Bücher veröffentlicht von University of Oklahoma Press

An incorrigible trickster, a clever thief, a rogue, sometimes a magnanimous hero, often a vengeful loser, but always a survivor, Coyote is the most complex character in the Nez Perce cycle of traditional myths. Nez Perce Coyote Tales, a collection of fifty-two stories translated from the native language, represents the most extensive treatment of the character of Coyote for any Native American group. Within these pages are stories of Coyote and various monsters, such as Flint Man, Killer Butterfly, and Cannibal: tales of Coyote and other animals, such as Bull, Fox, and Bat: and many other stories, including how Coyote brought the buffalo, warred with Winter, killed the grizzly bears, married his daughter, and visited White Mountain.In an introduction and concluding chapter, Deward E. Walker, Jr., and Daniel N. Matthews analyze Coyote''s social relations and interaction with other character in Nez Perce mythology. They reveal how the myths, besides being entertaining stories, also serve to impart traditional cultural values, proper social relations, and other practical information.

In Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth, Shirley A. Leckie explores the life of "Libbie," a frontier army wife who willingly adhered to the social and religious restrictions of her day, yet used her authority as model wife and widow to influence events and ideology far beyond the private sphere.

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.

In late 19th-century America, thousands of men went west in search of gold, land or adventure, leaving their wives to handle family, farm and business affairs on their own. Based on the experiences of over 50 women, this text examines the lives of these "women in waiting".

Reconsidering the myth of "good guys in white hats" The Texas Rangers have been the source of tall tales and the stuff of legend as well as a growing darker reputation. But the story of the Rangers along the Mexican border between Texas statehood and the onset of the Civil War has been largely overlooked-until now.This engaging history pulls readers back to a chaotic time along the lower Rio Grande in the mid-nineteenth century. Texas Devils challenges the time-honored image of "good guys in white hats" to reveal the more complicated and sobering reality behind the Ranger Myth.Michael L. Collins demonstrates that, rather than bringing peace to the region, the Texas Rangers contributed to the violence and were often brutal in their injustices against Spanish-speaking inhabitants, who dubbed them los diablos Tejanos-the Texas devils. Collins goes beyond other, more laudatory Ranger histories to focus on the origins of the legend, casting Ranger immortals such as John Coffee "Jack" Hays, Ben McCulloch, and John S. "Rip" Ford in a new and not always flattering light.In revealing a barbaric code of conduct on the Rio Grande frontier, Collins shows that much of the Ranger Myth doesn''t hold up to close historical scrutiny. Texas Devils offers exciting true stories of the Rangers for anyone captivated by their legend, even as it provides a corrective to that legend.

How an aspiring writer came to produce a string of best-selling novels

Robert E. Lee in Texas introduces a little known phase of the great General''s career-his service in Texas during the four turbulent years just preceding the Civil War. In this account Carl Coke Rister takes us with Lee to his lonely posts on the border, and we share with him the hazardous and often fruitless chases after bands of American Indians and Mexicans. We see through the eyes of the "Academy man" the raw life on the frontier and hear through his own words his impressions of the country and people.

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 autobiographical account of explorations in Mayan ruins. Based on Thompson's expeditions from 1926 to 1936, this work tells of the investigation of the "stone cities", such as Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Copan, Tikal and Quirigua. It also offers portraits of archaeologists who probed this civilisation.

Of all firsthand accounts of lawlessness in the old Southwest, none is more fascinating than Pat F. Garrett's The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. First published in 1882, a year after Sheriff Garrett killed the Kid, it is at once the most authoritative biography of William H. Bonney and the foundation of the Billy the Kid legend.

A collection of 29 essays that presents women of all races as actors in their own lives and in the history of the American West. It locates women in a framework that connects gender, race and class. Among the women covered are Spanish-Mexican settlers and Chinese, Basque, Japanese and Koreans.

In late 1846, Rudolph Friederich Kurz, a young and idealistic Swiss artist, came to the United States to study and paint American Indians. Because he also had to earn a living, he signed on with the Pierre Chouteau Jr. Company (commonly known as the American Fur Company) and traveled northward on the Missouri River to work as a clerk at Fort Berthold and Fort Union in present-day North Dakota. While living among fur traders and Indians of numerous tribes, Kurz filled a sketchbook and kept a detailed journal.On the Upper Missouri, an abridged and annotated version of his journal, is an invaluable source for information about Fort Union, the fur trade industry, and Indians of the northern plains. For this edition, editor Carla Kelly has preserved Kurz's style but included only those portions of greatest interest to readers today: his lively and detailed observations of people and activities at the fort. The volume also features 97 black-and-white drawings from Kurz's sketchbook.

Arizona's ghost towns exemplify man's courage, tenacity, and perhaps even foolishness in his search for wealth. Inevitable by-products of the development of gold, silver, copper, and other mineral deposits in Arizona, whatever their design or purpose, when their existence was no longer profitable they slipped into the category of ghost towns.

Focusing on published works by novelists N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, D'Arcy McNickle, Louise Erdrich, and other Native American authors, the essays in this collection examine translation and representation in tribal literatures, comic and tragic world views and trickster discourse.

The first complete version in English of the "Book of the People" of the Quiche Maya, the most powerful nation of the Guatemalan highlands in pre-Conquest times. Generally regarded as America's oldest book, the Popol Vuh is the most important of the five pieces of the great library treasures of the Maya that survived the Spanish Conquest.

In this book an international authority on Roman legal history sets forth in clear, understandable English the institutions of Roman law and traces their development through the Byzantine Empire into medieval and modern Europe. This is an indispensable study for every American lawyer and for anyone interesting in legal and political history.

Traces the history of the quarter horses from their European origins through the colonial and frontier periods to the present. He shows the importance of the Texan stallions, Steel Dust and Shiloh, in fixing the breed and gives credit to the King Ranch for its scientific breeding in recent decades.

In the grim reality of Southern California's grape fields, even the sun is a dark spot. For the migrant grape pickers in Crossing Vines, Rigoberto Gonzalez's novel that spans a single workday, the sun is a constant, malevolent force. The characters endure back-breaking, monotonous work as they succumb to the whims of their corrupt bosses.

Pundits and social observers have voiced alarm each year as fewer Americans involve themselves in voluntary groups that meet regularly. Thousands of nonprofit groups have been launched in recent times, but most are run by professionals who lobby Congress or deliver social services to clients. What will happen to U.S. democracy if participatory groups and social movements wither, while civic involvement becomes one more occupation rather than every citizen's right and duty? In Diminished Democracy, Theda Skocpol shows that this decline in public involvement has not always been the case in this country-and how, by understanding the causes of this change, we might reverse it.