortures, the sacred ceremonies of the New Fire, and the Green Corn Dance. And, with great beauty and understanding, the author unveils the story of the American Indian and his religion. This is a fascinating anthropoligical anaysis of Native American cultures. ... Read more

Book Description
The Anasazi Indians of the Southwest represent 2,500 years of cultural continuity, from the early Basket Makers of 700 B.C. to their modern descendants, the Pueblo Indians. The pueblos and cliff dwellings they built during their halcyon days between 1100 and 1500 A.D. are the most spectacular ruins north of Mexico. In this book, all of the significant and accessible Anasazi ruins are photographedand described in detail. Special attention is paid to the magnificent sites of Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and Kayenta. Also included are illustrations of rock art and examples of the delicate jewelry and beautiful ceramics that have survived. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Big and Beautiful
This book has tons of color and B&W pictures and some of the best pictures of the southwest ruins you are ever going to find.It also has numerous site maps illustrating the ruins and their vicinity.The pictures are not just your everyday tourbook photos.They are spectacular.The author mixes numerous aerial shots that show you overviews of the sites and mixes in a generous amount of detail shots to help you see what the sites look like when you are there.There are also sketches and conceptual drawings which tell about the history.Just because there are a lot of photos, do not think the text is lacking.The book has all you would ever need to know about the sites including history, archeological finds etc.It accomplishes this amazingly enough without boring the reader.The most important thing about this book is that it is comprehensive.An example is its description of Mesa Verde park which is 44 pages of text and pictures.The section includes a detailed description of the stops you can make off ruins road as well as maps and pictures of sites you can't even access.Overall, this is the book you want to have when you plan your trip and the one you want on your coffee table to show your friends and family where you have been.A must have for anyone fascinated by the Anasazi culture.

Excellent companion for field visits
I have found this to be an excellent resource for finding sites of interest and a faithfull companion for exploring the site once I have arrived.The information provides a nice addition to any anasazi library ... Read more

Book Description
Since the 1960s, large-scale cultural resource management projects have revealed the former presence of extensive and varied Basketmaker III populations across the entire northern Southwest. These discoveries have resulted in a greatly expanded view of the BMIII period (A.D. 550-750) which immediately proceeds the Pueblo phase.Particularly noteworthy are findings of Basketmaker remains under those of later periods and in sites with open settings, as opposed to the more classic Basketmaker cave and rock shelter sites.Foundations of Anasazi Culture explores this new evidence in search of further understanding of Anasazi development. Several chapters address the BMII-BMIII transition, including the initial production and use of pottery, greater reliance on agriculture, and the construction of increasingly elaborate structures.Other chapters move beyond the transitional period to discuss key elements of the Anasazi lifeway, including the use of gray-, red-, and white-ware ceramics, pir structures, storage cists, surface rooms, full dependence on agriculture, and varying degrees of social specialization and differentiation.A number of contributions address one or more of these issues as they occur at specific sites. Other contributors consider the material culture of the period in terms of common elements in architecture, ceramics, lithic technology, and decorative media.This major synthesis of recent work on BMIII sites on the Colorado Plateau will be useful to anyone with an interest in the earliest days of Anasazi civilization. ... Read more

Book Description
Who were the Ute Indians?And what part did they play in the history of the Western Slope?When prospectors arrived in present day Colorado in 1858, it was the Utes who greeted them.These Native Americans had inhabited this part of the Rocky Mountains for centuries.When originally published in 1956, The Utes: A Forgotten People was the first published book devoted solely to an overall history of the Ute Indians.Wilson Rockwell undertook painstaking research and many interviews to extensively record the history of the early Native Americans who once dominated our region.Rockwell includes everything; it's all here, from the fights, conflicts, customs, and pre-history to the dances, economy, movement, and famous leaders of the seven Ute bands who contributed so much to the history of western Colorado and Utah.This book has been used as the primary source of research for every book on the Utes written since. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A disappointing and dated book
The title of this book is apt, for the author has forgotten to include those Ute groups who lived in, what is now, the state of Utah. This book deals solely with those Ute groups that lived within Colorado. Also theearly history of the Utes is largely ignored - 100 plus years of contactwith the Spanish is skimmed over in a few pages. Likewise the traditionallife and customs of the Utes gets scant treatment.

Most of the bookdeals with the Colorado Utes history subsequent to the American occupationof the west. The events of the "Meeker Massacre" occupy a largepart.

The book was first published in the 1950s and this shows in the waythe author, at times, discribes the Utes as "savages" and"bucks". Overall this books merits lie in its desciptions of theevents around the "Meeker Massacre" and the removal of most ofthe Utes from Colorado. Anyone wanting to learn more about the Utestraditional life styles and beliefs would be better served by "TheUtes - the Mountain People" by Jan Pettit which is a more up to datetreatment of the early history and customs of the Utes (also profuselyillustrated.

An absolute must for anyone interested in Native History!
This has been an very interesting and incredibly thourough journey through history.The book contains Ute Indian stories and historical matters written in detail to near perfection .But how could you possibly go wrong with such intricate research.Nothing is missing from this book...it is filled withUte Indian facts from early history and developement to religion, marriagesand wars.The photos are ample and very intreresting, really portraying theaccompanying stories. ... Read more

Book Description

On a warm spring morning in Osage County the senses may be seized by evidence of waking life. The prairie grasses throw off a pungent scent. They may be wet with dew, enough to soak a horse to his belly.

Author R. H. Lloyd was born in Osage County, Oklahoma, but spent much of his life after the age of ten in England. Returning to Oklahoma later in life prompted him to reflect on the place of his birth and its history.

Customer Reviews (1)

A must read
Having known little about this fascinating aspect of American history, I was warmed and amused and interested by the combination of genuine historical information about this amazing tribe as well as truly enchanted by the personal references of the author ... Read more

Book Description
In addition to reprinting the full text of Clifton's extraordinary ethnohistory, this expanded edition features a new essay offering a narrative of his continuing professional and personal encounters, since 1962, with this enduring native community. ... Read more

Book Description
Bill Wright's new photographic study continues his series on American Indian tribes in Texas. Historian John Gesick contributes a historical essay that tells the story of the tribe's migration from the woodlands of the northeast to the deserts of Texas and Coahuila, Mexico.Wright and Gesick followed the Kickapoo during the summer as they worked as migrant farm workers and to their sacred homeland of Nacimiento, Coahuila, where they still live in traditional wickiups and practice the religion of their forefathers.Among the many highlights of the text, is a Kickapoo story in the oral tradition, relating Col. Ranald MacKenzie's raid into the Kickapoo hunting camp near Remolino, Mexico, in 1873--a story never before in print; a description of the Kickapoo social infrastructure, detailing the construction and meaning of their dwelling, language, religion, and political organization in Texas and Mexico; a recounting of Wright's and Gesick's experience when they accompanied three young Kickapoos on a hunt and the significance of deer to the tribe.The Kickapoo of Texas pride themselves in safeguarding their traditions amid the overwhelming momentum of western culture. Historical photographs of the tribe collected from family albums as well as from national museum collections document the visual history, and Bill Wright's contemporary photographs illuminate the present life and culture. Mary Cristopher Nunley, Ph.D., anthropologist and Kickapoo scholar, in her introduction to "The Texas Kickapoo" provides an insight and understanding into the Kickapoo culture. ... Read more

Book Description
Three decades ago--years after most tribes had filed land claims--the Zuni initiated legal battles related to aboriginal claims, rights, and use that few experts thought they could win. Yet by 1991 they had achieved three major victories.

In the first case, the Zuni sued the United States, seeking payment for aboriginal territorial lands taken without adequate compensation. In the second, also against the United States, the tribe sought compensation for environmental damages to Zuni trust lands caused by the U.S. government and by private industry where the federal government should have provided protection. And in the third, the U.S. government sued a private rancher on the Zuni's behalf to establish an easement protecting an ancient religious trail.

Providing a new overview of these cases and Zuni history, Richard Hart has gathered together essays written by many of those who testified for the Zuni--historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and scientists--as well as commentary from the tribe's lawyers. The authors simplify the complex nature of the testimony, making it accessible to a wide audience. They cover such diverse but significant issues as Spanish law and land grants, tribal aboriginal title, the Navajo wars, U.S. territorial policy, deforestation, erosion, geomorphology, dendrochronology, environmental history, anthropology, archaeology, education, folklore, oral history, and religion.

Tying together current events with cultural and legal history, Zuni and the Courts not only provides expert observations on how and why the Zuni succeeded but offers insight into how similar cases can be fought and won.

This book is part of the Development of Western Resources series. ... Read more

Book Description
A significant but often forgotten chapter in U.S. government and Native American relations is the twenty-seven year period of captivity endured by the Chiricahua Apaches following Geronimo's final surrender. Nearly four hundred Chiricahuas were uprooted and exiled from their San Carlos, Arizona, home, where they ended up being held hostage by conflicting interests of the War Department, Interior Department, as well as southwestern economic and political expediency.

The installation at Fort Sill eventually grew to 50,000 acres and was originally promised to the Chiricahuas as their permanent reservation. In an effort to make them economically independent, the tribe was given a heard of 1,000 cattle, which eventually grew over the years to 10,000 head. In 1903, the military reneged on the initial agreement and decided to retain Fort Sill and turn the post into a field artillery training installation. In 1913, those Chiricahuas who wished were removed to New Mexico. Those remaining in Oklahoma were placed on former Kiowa and Comanche allotments-but not before the military sold their cattle herd. The Chiricahuas ended up with a mere 160-acre allotment beyond the post's confines, an insufficient amount of land to provide a viable base of economic sustenance for the tribe.

Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War is the first book of its kind to explore in depth this segment of the Chiricahuas' history following Geronimo's surrender, including the campaign for their release from military custody, their efforts to retain Fort Sill as their permanent home, and the conflicting interests who competed to resolve the Indians' status. It will be of great interest to scholars in the fields of Native American studies, military studies, and western history. ... Read more

Book Description
This story of the Navajo is told with faithfulness and respect to their ancient tradition.Illustrations and charts enhance the work prepared by an author who lived and worked among "the people" for 21 years. ... Read more

Book Description
No Native American groups placed more emphasis on the horse in their lives than did the Navajo and Apache of the Southwest. They Sang for Horses, first published in 1966 and now considered a classic, remains the only comprehensive treatment of the profound mystical influence that the horse has exerted for more than three hundred years.

In this completely redesigned and expanded edition, LaVerne Harrell Clark examines how storytellers, singers, medicine men, and painters created the animal's evolving symbolic significance by adapting existing folklore and cultural symbols. Exploring the horse's importance in ceremonies, songs, prayers, customs, and beliefs, she investigates the period of the horse's most pronounced cultural impact on the Navajo and the Apache, starting from the time of its acquisition from the Spanish in the seventeenth century and continuing to the mid-1960s, when the pickup truck began to replace it as the favored means of transportation. In addition, she presents a look at how Navajos and Apaches today continue to redefine the horse's important role in their spiritual as well as material lives.

This classic work is a must for historians, readers interested in Native American folklore and mythology, and anyone who has ever been captivated by the magic and romance of the horse.

Co-winner of the 1967 University of Chicago Folklore Award ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Enhanced with a new epilogue and photographs
In a newly revised edition enhanced with a new epilogue and photographs, LaVerne Clark's They Sang For Horses: The Impact Of The Horse On Navajo & Apache Folklore, is a fascinating and informative study of how the acquisition of the horse transformed the mythology and cosmology of the southwestern Native American cultures of the Navajo and Apache. Chapters include: The Acquisition of the Horse; The Gift of the Gods; The Magic and Ritual of the Raid for Horses; The People's Ways for Keeping Horses Holy; The Horse's Powers Over the People's Health; The Horse's Role in Folk Customs and Other Ceremonies. A strongly recommended addition for any academic or community library Native American Studies reading list or reference collection, They Sang For Horses also features an extensive bibliography for further readings, as well as a "user friendly" index. ... Read more