Bücher der Reihe The Civilization of the American Indian Series

Before European incursions began, the Western Abenaki Indians inhabited present-day Vermont and New Hampshire. This history of their relationship with whites in this region documents their survival as a people and their wars and migrations during the first two centuries of white contact.

The Blackfeet were the strongest military power on the northwestern plains throughout the eighteenth century. But the near extinction of buffalo in the late nineteenth century brought dire poverty to the tribe, forcing them to rely in part on the U.S. government for sustenance. In this history of the Blackfeet, historian John C. Ewers relied on his own experience living among the Blackfeet as well as archival research to tell of not only the events that have so drastically affected the Blackfeet way of life, but also the ways the Blackfeet have responded, adapting and preserving their culture in the face of a changing landscape.

This collection of essays commemorates the 350th anniversary of the Pequot War, which culminated in the almost complete destruction of the tribe by Massachusetts Puritans in 1637.

The Arapahoes are an important Plains Indian tribe. Previously neglected in favor of their more hostile allies, the Sioux and the Cheyennes, they have benefited from increasing attention in recent years. In this tribal history Virginia Cole Trenholm traces Arapaho life-ways from prehistoric times in Minnesota and Canada to twentieth-century Wyoming, Montana, and Oklahoma. In a new preface she summarizes the major events for the last Arapaho generation.

A study of the dress of the Plains Indians which counters the misconception that all the tribes of the central region dressed alike. Certain similarities could be found amongst the groups, but each tribe had its own distinctive traditions and preferences.

A sedentary fishing tribe in the plateau and mountain country of central Idaho, northeastern Oregon, and southeastern Washington, the Nez Perces were transformed by the acquisition of the horse into a tribe that hunted on the plains and assimilated much of the buffalo culture.

This is an account of those Cherokees who separated themselves from other Western Cherokees in an effort to retain the tribe's traditional lifeways, and who settled in Texas. However, they found themselves caught between the Cherokee ideal of harmony and the reality of factionalism.

This work demonstrates the central importance of visionary dreams as sources of empowerment and innovation in Plains Indian religion. It examines 350 dreams from 150 years of published and unpublished sources to describe the shared features of cosmology for 23 groups of Plains Indians.

The wealth of photographs Anderson took is represented here by more than 200 reproductions--the largest number ever published in a single collection. They are presented not as works of art (though many of them are indeed triumphs of the photographic art) but as important historical documents in the ongoing story of the American Indian.

Originally published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. With a new author's note.

An account of the life and accomplishments of Sitting Bull, American Indian warrior and chief of the Dakota Sioux. A leader in the Sioux War of 1876-1877, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn against General Custer, he was killed during the "Ghost Dance" uprising in 1890 by police.

This is the history of a remarkable nation, the only Indian tribe that never officially made peace with the United States. General Thomas Sidney Jesup admired the Seminoles as adversaries: "We have, at no former period in our history, had to contend with so formidable an enemy. No Seminole proves false to his country, nor has a single instance occurred of a first rate warrior having surrendered." Jesup made those comments in 1837, and they proved true throughout the Seminole-white confrontations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Portions of the Seminoles' story--particularly their wars--have been told, but until this book no extensive history of the tribe had been written. Here is the record of those dauntless people who were tricked, robbed, defrauded, and abused. The origins of the tribe, the complex problems concerning their rights in Florida, the military operations against them, their forced removal to Indian Territory, their role in the Civil War, and their adjustment to life in the West are important elements of the book.

An examination of the craft of silversmithing among the Navaho and Pueblo Indians, based on museum inspections, field work, interviews and a brief apprenticeship to a Navaho silversmith. Adair aims to relate the art to its social framework as well as provide an analysis of the economic aspects.