2007 Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY, 320 pages
Of the hundreds of books on Native Americans I have read, and the dozens that I own, this is the most comprehensive. The fantastic art of Richard Hook elevates this encyclopedia far beyond that category. There are also a number of photographs and daguerreotypes. The authors have not yet fallen into the trap of current books on Native American life, which focus on feminized elements, current politics, and edification. The visual records are well captioned. My favorite is the photo of a Seminole group from the 1890s that clearly shows the mixed Native and African ancestry. It is a little known fact that Native communities survived over 400 years of European encroachment in small numbers in the Florida everglades, aided by the recruitment and adoption of escaped slaves.
As a writer the various maps of ethnic and language distribution and tribal ranges were priceless. I could not have written Of The Sunset World in such detail without the use of Michael G. Johnson’s work. One example of priceless scholarship—if not comprehensive—is on page 60. This table of Southeastern Woodlands language families with tribal names and the meaning/origin of that name, if known, helps in the appreciation of the complex character of the Native American experience. North of Mexico 55 language families are identified, which originally accounted for at least ten times the current 120 spoken languages. Native North America, as appreciated through the eyes of Hook and words of Johnson, was a rugged land of incredible diversity, not the philosophic utopia of modern revisionists.
The art shows the European influence on actual contact age peoples in the form of attire, tools and weaponry. Current books feature no hybrid artifacts, relying on photographs of purist re-enactors. I treasure this book so much because it places the Native Americans—who us later hybrid Americans represent in many ways [archery, scouting, camping, survivalism, and hunting for instance]—in time, not out of time in some utopia. The peoples who occupied America before Europeans began using it as a slave labor farm and penal colony for religious misfits, were diverse, adaptive, contemplative, and very warlike. They deserve to be understood as they were, not according to current political-guilt models.
The tenor of this colorful reference work is set on page 9 with Hook’s oil painting Watchers of the Northern Plains, as naturalistic illustration of Stone Age men considering the alien world that then assailed them. Such artistic monuments to these conquered peoples are fitting, when one considers that it cost the U.S. government approximately 1 million dollars for every Indian warrior that was killed in battle, and that the European-American conquest of the Native-American population took from 1776 thru 1891.
The Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America is a highly informative and beautiful example of the bookmaker’s art.
Dude, I didn't know you were into Native Americans. I spent a summer on the Crow Reservation doing an internship at the Custer Battlefield Museum. It was an awesome experience. I really got to know those people out there, beneath the facade that most will never see. However, I met many types that still romanticize the indians. People come in from all over the world with unrealistic expectations. It's fun to watch their ideals shattered, but most continue on with their illusions.
I had the opportunity to talk with a direct descendant of Tall Bull, leader of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. We had an interesting discussion until he claimed that the Cheyenne were one of the lost tribes of Isrаel. I wasn't expecting him to pull in judeo-christian myths into his tribe's origin story.
I'd love to discuss your time on the Crow Reservation with you Bart.
When I was in high school consigned to the library for six periods a day because I insisted on reading in class I read all 42 books on Native Americans in their collection. This was in the mid 70s, so many of these books were written around WWII. Two of these books were dedicated to proving that the Lost Tribes of Isrаel came to America and founded the more advanced cultures—classic diffusionist thinking in the ancient aliens vein. These was not Mormon tracts, and dealt with the Mississippian culture and even a tribe in Maine.
There is a big problem with investigating North American beliefs through oral or written traditions, as the surviving tribes have generally had significant Christian influence at some point—and hence did not get exterminated when they finally ran out of warriors. My Sunset Saga series of sci-fi novels revolves around a time travel project in which a time-branching device is used twice: once to try and generate a time line where Neanderthals survive, and another to generate a Native American time line. The Serials pillagers of Time, The World is Our Widow, Den of The Ender, and Out of Time up in our free content are part of this.
In researching the Eastern Woodland tribes for Of The Sunset World I came across much of what I thought was early Jesuit influence—or even interloping—on the part of 16th, 17th and 18th Century missionaries. For that reason I 'tweaked' the Iroquois mythos with some help from Black Elk, Ohiyesa, and Joseph Campbell, for which I expect to be hated by any surviving tribesmen even though a handicapped Seneca kid is the transcendent hero of my 21 book series. Research into Native beliefs is becoming as fraught with political correctness and dogma as the slavery question.
The descendent of Tall Bull is definitely practicing his ancestral beliefs under Anglo influence.
Try going to my Author's Notes tag and clicking on Deginawida and the One Parted Tree, and also go to book reviews to look up my article on a book that your Crow friend will most certainly not enjoy. Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-eater Johnson! I forget what title I gave it but it was published earlier this year.
Thanks for digging through the archives Bart!
Bart , in you time at the Res, did you witness the sun dance?
Bart, my other question is how old is the sun dance?