American Indian

Charles Eastman is unique among Indian writers, whether storytellers or oral historians. He was raised traditionally, as a Woodland Sioux, by his grandmother, from 1858 to 1874, until he was 15. He thus gained a thorough first-hand knowledge of the lifeways, language, culture, and oral history. His father (thought to have been hanged at Mankato, Minnesota) reappeared and insisted he receive the white man's education.

Charles Alexander Eastman (1858-1939) was a mixed-blood Sioux. He became one of the best known Indians of his time, receiving a bachelor of science degree from Dartmouth in 1887 and a medical degree from Boston University three years later.

Most Americans have heard of the Little Bighorn, the 1876 battle in which a band of Lakota Sioux and their allies wiped out most of the 7th US Cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer. The movie images are of fierce warriors in long eagle feather headdresses flowing behind them as they gallop across the plains on nimble Indian ponies.

Most people have heard about the French and Indian War, but you will find that most history classes have “forgotten” to explore some of the most interesting and important facets of this conflict. Its little-told stories and often underrated importance in world history have begun to be buried over the centuries. Was this epic struggle simply another war among many others in history?

The French and Indian War is one of the most significant, yet least acknowledged and understood, periods of American history. Fought chiefly between the two imperial powers of England and France in the mid-18th century, the struggle would also draw in native Indian nations who sought to exert their own strength and sovereignty over the North American continent. From the first shots fired in the Ohio Valley wilderness in 1754 until the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, the French and Indian War became a conflict that encircled the globe.

There is another Native America a place that has always existed in the hearts and minds of the first Peoples. Travel with Sawyer Thomas from his reservation home through the realm of..."what if..."and visit a new land as it could be.

Charles Alexander Eastman (1858-1939) was raised among the Sioux and decided to become a doctor in order to be of the greatest service to his people. He also became a distinguished writer and an interpreter of Native American life and customs. The Soul of the Indian is a rare eye-witness account of native religion with its ceremonial and symbolic worship, oral scriptures and view of the spirit world.

Indian lore of the Cuyamaca Mountains and surrounding region in San Diego County, California, abounds in myths and legends handed down from generation to generation by tribal song and squaw-tale. Yet so swiftly has the hand of civilization wiped out the old traditions and customs, that but few Indians remain who remember them, and fewer still are those willing to divulge them. Only when one comes into intimate contact with them is one accorded the privilege and honor of hearing the tales of their ancestors.

Here's an amusing collection of Dakota-Sioux fables, often featuring the vain and mischievous imp Iktomi. Fables such as these were told to Dakota-Sioux children for entertainment but also to teach through negative example the importance of honor, modesty, manners, and other aspects of a noble Indian lifestyle.

Men from more than two dozen tribal peoples actively participated in the Civil War by fighting for one side or the other. Recent estimates are that more than 28,000 Indians served as Civil War soldiers. Native Americans in the Civil War: The History and Legacy of Various Indian Tribes’ Participation in the War Between the States explains the various roles played by Native Americans in America’s deadliest war.

In this exquisite collection of children’s folktales, Zitkála-Šá shares the legends that were handed down to her through generations of Yankton storytellers. These tales display the wide range of insights and observations that accrue to such stories through repeated iteration, but they also benefit from the sharp ear and finely tuned sensibility of Zitkála-Šá as a writer. Her characters seem to speak to us—often crying out to us—in the same tones that Zitkála-Šá must once have heard.

Insightful, telling, ironic, and moving, 14 Native-American legends reflect a nomadic non-property-owning culture, with a reverence for all things natural.

For Anjali, playing the tabla is something that comes naturally—she loves feeling the drum beneath her fingers and getting lost in the music. She doesn't care that some people say it's an instrument for boys. But she does care when her skills make others treat her differently. Anjali starts downplaying her talent, and even messes up on purpose. When her teacher announces a music contest, Anjali can’t deny her dreams of playing the tabla.

Longfellow's great narrative poem has been unjustly neglected in recent years though it gives a sympathetic portrait especially of Hiawatha, reared by Nokomis, daughter of the Moon, and his bride Minehaha.

Toda una tradicion de novelas de aventuras en el oeste estadounidense, entre los indios pieles rojas, que aun perdura en nuestros dias en la literatura y en el cine, fue la iniciada por Fenimore Cooper, un distinguido escritor de ese pais, que a principios del siglo XIX escribio una serie de novelas, que siguen entre las mas destacadas del genero y de las cuales El ultimo de los mohicanos es no solo la mas conocida sino la mejor.

It’s 1806. A young republic just three decades old - the United States of America - is about to make a great push westward, across the Mississippi, into a wild, beautiful, and dangerous land. A territory of towering mountains and violent waters, of icy glaciers and searing deserts. The great northwest. It is a time and a place where fortunes will be made, destinies will be revealed, and legends will rise.

The war gets its name from British colonists’ two primary enemies: the French settlers and the Native Americans who sided with them. The title is a bit misleading, however, as the British also had Native Americans on their side at various points of the war. The conflict goes by "The Seven Years’ War" in Europe because it took place from 1756 to 1763. Britain’s victory solidified the future of the English-speaking North America we know today. However, it also led to the massacre of countless Native peoples throughout North America.

The Pawnee Indians were a fierce, proud, and determined people who called themselves the "men of men". Though there are many Native American tribes to learn about, the Pawnees were unique in many ways; they were a peace-loving, agricultural people with permanent settlements in what is now Nebraska. They dedicated themselves to their gods, the stars, and even arranged their villages according to important star clusters.

The remarkable story of the author of Indian Boyhood's growth into the White world at his father's recommendation because he says the Indian's world is over; how Charles learns and adapts to it; and what he learns along the way.

Physician, activist, and author Charles Alexander Eastman was the first Native American certified in Western medicine and one of the first authors of any background to emphasize the Native American perspective. In The Soul of the Indian, he shares the customs, rituals, celebrations, and beliefs of Native American spirituality, and in so doing provides a powerful account of the “Great Mystery” at their core.