Indian Legacy

On a hot summer day in 1876, George Armstrong Custer led the Seventh Cavalry to the most famous defeat in U.S. military history. Outnumbered and exhausted, the Seventh Cavalry lost more than half of its 400 men, and every soldier under Custer’s direct command was killed. It’s easy to understand why this tremendous defeat shocked the American public at the time. But with Custerology, Michael A. Elliott tackles the far more complicated question of why the battle still haunts the American imagination today. Weaving vivid historical accounts of Custer at Little Bighorn with contemporary commemorations that range from battle reenactments to the unfinished Crazy Horse memorial, Elliott reveals a Custer and a West whose legacies are still vigorously contested. He takes readers to each of the important places of Custer’s life, from his Civil War home in Michigan to the site of his famous demise, and introduces us to Native American activists, Park Service rangers, and devoted history buffs along the way. Elliott shows how Custer and the Indian Wars continue to be both a powerful symbol of America’s bloody past and a crucial key to understanding the nation’s multicultural present. “[Elliott] is an approachable guide as he takes readers to battlefields where Custer fought American Indians . . . to the Michigan town of Monroe that Custer called home after he moved there at age 10 . . . to the Black Hills of South Dakota where Custer led an expedition that gave birth to a gold rush."—Steve Weinberg, Atlanta Journal-Constitution “By ‘Custerology,’ Elliott means the historical interpretation and commemoration of Custer and the Indian Wars in which he fought not only by those who honor Custer but by those who celebrate the Native American resistance that defeated him. The purpose of this book is to show how Custer and the Little Bighorn can be and have been commemorated for such contradictory purposes.”—Library Journal “Michael Elliott’s Custerology is vivid, trenchant, engrossing, and important. The American soldier George Armstrong Custer has been the subject of very nearly incessant debate for almost a century and a half, and the debate is multicultural, multinational, and multimedia. Mr. Elliott's book provides by far the best overview, and no one interested in the long-haired soldier whom the Indians called Son of the Morning Star can afford to miss it.”—Larry McMurtry

In this collection of essays, the chief components of Indian religions and our perceptions of them are treated in sensitive manner.

An Indian Legacy: Every few years a novel depicting the agonies of being red in a sea of white faces must be written. An Indian Legacy is just such a novel. The legacy consists of a tomahawk, a peace pipe, banded eagle feathers, and some small human bones. The legacy was inherited years ago by Grant Someset, but remained tucked away, almost forgotten. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, the legacy and Grant’s red roots not only shape his future, but shape the destinies of a mighty nation and a once mighty people. Each element of the legacy acts as a hook that takes the reader on a fantastic journey, from Northern Virginia, to New Mexico, to a sandy knoll on the giant Navajo Indian Reservation. During the journey, a U.S. Senator is murdered, the only suspect mysteriously escapes, five-hundred thousand Native Americans unite, and two white men violently die defending the red man. A final face-off between Washington and a determined Indian population test the courage of the American Indian and the integrity of Washington. The face-off could result in nothing less than a Presidential apology or yet another humiliating disgrace for the American Indian.

"Theodore Fontaine lost his family and freedom just after his seventh birthday, when his parents were forced to leave him at an Indian residential school by order of the Roman Catholic Church and the Government of Canada. Twelve years later, he left school frozen at the emotional age of seven. He was confused, angry and conflicted, on a path of self-destruction. At age 29, he emerged from this blackness. By age 32, he had graduated from the Civil Engineering Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and begun a journey of self-exploration and healing.

"Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts represents a powerful collaboration between two great museums - the National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution, and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts - and two curators, father and son members of the A'aninin Indian Tribe of Montana. George P. Horse Capture, and his son, Joseph D. Horse Capture, bring different insights to this project as they explore new relationships among the shirts, the shirtmakers, the historians and scholars, and the audience of Indians and non-Indians alike."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Discusses the many important contributions made by the Indians of North and South America to civilization throughout the world.

Situated on the western edge of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and White-Inyo mountain ranges, Owens Valley has been home for thousands of years to the Owens Valley Paiute and their southern neighbors, the Panamint Shoshone. The willow baskets both groups created are noteworthy for their complex construction and durability, and their materials and designs reflected available resources as well as the seminomadic existence that characterized life in the Great Basin for generations. Since the mid-nineteenth-century arrival of non-Indians into the Valley, the baskets have changed. Weaving a Legacy places those changes in the context of the region's dramatic social history. In addition, the volume closely examines basketry techniques and technology, historic weavers and their lineages, contemporary weavers, and basket collectors. The text is extensively illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people, landscapes, and baskets. Among the legacies of these baskets are the stories they evoke, many of which the authors recount in this beautiful work.

The temple mound and mortuary at Town Creek, in Montgomery County, is one of the few surviving earthen mounds built by prehistoric Native Americans in North Carolina. It has been recognized as an important archaeological site for almost sixty years and, as a state historic site, has become a popular destination for the public. This book is Joffre Coe's illustrated chronicle of the archaeological research conducted at Town Creek, a project with which Coe has been intimately involved for more than fifty years, since its inception as a WPA program in 1937. Written for visitors as well as for scholars, Town Creek Indian Mound provides an overview of the site and the archaeological techniques pioneered there, surveys the history of the excavations, and features more than 200 photographs and maps. The book carefully reconstructs the archaeological record, including plant and animal remains, pottery sherds, stone tools, and clay ornaments. In a concluding interpretive section, Coe reflects on what Town Creek and its artifacts tell us about this prehistoric Native American society. Originally published in 1995. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Known as "residential schools" in Canada. Includes poems (poetry).