Kirjahaku

"A valuable chronicle of the greatness and majesty of the Indian chiefs."--Christian Science Monitor Told through the life stories of nine Indian chiefs, this narrative depicts the American Indian effort to preserve a heritage and resist the changes brought by the white man. Hiawatha, King Philip, Pop , Pontiac, Tecumseh, Osceola, Black Hawk, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph each represent different tribal backgrounds, different times and places, and different aspects of Indian leadership. Soldiers, philosophers, orators, and statesmen, these leaders were the patriots of their people. Their heroic and tragic stories comprise an integral part of American history. "Josephy tells his nine lives with . . . a cold-blooded historian's perspective, sorrowing for both white man and red."--Time "More than a series of biographical sketches . . . Josephy places his Indian heroes in a broad historical setting and pictures them as fighters for freedom in the American tradition."--The New York Times Book Review

Is there any chapter in American history more dramatic than that of the Northwest from the time of Lewis and Clark to the tragic defeat of Chief Joseph in 1877? Heroic - and not so heroic -characters abound: explorers, fur traders, miners, settlers, missionaries, ranchers, Indian chiefs and their tribespeople. Now, when interest in Lewis and Clark and the American Northwest has never been higher, comes the first complete and unabridged paperback edition of Alvin Josephy's masterwork.

As most Americans of the 1860s fixed their attention on the battlefields of Shiloh and Manassas, another war raged on the largely unsettled Western frontier. This splendid work by the author of The Patriot Chiefs restores this "other" Civil War to its true, epic proportions. With formidable scholarship and irresistible narrative ease, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., tells of the Yankee armada that foundered in the Louisiana bayous; of the bloody fighting on the ridges and prairies of the border states. where a Cherokee guerrilla leader was the last Confederate general to surrender -- two months after Appomattox: and of the U.S. Army's brutal campaigns against the Plains Indians in theaters as far apart as Minnesota and Colorado. "Marvelous, original...that great, adventurous, little-known side of the Civil War...is all here for the first time: the clash of North and South set in the immense space of the West and peopled with some of the most vivid characters of that vivid time." -- David McCullough"Only occasionally does one find such a felicitous pairing of author and subject as in this important new book.... Mr. Josephy again serves justice with his clear-eyed, even-handed scholarship.... The entire era is cast into a different light by this powerfully wrought narrative."-- The New York Times Book Review"A sweeping and often surprising account of the untold stories of the war between the states." -- Los Angeles Times

In this book one of America's leading writers of Indian History examines the aspirations and feelings of today's Indians-what they want and why they want it. Using the particular histories of seven Indian tribes or groups, Alvin Josephy analyzes seven principal issues in the continuing face-off between Indians and Whites: - The Indians' will to endure as Indians- Racial sterotypes that influence Whites' treatment of Indians- Indians' efforts to retain the deep spiritual basis of their lives- The fight to retain tribal land bases- Reassertion of Indian water rights- Claims to fishing and hunting rights- The modern-day quest for self-termination, sovereignty, and control of tribal affairs and resourcesThose themes are the major aspects of contemporary Indian affairs that are least understood by non-Indians and tend to cause continued misunderstanding and conflicts with Whites.

At the heart of this landmark collection of essays rests a single question: What impact, good or bad, immediate or long-range, did Lewis and Clark's journey have on the Indians whose homelands they traversed? The nine writers in this volume each provide their own unique answers; from Pulitzer prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, who offers a haunting essay evoking the voices of the past; to Debra Magpie Earling's illumination of her ancestral family, their survival, and the magic they use to this day; to Mark N. Trahant's attempt to trace his own blood back to Clark himself; and Roberta Conner's comparisons of the explorer's journals with the accounts of the expedition passed down to her. Incisive and compelling, these essays shed new light on our understanding of this landmark journey into the American West.