Native America History Books

THE ANCIENT EARTHWORKS AND TEMPLES OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS
by Lindesey Brine. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Oracle Publishing (London), first printing. Tiny edgewear with light tanning to page edges. Name inside front cover. Content: Originally published in England in c. 1894. In 1969 an English naval officer set sail from Liverpool, intending to visit the pre-Columbian monuments of Northern and Central America. Only three years had elapsed since the American Civil War had put an end to slavery and large parts of the continent were still inhabited by native peoples, living in the traditional way. This book is the record of his epic journey, by river steamer and mule train, and is based on the diaries he kept at the time. It covers the major archaeological sites of North America, from the huge prehistoric earthworks of Ohio to the hidden Aztec temples of Mexico, with visits to the lands of the Shoshone, the Sioux, the Pawnee and the Dakotas, among many others. An intriguing tour of the great civilizations of the Americas, both ancient and recent, this personal account offers the armchair traveller the opportunity to experience all the excitement of exploration and discovery more than a hundred years ago. Excellent!!! [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

AMERICAN INDIAN ENVIRONMENTS: Ecologicl Issues in Native American History
edited by Christopher Vecsey and Robert W. Venables. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read, but highlighted, 1983 Syracuse Trade Paperback, second printing. Light tanning to white cover edges aith rubbings along bottom spine; edge wear; and highlighting on many pages. Better than it sounds. Content: These essays discuss the historical and contemporary relationships between Native Americans and the natural world. Topics include: environmental religions, Iroquois villages of the 18th century, Navajo natural resources, and subarctic Native Americans and wildlife. Very interesting. Contributors include Kai Erikson; William Hagan; Laurence Hauptman; Wilbur Jacobs; Oren Lyons; Peter MacDonald, and Calvin Martin. [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

INDIAN PLACE-NAMES: Their Origin, Evolution, and Meanings
by John Bydjord. B&W era photos throughout. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1982 Univ. of Oklahoma Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, 2nd printing. Scattered B&W era photos and maps plus charts illustrate. Problem is the DJ: small "repaired" tear top DJ edge with 2 shelf-wear rubbings top DJ spine. Book itself is perfect. Content: The great variety of Indian place-names in Kansas resulted from attempts to create a permanent Indian frontier in the West. Consequently, Kansas has Indian place-names not only from its early native inhabitants (Siouan, Caddoan, and Shoshonean tribes) but also from Algonquians, Iroquois, and other eastern groups, and even a few from the West. This book details their origin, evolution, and meanings. Excellent. [1 copy available]
$ 18.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. Priority shipping available - email us for pricing.

NATIVE AMERICAN TRADITIONS
by Arthur Versluis. Excellent selection of color photos and drawings plus B&W era photos. Condition: NEW c. 2000 Element soft cover, no printing given, but I believe this to be a reprint. Content: This introduction to Native American traditions, from the Eskimo and the continental tribes of America to the Aztecs and Mayas of Mexico and Incas of South America, includes discussions of Native American views of nature, spirits and ancestors, ceremonies and rituals, medicine and sacred sites and symbols, plus many of the teachings and prophecies of well-known visionaries such as Black Elk. Perfect for homeschooling. 8th grade & up. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.50 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN DESIGNS for Artists and Craftspeople
by Eva Wilson. 364 B&W drawings. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1987 Dover large soft cover, no printing given. Problem: it appears the book has been subjected to a bit of Texas humidity - some of the bottom edges of the book are "wavy" from the humidity. Light edge wear. Content: Authentic royalty-free designs adapted from Navajo blankets and rugs, painted wooden masks, decorated moccasins, Hopi pottery, Sioux buffalo hides, more. Geometrics, symbolic figures, plant and animal motifs, much more. At the bottom of each page there are notes as to what tribe the designs come from and the historical dating. [1 copy available]
$ 5.00 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

SEARCHING FOR LOST CITY: On the Trail of America's Native Languages
by Elizabeth Seay. Condition: NEW 2004 Lyons Trade Paperback, first printing. First Prize, Multicultural Non-Fiction, Independent Publishers. Content: Seay writes hauntingly about the efforts to preserve Native American languages in her home state of Oklahoma in this lyrical, if occasionally solipsistic, travel history. Seay begins her expedition with the intent of finding a "lost city" populated solely by speakers of a Native American language. Eventually, however, she finds herself learning Cherokee from an elderly man and becoming part of the effort to preserve that language from extinction. Early in her work, Seay declares that "the languages seemed to be receding as I raced toward them" and that sense of imminent disappearance propels her narrative. Many of the people she meets, including Quese Frejo, a Native American hip-hop artist, Charles Chibitty, who used his native tongue as a code talker in World War II and Seay's own Cherokee teacher, Alex Sawney, are people of careful words and compelling insight. Frejo, for example, says that "the melting pot doesn't consist of Native Americans, so when I come into a hip-hop event it kind of blows them away." Though Seay's ruminations may occasionally strike readers as self-absorbed, the author bravely recognizes that as a "tall skinny white woman" she's something of an interloper in another culture's world, and she doesn't shy away from describing how this role affected her interviews. Above all, her interest is with Native American languages, and with the threats to their survival. Her conclusion on this topic is not simple: she challenges both the government and tribal leaders to ask if there is "anything-beyond shame over the American past-that made it necessary to prevent such losses" as the decline of the Caddo dialect. Readers will ponder this, and her other eloquently posed questions, for some time. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 5.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. International shipping available.

SEARCHING FOR LOST CITY: On the Trail of America's Native Languages (Hardcover)
by Elizabeth Seay. Condition: NEW 2004 Lyons hard cover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. First Prize, Multicultural Non-Fiction, Independent Publishers. Content: Seay writes hauntingly about the efforts to preserve Native American languages in her home state of Oklahoma in this lyrical, if occasionally solipsistic, travel history. Seay begins her expedition with the intent of finding a "lost city" populated solely by speakers of a Native American language. Eventually, however, she finds herself learning Cherokee from an elderly man and becoming part of the effort to preserve that language from extinction. Early in her work, Seay declares that "the languages seemed to be receding as I raced toward them" and that sense of imminent disappearance propels her narrative. Many of the people she meets, including Quese Frejo, a Native American hip-hop artist, Charles Chibitty, who used his native tongue as a code talker in World War II and Seay's own Cherokee teacher, Alex Sawney, are people of careful words and compelling insight. Frejo, for example, says that "the melting pot doesn't consist of Native Americans, so when I come into a hip-hop event it kind of blows them away." Though Seay's ruminations may occasionally strike readers as self-absorbed, the author bravely recognizes that as a "tall skinny white woman" she's something of an interloper in another culture's world, and she doesn't shy away from describing how this role affected her interviews. Above all, her interest is with Native American languages, and with the threats to their survival. Her conclusion on this topic is not simple: she challenges both the government and tribal leaders to ask if there is "anything-beyond shame over the American past-that made it necessary to prevent such losses" as the decline of the Caddo dialect. Readers will ponder this, and her other eloquently posed questions, for some time. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 7.89 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture
by Walter L. Williams. Johnny Tiger's painting Guidance From Above is the cover illustration. B&W photo section. Condition: Gently pre-read 1988 Beacon Press Trade Paperback, third printing. The book actually appears unread - no creases, interior tight - BUT there are 2 pages with an ink mark and it appears that some of the early pages have had pencil underlining which have been erased. Content: Williams, an ethnohistorian at the University of Southern California, presents a fascinating and thorough study of American Indian acceptance of sexual diversity. Drawing on interviews with Native Americans, anthropologists and historians, Williams documents how tribal cultures revered the "berdache"any man who "does not fill a society's standard man's role, who has a nonmasculine character." Many American Indian communities believed that some members belonged to an "alternative gender" neither male nor female, their identities determined by spiritual inclination, not sex. Berdaches were treated as sacred and held ceremonial roles as psychic healers, "medicine men" and prophets. Williams also illustrates how European settlers in North and South America sought to repress the berdache tradition and how it went underground, reemerging after the rebirth of Native American culture and the rise of gay liberation. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

TOUCH THE EARTH: A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence
compiled by T. C. McLuhan. Wonderful Edward S. Curtis sepia-tone era photos. Condition: NEW c. 1976 (mostlikely c. 1985) Touchstone soft cover, 15th printing. Content: "We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills and the winding strams with tangled growth, as 'wild. Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness' and only to him was the land 'infested' with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame. Earth was boutiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved was it 'wild' for us, it was that for us the 'Wild West' began." TOUCH THE EARTH is a selection of statements and writings by North American Indians, chosen to illuminate the course of Indian history and the abiding values of Indian life. Together they recount the pain of the Indian as he watched the white man kill the wild herbs and overrun the sacred lands of his ancestors. Mystified at first by the white man's ways, the Indian tone guves way first to anger, then desperation and, finally hopelessness. More than 50 pages of photographs, taken by the American photographer Edward S. Curtis in the early years of this century, complement the text. As a record of Indian experience, it is unsurpassed in the literature of the subject. This compilation is in the best sense of the word, a work of love. It's a religious and poetic work whose object is to draw attention to the lasting beauty and truth of Indian tradition. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 6.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. International shipping available.

NATIVE AMERICAN PONY BOOKPLATES
art by Deviney. Condition: NEW package of 12 bookplates made by pacaritambo books. The peel-off label stock is heavier than most bookplate materials and is matte and not glossy. They are as perfect as possible, and we feel the subject matter is much different than you can get at a big store. 3.0 wide x 4.00 high. Content: Prancing Indian Pony decked out in feathers with his portrait above. We can personalize your bookplate (the font is Enviro D) - just email us the name. Any questions, click here to email us.
$ 4.00 + $ 2.85 first class shipping. International shipping available.