Best of
Native-Americans

2004

The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History


Joseph M. Marshall III - 2004
    Now, with the help of celebrated historian Joseph Marshall, we finally have the opportunity to know Crazy Horse as his fellow Lakota Indians knew him.Drawing on extensive research and a rich oral tradition that it rarely shared outside Native American circles, Marshall - himself a descendent of the Lakota community that raised Crazy Horse - creates a vibrant portrait of the man, his times, and his legacy. From the powerful vision that spurred him into battle to the woman he loved but lost to duty and circumstance, this is a compelling celebration of a culture, an enduring way of life, and the unforgettable hero who remains a legend among legends.Marshall's gloriously poetic and sweeping chronicle ushers in a new genre of American history...A tour de force. - Peter Nabakov, author of Native American TestimonyA remarkable portrait of a remarkable man. - Colin G. Calloway, professor of history and Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies, Dartmouth College

Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement


Dennis Banks - 2004
    In Ojibwa Warrior, written with acclaimed writer and photographer Richard Erdoes, Banks tells his own story for the first time and also traces the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM). The authors present an insider’s understanding of AIM protest events—the Trail of Broken Treaties march to Washington, D.C.; the resulting takeover of the BIA building; the riot at Custer, South Dakota; and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee. Enhancing the narrative are dramatic photographs, most taken by Richard Erdoes, depicting key people and events.

Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools


Ward Churchill - 2004
    The stated goal of this government program was to “kill the Indian to save the man.” Half of the children did not survive the experience, and those who did were left permanently scarred. The resulting alcoholism, suicide, and the transmission of trauma to their own children has led to a social disintegration with results that can only be described as genocidal.Ward Churchill is the author of A Little Matter of Genocide, among other books. He is currently a Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women


Wilma Mankiller - 2004
    Coming together as one, 19 strong and successful women provide a rare glimpse into their lives with the hope that their voices will be heard and their message understood: bear witness to the unforgivable acts that their people have survived and take a step forward in mending old wrongs and forgiving past and present hurts. Brings to light the insight of women artists, lawyers, ranchers, doctors, and educators Discussions range from the land to government, love to family life. Conversational style of writing presents a genuine Native American perspective.

Shanyaak'utlaax̱ / Salmon Boy


Johnny Marks - 2004
    This offends the Salmon People, who sweep him into the water and into their world, where they name him Shanyaak'utlaax̱ or Salmon Boy. Find out what happens to Shanyaak'utlaax̱ in this ancient Tlingit story.-from WorldCat

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South


Richard F. Townsend - 2004
    and A.D. 1500. This fascinating book presents exciting new information on the art and cultures of these ancient peoples and features hundreds of gorgeous photographs of important artworks, artifacts, and ritual objects excavated from Amerindian archaeological sites.Drawing on excavation findings and extensive research, the contributors to the book document a succession of distinct ancient populations in the pre-Columbian world of the American Midwest and Southeast. A team of interdisciplinary scholars examines the connections between archaeological remains of different regions and the themes, forms, and rituals that continue in specific tribes of today. The book also includes the personal reflections of contemporary Native Americans who discuss their perspectives on the significance of the fascinating and beautiful prehistoric artifacts as well as their own cultural practices today.

Sister to the Wolf


Maxine Trottier - 2004
    In this rough town, indien slaves are routinely mistreated. As Cecile Chesne watches the branding iron burn into young Lesharo's flesh, she knows she must act. Defying convention, the headstrong girl buys the slave's freedom and treats him as an equal. Lesharo is Pawnee--the People of the Wolf. Sworn to protect Cecile, he accompanies her and her father, a coureur de bois, as they leave Quebec for a perilous journey to the new fort at Detroit. Fort society, however, makes Cecile and Lesharo miserable. Torn between two worlds, they can only be free in the wild. But freedom will not come easily. One terrible night, Cecile is forced to make a dreadful choice...

The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery


Gary E. Moulton - 2004
    This is the riveting account of their journey. In their own words, recorded in the famous journals of Lewis and Clark, the members of the Corps of Discovery tell their story with an immediacy and power missing from secondhand accounts. All of their triumphs and terrors are here: the thrill of seeing the vast herds of bison, the fear the captains felt when Sacagawea fell ill, the ordeal of crossing the Continental Divide. The natural wonders of an unspoiled America are here, and the lives and customs of its native peoples also vividly come to life, making for a living drama that is humorous, poignant and, at least once, tragic. Editor Gary E. Moulton blends the narrative highlights of his definitive Nebraska edition of the Lewis and Clark journals to bring forth the voices of the enlisted men and of the Native Americans, heard for the first time alongside the words of the captains.

Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing


James Rumford - 2004
    The task he set for himself was daunting. Sequoyah knew no English and had no idea how to capture speech on paper. But slowly and painstakingly, ignoring the hoots and jibes of his neighbors and friends, he worked out a system that surprised the Cherokee Nation—and the world of the 1820s—with its beauty and simplicity. James Rumford’s Sequoyah is a poem to celebrate literacy, a song of a people’s struggle to stand tall and proud.

Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial that Forged a Nation


Paul VanDevelder - 2004
    Coyote Warrior tells the epic story of the three tribes that saved Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery from starvation, those tribes' century-long battle to forge a new nation, and the extraordinary journey of one man to redeem a father’s dream and the dignity of his people. Cross graduated from law school and, following his father’s death, returned home to resurrect his father’s fight against the federal government. His mission would lead him to Congress, which his father had battled forty years earlier, and into the hallowed chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court. There the great-great-grandson of Chief Cherry Necklace would lay at the feet of the nation’s highest court the case for the sanctity of the United States Constitution, treaty rights, and the legal survival of Indian Country.

Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867–1869


Jerome A. Greene - 2004
    Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer attacked a Southern Cheyenne village along the Washita River in present-day western Oklahoma. The subsequent U.S. victory signaled the end of the Cheyennes’ traditional way of life and resulted in the death of Black Kettle, their most prominent peace chief.In this remarkably balanced history, Jerome A. Greene describes the causes, conduct, and consequences of the event even as he addresses the multiple controversies surrounding the conflict. As Greene explains, the engagement brought both praise and condemnation for Custer and carried long-range implications for his stunning defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn eight years later.

The Rights of Indians and Tribes: The Authoritative ACLU Guide to Indian and Tribal Rights


Stephen L. Pevar - 2004
    This informative guide thoroughly discusses the powers of Indian tribes; civil and criminal jurisdiction on Indian reservations; Indian hunting, fishing, and water rights; taxation in Indian country; the Indian Civil Rights Act; the Indian Child Welfare Act; and tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians.

Healing Secrets of the Native Americans: Herbs, Remedies, and Practices that Restore the Body, Mind, and Spirit


Porter Shimer - 2004
    

Jim Thorpe's Bright Path


Joseph Bruchac - 2004
    Author's note details Thorpe's life after college.

Black Indian Slave Narratives


Patrick Minges - 2004
    Fewer still realize that many Native Americans owned African Americans and Native Americans from other tribes. Recently, historians have determined that of the 2,193 interviews with former slaves that were collected by the Federal Writers' Project, 12 percent contain some reference to the interviewees' being related to or descended from Native Americans. In addition, many of the interviewees make references to their Native American owners. In Black Indian Slave Narratives, Patrick Minges offers the most absorbing of these firsthand testimonies about African American and Native American relationships in the 19th century. The selections include an interview with Felix Lindsey, who was born in Kentucky of Mvskoke/African heritage and who served as one of the buffalo soldiers who rounded up Geronimo. Chaney Mack, whose father was a "full-blood African" from Liberia and whose mother was a "pure-blood Indian," gives an in-depth look at both sides of her cultural heritage, including her mother's visions based on the "night the stars fell" over Alabama. There are stories of Native Americans taken by "nigger stealers," who found themselves placed on slave-auction blocks alongside their African counterparts. The narratives in this collection provide insight into the lives of people who lived in complex and dynamically interconnected cultures. The interviews also offer historical details of capture and enslavement, life in the Old South and the Old West, Indian removal, and slavery in the Indian territory.Patrick Minges worked for 17 years for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. He teaches in Stokes County Schools and at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem. He is also the author of Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetowah Society and the Defining of a People, 1855-1867 and Far More Terrible for Women: Personal Accounts of Women in Slavery. This book is an important contribution to the dialogue about relationships between African-Americans and Native-Americans, and the complex political context in which these narratives were recorded. Patrick does not over-analyze this often emotional subject. He simply allows the people to tell their stories. -Wilma Mankiller

A Country Doctor's Chronicle: Further Tales From The North Woods


Roger A. MacDonald - 2004
    Flu epidemics. Terminal illnesses. Coroner duties. Fishhook incidents. For more than three decades, Roger A. MacDonald served the people of Minnesota's north woods as a family practitioner and jack-of-all-trades, even responding to the occasional barn call for ailing animals. In this new collection of stories, MacDonald takes readers on another round of house calls, office visits, and emergency summons. His remote practice saw patients of every age and type, from a local child with a penchant for putting things up his nose to a dedicated church pianist with untreatable cancer, from a teenager with unexplained seizures to a vacationing Mafioso recovering from a heart attack. MacDonald offers tales of patients, colleagues, and neighbors, probing their very human responses to medical dilemmas and sharing humorous and touching episodes in equal portions. A Country Doctor's Chronicle is a charming collection of vignettes--some hopeful, some heartbreaking--that offer a unique look at a bygone era of twentieth-century rural America.

The Long War for the Northern Plains


Peter Cozzens - 2004
    It offers a selection of original accounts of the Northern Plains campaigns.