History
The following books are interesting histories of peoples and places!
In Old Arizona by Marshall Trimble. Generally light-hearted romp through historical tidbits and 19th Century characters, including Endicott Peabody, the Episcopal priest who brought baseball to Tombstone; Dr. George Goodfellow, whose offices were on the second floor of the Crystal Palace Saloon; and land-scheme flim-flam man, James Reavis, the "Baron of Arizona".
The Arizona Story compiled and edited from original newspaper sources by Joseph Miller. This is a must-have for anyone enjoying the Old West. Included within its 345 pages are stories on The Apache Kid, Cochise, Es-kim-in-zin Incident. Camp Grant Massacre, the Heroic Mrs. Page, the Oatman Massacre, Broncho Bill, The Globe Hanging Tree, Killing of Jack the Ripper, Hanged But Lived to Tell It, Negro Ben's Secret, Lost Pegleg Mine, Lost Squaw Mine, Lost Frenchman Mine, Doctor Thorne's Gold, Tumacacori Mine, Tree of Death, The Calabasas Kid, Phantom Miners, The Legend of the Hassayampa, Cremation of Chief Iretaba, and many more intriguing and tantalizing tales. It's a great book!
History of Arizona by Robert Woznicki. In 1804, Captain Jose de Zuniga reported the Pueblo of Tucson to have a population of 37 Spanish settlers and more than 200 Indians. In 1847, the Mormon Battalion entered California via Arizona. In 1854, the Gadsden Purchase allowed the United States to obtain the region south of the Gila to the present border of Mexico. In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell made the first complete exploration of the Grand Canyon. In 1912, Arizona becomes the 48th State. It's all here...facts, figures, and statistics to Arizona's fantastic history. "It contains enough information on the history of Arizona to allow the reader to have a full knowledge of whatever interests him." ...Barry Goldwater.
Arizoniana, stories from Old Arizona as told by marshal Trimble. This is a modern-day version of the Arizona Story, and despite its copy-cat appearance, it is very well done. Best of all, it has a comprehensive index. There are stories galore from lost mines and ghost towns to military forts and the legendary people. There's chapter titles like The Case of the Vanishing Train Robbers, The Fabulous Lost Adams Diggings, Land of the Long Shadows, The Escape of Augustine Chacon, The Legend of the Bill Smith Gang, and Desert Ordeal. It's a must-have for all Old West nuts.
The Mescalero Apaches by C. L. Sonnichsen. It's a well-written history of a group of Indians who helped to keep the Southwest in an uproar for several centuries.
The Conquest of Apacheria by Dan L. Thrapp. Apacheria ran from the Colorado to the Rio Grande and beyond, from the great canyons of the North for a thousand miles into Mexico. Here, where the elusive, phantomlike Apache bands roamed, life was as harsh, cruel, and pitiless as the country itself. The conquest of Apacheria is an epic of heroism, mixed with chicanery, misunderstanding, and tragedy, on both sides.
Death Song: The Last of the Indian Wars by John Edward Weems. This book recounts yet another chapter of US history: the closing decades of the nineteenth century which marked the last of the Indian wars, those bloody years when Western expansion changed forever the face of the American continent. Included in the blind clash of cultures is White Bear, the eloquent Kiowa "orator of the Plains"; the famous and unconquerable Geronimo; Libbie Custer; John Bourke, a cavalry lieutenant sympathetic to his red-skinned foes; and Quanah Parker, perhaps the most famous Comanche ever.
The Fighting Cheyenne by George Bird Grinnell. Originally published in 1915, this book chronicles the Cheyenne Indians and their struggle to maintain their independence and dignity against the continuous and unrelenting pressures of population.
Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage by William Loren Katz. The first freedom paths taken by runaway slaves led to Native American villages. There, black men and women found the red hand of friendship and an accepting adoption system and culture. Though they have never appeared in a school text, Hollywood movie or a TV show of the Old West, Black Indians were there as sure as Sitting Bull, Davy Crockett and Geronimo.
The Comanches: Lords of the South Plains by Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel. The fierce bands of Comanche Indians were often the terror of whites and other Plains tribes, who, on finding a Comance footprint, customarily would turn and go in the opposite direction. This is a very good book on a fiercely independent people.
United States - Comanche Relations: The Reservation Years by Wiliam T. Hagan. During the reservation years, between 1867 and 1906, the proud Comanches were transformed into apathetic wards of the United States government. This is the best history of a crucial era for an important Plains Indian tribe.
American Indians of the Southwest by Bertha P. Dutton. For those who have neither specialized training nor time to read extensively about southwestern Indian cultures, this book provides an introduction. It covers history and tribal affairs, arts and crafts, changing lifeways, and cultural and social characteristics which set apart each Indian group.
The Seminoles by Edwin C. McReynolds. This is the history of a remarkable nation, the only Indian tribe that never officially made peace with the United States.
Oklahoma Seminoles: Medicines, Magic, and Religion by James H. Howard. This is another great book on the history of a Native American population that has been frequently overlooked in literature. The main focus is on medicine and magic, but covers all aspects of Seminole history, ceremonies, sports and games, religion, mortuary practices, folklore, and culture.
The Crow Indians by Robert H. Lowie. This book covers the religion, ceremonies, taboos, kinship bonds, tribal organization, division of labor, codes of honor, rites of courtship and wedlock and many tribal stories of the Crow Nation.
Blankets and Moccasins: Plenty Coups and His People, the Crows by Glendolin Damon Wagner and Dr. William A. Allen. The reminiscences of "Doc" Bill Allen, who came to Montana when the Crow Indians, expert hunters and warriors, were being forced into a restless life on a government-run reservation.
From the Heart of the Crow Country by Joseph Medicine Crow. The history and stories of the Crow Nation as told by the historian of his tribe. No one who hungers to understand what America lost when it destroyed the Plains Indian cultures should miss this book.
Grandfather Stories of the Navajos by many authors. The books is just that...stories of the Navajo, written primarily for the youth of the tribe as a way for them to understand their own culture. Very absorbing!
Pima Indian Legends by Anna Moore Shaw. An enlightening book on the legends which trace the origin myths and development of the Pima.
Texas Indian Myths and Legends by Jane Archer. Step into a colorful pageantry of the powerful people who once ruled and still influence the great state of Texas. From the Caddo, the Lipan Apache, the Wichita, the Comanche, to the Alabama-Coushatta, five nations come alive through myth and history.
The Indians of Texas by W. W. Newcomb, Jr. A great history book on the Indian bands of Texas which includes such fierce warriors as the cannibalistic Karankawa, the Caddo, the Lipan Apache, Kiowa Apache, Jicarilla Apache, Comanche, Kickapoo, Wacos, and others. Great book.
Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians by John R. Swanton. This is a classic book of American Indian folklore originally published in 1929. It stands as the largest collection of oral traditions ever published and includes stories on the origin of corn and tobacco, the deeds of ancient native heroes, visits to the world of the dead, and encounters between people and animals or supernatural beings in animal form.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. There is so much controversy on this book that you will just have to read it for yourself and form your own conclusions. It's the account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century and told through use of council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions.