William Phil Clark's classic work on Native American signs and culture is still considered a monumental achievement. Published posthumously after the young Clark died in 1884, it covers the words and phrases of many tribes.Clark was with General George Crook in late summer of 1876 during the Sioux War and later served on staff assignments for General Phil Sheridan.Now you can use this reference to learn signs and compare them to American Sign Language.For the first ...

In this classic Western travelog, the author leaves his native Boston for an unforgettable journey across the disappearing American frontier.In the spring of 1846, Francis Parkman, headed west to experience the untamed regions of America, to acquaint himself with the wild mountain men in the Rockies, and to visit the surviving Indian tribes before all were absorbed by the relentless advance of Western civilization. The Harvard-educated aristocrat had been preparing...

Ever wonder how everyone made it west? They used trails beaten by such men as Osborne Russell. In 1830, sixteen-year-old Russell left his farm in Maine and ran away to the sea. He didn’t like it. He ended up joining an expedition headed to Oregon by way of the Rocky Mountains. Along the way, he acquired the skills necessary for survival. He also hunted buffalo and trapped beaver, looked for new trails west, and kept a journal that forms the basis of this vigorously authentic book, only inc...

Native Americans make up less than one per cent of the total US population but represent half the nation's languages and cultures. Here, in one grand sweep, is the full story of Native American society, culture and religion. Here is everything from the land-based spirituality of their early creation myths and the late rise of Indian Pride, to the 88 uses to which the Sioux put the flesh and bones of the buffalo and the practice of berdache (men adopted as women).The book offers a c...

William W. Warren's History of the Ojibway People has long been recognized as a classic source on Ojibwe history and culture. Warren, the son of an Ojibwe woman, wrote his history in the hope of saving traditional stories for posterity even as he presented to the American public a sympathetic view of a people he believed were fast disappearing under the onslaught of a corrupt frontier population. He collected firsthand descriptions and stories from relatives, tribal leaders, and acquaintan...

An Eastern Correspondent spends the summer on duty with Hancock's 1867 Indian Expedition, following Hancock and Custer as they attempt to make peace with the warring Indians on the plains. Good examples of real life in the Indian Wars.

In 1836, Irving published " Astoria ; or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains ;" a somewhat curious example of literary skill. A voluminous commercial correspondence was the dull ore of the earth which he refined and wrought into symmetry and splendor. Irving reduced to a regular narrative the events to which it referred, bringing out the picturesque whenever he found it, and enlivening the whole with touches of his native humor. His nephew, Pierre M. Irving, lightened his...

The Memoirs of an Indian Boyhood is an autobiography by Charles Eastman. Eastman was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he worked to improve the lives of youths and founded 32 Native American chapters of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. He is considered the first Native American author to...

John Tanner's fascinating autobiography tells the story of a man torn between white society and the Native Americans with whom he identified.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introduc...

Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer is a book by Thomas Bailey Marquis about the life of a Northern Cheyenne Indian, Wooden Leg, who fought in several historic battles between United States forces and the Plains Indians, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he faced the troops of George Armstrong Custer. The book is of great value to historians, not only for its eye-witness accounts of battles, but also for its detailed description of the way of life of 19th-century Plains...

William R. Lighton's *Lewis and Clark* presents the Corps of Discovery expedition as both an epic of exploration and a formative episode in the making of the United States. Recounting the 1804–1806 journey from the Missouri frontier to the Pacific and back, the book emphasizes geographic discovery, physical endurance, encounters with Indigenous nations, and the political ambitions underlying Jeffersonian expansion. Its prose is direct, vivid, and strongly narrative, combining historical ex...