Book Description
The largest and most prominent of the Pueblo peoples, the Zuni have inhabited what is present-day New Mexico and Arizona for more than 2,000 years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Zuni Pueblo (Tribes of North America)
As a member of the Zuni Tribe and a library paraprofessional, I was very disappointed with this book.The historical information is correct, but as far as the information on religion and culture is concerned, some of the information is incorrect.Captions for the photographs/drawings used in the book could have been better as far as dates of the photographs and proper identification of the subjects. Several of the captions are incorrect. What I found most offensive was the use of a photograph of our very sacred Sha'la'ko ceremony. Overall this book was poorly written, an example from the Customs section on page 25, "Among these are the June Rain Dance, held in August,..." The editors needed to be more thorough in researching the topic. I don't think this book deserves a "star." I would not recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description
Popular lore has long depicted the Karankawa Indians as primitive scavengers (perhaps even cannibals) who eked out a meager subsistence from fishing, hunting and gathering on the Texas coastal plains. That caricature, according to Robert Ricklis, hides the reality of a people who were well-adapted to their environment, skillful in using its resources, and successful in maintaining their culture until the arrival of Anglo-American settlers.The Karankawa Indians of Texas is the first modern, well-researched history of the Karankawa from prehistoric times until their extinction in the nineteenth century. Blending archaeological and ethnohistorical data into a lively narrative history, Ricklis reveals the basic lifeway of the Karankawa, a seasonal pattern that took them from large coastal fishing camps in winter to small, dispersed hunting and gathering parties in summer. In a most important finding, he shows how, after initial hostilities, the Karankawa incorporated the Spanish missions into their subsistence pattern during the colonial period and coexisted peacefully with Euroamericans until the arrival of Anglo settlers in the 1820s and 1830s. These findings will be of wide interest to everyone studying the interactions of Native American and European peoples. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Karankawas "B.P." (Before Present)
Robert Ricklis' "The Karankawa Indians of Texas" (1996) presents an informative and technical study for the Native Americans living along the Texas Coastal Bend prior to the 16th century Europeans' arrival.This 222-page paperback "ecological study" is well documented with two lengthy appendixes and 21 pages of bibliography.Multiple graphs, charts, maps, and figures attest to the books considerable research.

Ricklis reviews several archaeological sites along the Texas Gulf Coast, from Matagorda Bay to Corpus Christi Bay, for evidence of the Karankawa culture.As a Research Fellow at University of Texas and the President of a private archaeological firm he personally attended many of the locations through the 1980s.Studying the remains of everything from animal bones to pottery chards at each site, he assembles an informative look at this ancient (and now extinct) Native American group.

From his research Ricklis concludes that the Karankawas were much taller than most other Native Americans of their era (p.9), that they were indeed cannibalistic (but probably only for ritual purposes, p. 147), and their initial encounter with Europeans- 16th century Spaniards- was friendly (only later did these fierce warriors attempt to rescue themselves from Spanish encroachment, see chapter 9).

One learns of the Karankawa adaptation efforts to Spanish ways (chapter 7), the terrible devastation from European sicknesses in the native population (chapter 8), and later Spanish desire to eradicate the Karankawas (p. 152).Ricklis also introduces readers to several archaeological components and suggestions:"B.P." as "before present" (p.44) for much of his site dating, Story's "lag effect theory" (p. 58) at various Rockport Phase locations, and that prehistoric people (who presumably matured into the Karankawas) inhabited the Coastal Bend region "as far back as 4,500 year ago" (p. 70).

Although "The Karankawa Indians of Texas" is somewhat technical in presentation the non technical reader will also be interested in its learning.It is recommended to all archaeologists, students of Native American history, Texas historians, Texas Coastal Bend buffs, and history students.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Required reading for anyone working with O'odham
As one who works with members of the T.O. nation, I found this to be a very enlightening book. Although it probably focuses too much on battles with the Spanish, it does include how the reservation came to be established, and the importance of cattle ranching to the tribal economy in the past.Although it was written fairly recently, the history sort of ends with the 1960s-70s, which I find disappointing.The author certainly proves his mettle in digging facts out of 17th-19th century Spanish archives, but a more informative chapter would have shown how the establishment of casinos has affected the nation.However, as I understand, this book was written to be a textbook for T.O. children, and so this might not have been appropriate.Still, it is an excellent introduction to O'odham history and culture, and ought to be required reading for anyone working with members of the nation. ... Read more

Book Description
The Comanche traditionally wandered areas of the southern Great Plains. Today, many Comanche share reservation lands with the Kiowa and Apache near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good facts
It was a brief but a very informative book and at the same time was very entertaining to read. ... Read more

Book Description
Indian of the Southwest By MRS. WHITE MOUNTAIN SMITH Author of Hop Girl and I Mamed s Ranger Dlustrated by GEORGE L. COLLINS STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS THE BAKER TAYLOR COMPANY 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK ROBERT M. MC BRIDE COMPANY 4 WEST SIXTEENTH STREET, NEW YORK MARTINUS NIJHOFF 9 LANGE VOORHOUT, THE HAGUE THE MARUZEN COMPANY TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, SENDAI COPYRIGHT 1933 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS To my father William G. Brown Foreword ENG before - the invasion of the Spanish or the later intrusion of the Anglo-Saxon race into the Southwest, the Indians had a civilization, developed by them, together with an enduring religion which met their every need. Arts far beyond those we strive to teach them were theirs. They wove wild cotton into garments willows and grasses they con verted into baskets and sandals from, clay they formed their household vessels, and from native stones ornaments with which to decorate them selves, their priests, and their altars. Religion was so ingrained in the Indian of the Southwest that he gave it up only when life ended. He prayed con tinuously to the Powers for protection, for health, for rain, for every need. The Red Gods ruled at all times. Centuries have passed since the coming of the white race. Indian tribes, as tribes, in most places have vanished from their homes and hunting fields. Only in the Southwest has the Indian clung staunchly to the ways of his forefathers, keeping his ancient faiths, although compelled to accept, at least outwardly, strange gods. Deeply interested in the Indians of the South west, a party of four college girls spent an entire IV INDIANTRIBES summer traveling by automobile from Reservation to Reservation under the guidance of the writer. The pleasant experiences of these trips inspired this little book. Dances and ceremonies are here described ex actly as they occurred, and the guides explanations accompanying them are the result of more than a decade of friendly intercourse and observation. The party at all times met with courtesy and hos pitality. These homes of Americas own children were open to us, not as members of a conquering race, but as personal friends. Indians acknowledge no superiority in their conquerors. They have great dignity and self-respect, and the object of this book is to bring them to the reader as an interesting race worth knowing at close quarters. For actual dates and statistics used in this work the author has consulted Goddards Indians of the Southwest, Coolidges The Navajo, Parishs His tory of Arizona, and government documents such as Survey of Conditions of the Indians of the United States. For intimate facts about certain tribes she is indebted to L. H. McSparron, Canyon de Chelly trader, and long a friend of the Navajos and to Mrs. Nancy Graham Pinkley, trusted friend of the Pimas. DAMA MARGARET SMITH HOLBROOK, ARIZONA February 18, 1933 Table of Contents PAGE ACOMA THE SKY CITY .... 1 APACHE INDIANS 16 HAVASUPAIS AND HUALAPAIS . . 34 HOPI SNAKE DANCERS .... 39 NAVAJO INDIANS 56 RIOGRANDEPUEBLOS . . . . 80 SALT RIVER INDIANS .... 103 TAGS PUEBLO 112 ZUNI PUEBLO INDEX Acoma the Sky City Location Northern New Mexico, sixteen miles south of highway U. S. 66. Railway Santa Fe. Accommodations Hotel Acoma at Laguna, New Mexico. Population 600. Religion Mixture of Catholic and native. Arts Pottery making. Industries Farming and stock-raising. ROMANCE and history have combined to make the pueblo town of ancient Acoma most fascinating. Perched on its earthly Rock of Ages this city claims to be the oldest continuously occupied Indian village in the Southwest. However, Oraibi, Hopi town, disputes this. Acoma is not to be regarded lightly, as the Span iards learned to their chagrin... ... Read more

Amazon.com
James Faris's Navajo and Photography concerns a world that has nearly disappeared: that of the traditional Navajos, the Indian people of the high desert American Southwest. What Faris calls "non-hostile" Navajos became an essential part of the tourist trade following the Indian Wars of the 19th century, and their representation in photographic images was a carefully crafted departure from the realities of reservation life. The Navajos were depicted as proud yet friendly warriors, not as defeated enemies and wards of a conquering state. Those photographs--and Faris's book contains scores of them--were important instruments in the foundation of a "conventional wisdom" about who Indians were and how they lived. As Faris shows in his commentary, the Navajos did not always willingly participate in this mythmaking process, and sometimes subtly subverted it. Even so, history and anthropology books are full of ersatz images of characters such as the famous "Navajo Brigand of the Black Mountain Country." Faris's text is an important contribution to a growing body of criticism of what might be called "the manufacture of The Other."Book Description
This thorough critical examination of photographic practices calls attention to the inability of most photography to communicate the lived experiences of native people or their history. Faris's survey, beginning with the earliest photographs of Navajo in captivity at the Bosque Redondo and including the most recent glossy picture books and calendars, points up the Western assumptions that have always governed photographic representation of Navajo people.

Drawing on exhaustive archival research to unearth rarely published photographs as well as unpublished photographs by well-known photographers, Faris documents Navajo resistance to the West's view (and viewfinder) and persistent attempts to overcome or dismiss such resistance. He challenges the photographic history of the Navajo people as presented by photographers, historians, and anthropologists, and explores the social and legal conditions that make such photography possible. Confronting many readers' nostalgic expectations, Navajo and Photography will appeal to all those with an interest in the juxtaposition of cultures and photographic critique. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Photographs 10, text 0!
Chapter 1, sentence 2:"The West had long privileged scopic enterprises and visual modalities, and by the mid-nineteenth century an observational visualist hegemony became a persistent focus of modernism in social, scientific, and aesthetic endeavours - and certainly of anthropology."The photgraphs are new and wonderful; Professor Faris's text is no match for them.First, it is largely unreadable (see sample above).Second, what I could read was tediously PC (that "hegemony" should have tipped me off!).Third, it adds very little to my knowledge of the "juxtaposition of cultures" as promised on the dust jacket.Where was the editor who should have read this manuscript with an active red pencil?Ok, perhaps this is just an extreme example of scholarly writing - not intended for the general reader like myself.If so, too bad.Professor Faris has succeeded in turning a tremendously interesting selection of photographs into a book that is dense and unenlightening. ... Read more

Book Description
Using government documents, archives, and local histories, Simmons has painstakingly separated the often repeated and often incorrect hearsay from more accurate accounts of the Ute Indians. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Historical Account of Ute Culture
A well researched history of the Ute Indians and the areas they lived in. Virginia Simmons discusses various stereotypes made by those who first encountered the Utes and sets the record straight. The Utes were an important element in the regional history of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. I found her descriptions of the adjustments the Utes had to make in various environments most interesting. If you wish to learn about nomadic Indian ways and culture this is an excellent book to read. Well written tribute to a tribe that struggled to survive the onslaught of the whiteman's culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the few temporary sucess for the Indians......
A very interesting book on a rare event where the Indians actually drove out their white conquerors from a long established colony. In 1680, the Pueblo Indians of northern New Mexico rose up in massive revolt against their Spanish overlords and managed for a short time, to regained their independence from colonial rule. This revolt came after nearly four generations of colonial rule where continued Spanish misrule generated this revolt.

The book proves to be well written and researched as the author explained how this revolt came to be. According to the author, much of for the revolt had to do with the following factors. Rejection of Christianity, economic dependency on the white, inter-racial marriages between whites and Indians and how that reflects on the fact that small numbers of Europeans were controlling larger numbers of Indians. In four generations, many of the Spanish colonialists have intermarried with the local Indians, blurring the racial lines. White intimidation fades as the conqerors and the conquered blended in.

The book proves to be a short read but it turned out to be very informative and rather an eye-opener. Spanish did managed to reconquered New Mexico once more in the 1690s, never again were the Indians sucessful in pushing out their European overlords which have been in place for generations. (It would be like if the 1862 Dakota Indian Revolt in Minnesota were successful!) The book come highly recommended for those interested in western colonial history. ... Read more

Book Description
This evenhanded history of the Jicarilla Apache tribe of New Mexico highlights their long history of cultural adaptation and change—both to new environments and cultural traits. Concentrating on the modern era, 1846–1970, Veronica Tiller, herself a Jicarilla Apache, tells of the tribe’s economic adaptations and relations with the United States government.

Originally published in 1983, this revised edition updates the account of the Jicarilla experience, documenting the significant economic, political, and cultural changes that have occurred as the tribe has exercised ever greater autonomy in recent years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best History Yet of the Jicarilla Apache
This is the best history yet of the Jicarilla Apache, an interesting people who once were the scourge of the Santa Fe Trail. This was quite an accomplishment considering the tribe numbered less than 800 members.The book is easy to read and covers their history from earliest known times up to the present.The tribe's power was broken in the 1850s by Kit Carson.The next 30 years were occupied in finding the tribe a reservation as they wandered and were sent from place to place in search of some place they'd be allowed to stay.Shuffled off to wasteland the tribe has time and again turned up wealth first in timbers, then cattle, then oil, gas and uranium leases and almost as regularly up to the 1960s had the wealth stolen from them by unscroupulous Indian agents and government incompetence.The author is not always well documented presenting new evidence without a source and is clearly biased in favor of Ollero Jicarillas. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Could I do this? 3 years of capitivity
I am an avid reader of true Indian/pioneer books. This was new to me in format because only the first story I had read written by an adult captive and a male.

Most of the books seem to be about young children or perhaps a young woman. The treatment and thoughts of an adult male were interesting. I kept wondering if I could have gone thru the ordeal. A quick read and makes you appreciate today! If you like history you will enjoy this true story.

Pretty good read...but take with a grain of salt
The author relates actual events in Texas Ranger history as though he was present.However, the Texas State Historical site has no record of him ever being on Ranger rolls.

First Hand.
I have read the book and most of the negative comments as well.
As an author and a person that have lived among the Indians,I am familiar with a lot of what Lee has declared. Indian culture, no matter the tribes, has a great deal of weired beleifs, witchcraft included. They like smoking the weed and getting high.I suggest you buy the story, I assure it walks with truth.

Good period piece, taken with a grain of salt
Interesting anecdotes of a white man living among the indians, the hardships and struggles, but it's obviously a biased tale. Quite a stretch for the reader to believe that a man- Texas Ranger no less- would be unable to "escape" before 3 years. Personally I don't believe it. Anyway, while one reviewer highlights a particular commanche torture to an infant, it's best to keep everything in perspective and acknowledge the extreme brutality whites displayed against all tribes in the western hemisphere- for example, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee. That said, if you like stories similar to this, try Nat Love's autobiography.

First Hand Account of the West and its dangers
Nelson Lee's straightforward account of his life as a Texas Ranger and then an Indian captive is enthralling.He also offers a valid critique of how the US govt was misguided in their approach to the Indian problem. Moreover, he pleads for the govt. to do something about those still in captivity.Fewer people might have gone West had they known what was really going on and the dangers ahead.This first-hand account is highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
This long-lost journal, now available in paperback, gives a unique look into the old Navajo country.Recently rediscovered, it is both the earliest and only extensive eyewitness account of the traditional Navajo homeland in the eighteenth century. It reveals new information on Hispanic New Mexico and relations with the Indians.

For the first twenty days in August of 1705, Roque Madrid led about 100 Spanish soldiers and citizens together with some 300 Pueblo Indian allies on a 312-mile march in retaliation for Navajo raiding. The bilingual text permits appreciation of the unusually literate and dramatic journal. Historical and archeological data are carefully tapped to retrace the route. ... Read more

Book Description
This comprehensive look at Native American groups in the southwestern United States is one of the first to provide both ethnographic research and Native American viewpoints. Included are chapters on the Pueblos, the Hopi, and the Zuni; the Pimans,the Yaqui, and the River Yumans; the Upland Yumans, the Apache, the Navajo, and the Southern Paiute. It explores each group's environmental adaptation, linguistic affiliation, social organization, history, world view, material culture, and ceremonial institutions. Native Americans speak about contemporary issues such as the repatriation of sacred objects, reservation gambling, preservation of native plants, and the philosophy behind tribal colleges.

"The combination of a scholarly and lyrical style makes Native Peoples of the Southwest highly informative and a pleasure to read. Reminiscent in its historical truthfulness of Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this is a scholarly text that American Indians would want for their own children's higher education. And a must read for non-Indians who want to understand the true history of Southwestern American Indians. Native Peoples of the Southwest authoritatively answers why Indian people persistently and proudly are committed to preserving and maintaining their language, culture, and traditions within a society that nearly annihilated them, and provides hope that those who read it will join American Indians in cherishing and supporting the preservation of these living cultural treasures that bless this great land known for a short historical time as America."—Glenn Johnson, M. Ed. (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma)

A comprehensive guide to the historic and contemporary indigenous cultures of the American Southwest, intended for college courses and the general reader. ... Read more