C. Tribes and Tribal Groups

1392. Ewers, John C. The Blackfeet; raiders on the Northwestern Plains. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [1958] xviii, 348 p. illus. (The Civilization of the American Indian series, 49) 58–7778 E99.S54E78. Bibliography: p. 329–336.

Blackfeet is a group name for the Piegan, Kainah, and Siksika tribes who occupied the northern portions of the Midwest. This historical and ethnological account depicts the progress of these tribes from stone-age men who traveled on foot to mobile buffalo hunters on horseback. It also narrates their subsequent decline as the white settlers moved into their lands and the buffalo vanished. Ewers has combined recollections of elderly Indians on reservations with Government reports, newspaper accounts, and scholarly articles to provide a balanced, nontechnical survey.

1393. Hughes, Charles C. An Eskimo village in the modern world. With the collaboration of Jane M. Hughes. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press [1960] xiv, 419 p. illus. (Cornell studies in anthropology) 60–2605 E99.E7H95. Bibliography: p. 399–410.

In 1940 Alexander H. Leighton and Dorothea C. Leighton made an anthropological survey of Eskimo life in Gambell, a small and isolated village on St. Lawrence Island off the coast of Alaska. In 1955 Hughes studied the sociological changes which had occurred during the intervening 15 years, a period in which the U.S. Government established air and military bases in the vicinity and the people of the island came into close contact with the Alaskan mainland. This volume contains the results of that study. The author begins with a short history of the village and then discusses population growth, economic factors, and cultural change and breakdown. A glossary of Eskimo terms is appended. A similar study of Barrow, Alaska, can be found in The North Alaskan Eskimo; a Study in Ecology and Society (Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1959. 490 p. [U.S.] Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 171), by Robert F. Spencer.

1394. Josephy, Alvin M. The patriot chiefs; a chronicle of American Indian leadership. New York, Viking Press, 1961. 364 p. illus. 61–17039 E89.J78. Bibliography: p. 349–356.

The story of nine chiefs—Hiawatha, King Philip, Popé, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Osceola, Black Hawk, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph—who tried to help their people retain their liberty and cultural integrity. Of special interest is Josephy’s chapter on Hiawatha, an Iroquois chief who inspired his people to form a confederation based on democratic principles a hundred years before the first white explorers appeared. The author, an editor of American Heritage, has taken his information from secondary sources, most of which are listed in an extensive bibliography. Maps at the beginning of each chapter indicate location of the principal tribes and the more significant battles. Full-length biographies of many of these chiefs have already been published. One of the more recent is Merrill D. Beal’s "I Will Fight No More Forever"; Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1963. 366 p.).

1395. Newcomb, William W. The Indians of Texas, from prehistoric to modern times. With drawings by Hal M. Story. Austin, University of Texas Press [1961] 404 p. 60–14312 E78.T4N4. Bibliography: p. 365–377.

This anthropological study of the 10 Indian tribes known to have occupied the area now called Texas was written to help substantiate the thesis that all races have basically the same capabilities. Tribal differences, Newcomb asserts, were caused by varying cultural environments which evolved slowly and perpetuated themselves. He describes the early savages: Coahuiltecans and Karankawas; the horseback-riding warriors: Lipan Apaches, Tonkawas, Comanches, and Kiowas; and the primitive farmers: Jumanos, Wichitas, Caddo Confederacies, and Atakapans. One chapter is devoted to each tribe, with descriptions of appearance, material culture, social organization, and religious beliefs. The last chapter is a historical account of the defeat and extermination of the tribes as the whites moved into the area. Newcomb’s study is a synthesis of material taken from such primary sources as the journals of explorers, soldiers, missionaries, and captives and from secondary materials which included scholarly ethnological articles and monographs.