North America Books

It has been 140 years since that dark dawn rose over the eastern plains of Colorado bathing the land in blood and gore at Sand Creek. Countless books have been written about the subject, and its story has been recounted in film. Today, there are those who believe it was a massacre, others it was a battle that turned into a massacre, but to all academic historians Chivington's attack upon a sleeping village of Cheyenne and Arapaho was nothing but a massacre turned into a blood bath of unspeakable horror.

A new book by Thom Hatch is now available entitled, "Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War" The book is the first ever written biography about the Cheyenne leader. And, Sand Creek is at the center of Black Kettle's life.

Black Kettle is more than a story of one man's life. The story Hatch shares is rich in Plains Indian culture focusing on the Cheyenne people along with their form of government, laws, religion, courtship, and military society. The narrative follows the Cheyenne relationships with other tribes that were both productive and destructive. Hatch also describes life for the Cheyenne after the white man enters the scene. Hatch's passages about the warrior societies are filled with pageantry, color, and ritual.

Much of what Hatch discusses in this portion of the book has been written before, but Black Kettle finally becomes a human being instead of just a symbol of the wrongs committed against the Indians. After Black Kettle witnessed the peace gathering between his people and the Kiowas, Hatch explains its effect upon the Cheyenne leader.

"Perhaps this event made enough of an impression upon Black Kettle that it served as a lesson in shaping his future role as a man who believed that peace with any enemy - even the white man - was attainable if both parties were honorable and sincere with their promise to become friends."

The centerpiece of any story around Black Kettle has to be the Sand Creek Massacre and Hatch does not disappoint the reader. There can be no honest telling of Sand Creek that doesn't move the reader, and the story of Black Kettle at Sand Creek is powerful. Black Kettle leads as many of his people as he can to safety to the Sand Pits except for his wife, Medicine Woman Later, who is shot down near the creek in a hail of bullets.

At twilight, Black Kettle returns to find his wife as the soldiers commit the atrocities around him. Finding Medicine Woman Later still alive, Black Kettle carries her on his back for miles until he catches-up with the survivors, who by now are moving northeast away from the killing field. Putting his wife on a horse, Black Kettle leads his people to the Dog Soldier camps.

So ends the Sand Creek Massacre, but far more of the life of Black Kettle follows. A true leader is one that stands up for what he believes, never wavers, and makes decisions based solely on the betterment of his people, not for how it might make his life better. Black Kettle was such a leader. Black Kettle continued to sue for peace from the white man, even after Sand Creek, even though many of his people chastised him for it, even though the intimidation of the Dog Soldiers tried to stop him. Black Kettle knew his people would be doomed if they continued to fight the people moving into their lands. He believed peace was the only choice the Cheyenne had to save what they could of their way of life.

Tom Hatch brings us the complete life of Black Kettle -- his analysis of the man's life and the events surrounding it is fresh, bold, and provides new challenges for future researches.

Thom Hatch hits the mark on Cheyenne Indian Chief Black Kettle's efforts to uphold peaceful relations throughout manifest destiny. Despite broken treaty after broken treaty by the government and gluttonous bone-headed army generals with personal vendettas and lack of respect for the Indians, it is a wonder that Black Kettle maintained his philosophy on peace for so many years.
It is disheartening that the vision of peace is what eventually killed him along with many of his people.
If surviving the brutal and senseless butchery of Sand Creek Massacre by egotistical Colonel Chivington wasn't enough punishment, Black Kettle was to soon afterwards undergo additional tests of endurance from the thoughtless and misguided behavior of the U. S. military and government.
A very persuasive, gripping and touching account of one man's dream of peace.

This work explores the efforts of a great Cheyenne chief who, despite his betrayal by the white man, continued his search for peace, only to lose his life in the process. It reveals how Black Kettle stood in stark contrast to Chivington, Sherman, Sheridan, Custer and others, who enthusiastically effected our government's policy of destroying the culture of the Plains Indians and killing, with little or no excuse, innocent tribal menbers. Make no mistake, there were elements within the tribes who were no better. However, one cannot read this well-written account without coming away with a sense of revulsion toward those members of the white power structure and our military who made so little effort to understand a people who were different and to treat them with the respect they deserved. Read this book if you want to know more than one will find within the usual histories written by the victors.

The title should read, "Black Kettle, the Cheyenne Chief who Sought Life and Found Only Death". This is a difficult book to read because the story is not only true but shameful. As someone from Colorado, I was horrified to learn many of our streets and city areas are named after men who were often theives, liars, opportunists and some even condoned the murder of the Native Americans. One tries to frame the story in the context of the time and the ignorance and the misunderstandings of the of white America, yet in 2005 the site of the Sand Creek massacre is a minor footnote that most Coloradians are unaware and The Black Hills still have not been returned to the Souix, so has our sense of justice towards Native Americans really changed? The book does a excellent, informative telling of the story of a very shameful part of Colorado and American history.This is the story of an exceptional man who rightly always believed in peace but wrongly believed in the U.S. government. We should be reminded of this past and never forget the genocide that was carried out in the country in the name of westward expansion. Black Kettle should be remembered as man who was as great in statue as any American hero.

I saw Mr Shrake on Evan Smith's Texas Monthly Talks, & learned that he'd written books where much of the action takes place near and around where I currently live: east of Austin in the fertile riverlands around Bastrop.
That made me want to order two books & see what could be learned about the lives people led in this area before the turn of the century. What I discovered was probably an accurate "novelized" glimpse into the rugged, rough, dangerous country that bears no resemblance to the present-day idyllic countryside peopled with artists and university types! The stories about McGill and Custer's brother's horse were mesmerizing & I could hardly put them down, no doubt partially because areas that I am familiar with kept cropping up. All in all, both tales provided valuable insights into exactly why and how this part of Texas was the wild, deadly, lawless frontier back in the days before and after the Civil War. Good stories about real people on their own, the stories take on special interest if the geography is personally pertinent.

McGill is an inspiring hero, immensely capable, with a huge zest for life. He packs incredible adventures into his short life, yet tells his story in a delightfully laid back style. He combines an interest and tolerance of all ideas, religions and philosophies, with a violent intolerance of certain purveyors of them. McGill is a warrior/philosopher, born, raised and ideally suited to this harsh land. His story is one of violence, love, sin and redemption, but it is often hard to distinguish which is which.

This book is a "must read" for all lovers of powerfully written adventure stories, but may make all other westerns dull and unimaginative in comparison.

This is an incredible tale from beginning to end. Shrake has developed a character that is the first person born on the American Continent to achieve sainthood, and until the last pages of the book the reader is kept guessing how he could deserve such an honor. The book reads as a memoir written by McGill as he tells the story of his life while awaiting his death. He lives the life of an indian scalper, buffalo hunter, and gold miner in 19th century Texas from the time of the Texas War of Independence until after the US Civil War. The more you read of this man's account of his life, the less you can believe he could ever desert to be Sainted.

This book has long been out of print, and its re-printing is an excellent opportunity for new readers to discover a classic western. Any fan of Larry McMurty's books in the "Lonesome Dove" will love "Blessed McGill" and recognize that McMurty has probably gotten some of his writting style from reading this book.

As a student of Texas history in general and a reader of fiction about Texas and the Southwest in particular, I found Blessed McGill by Edwin "Bud" Shrake to be rich with descriptive color and accurate detail about the rugged lives and times of both settlers and natives in the 19th century. The characters are developed in depth.

His repeated use of sensory descriptions such as the smells of things adds a dimensional aspect not usually found in this kind of fare. In my opinion, the only other Western fiction writer who stacks up with Shrake is Elmer Kelton.

What a great collection of essays! An excellent book to have around and read when you're a Nuyorican looking for some grounding!

Collaboratively compiled and edited by the team of Gabriel Haslip-Viera (Director of the Program in Latin American and Latino Studies, City College, CUNY), Angelo Falcon (Senior Policy Executive for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund), and Felix Matos Rodriguez (Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Policy, Hunter College), Boricuas In Gotham: Puerto Ricans In The Making Of Modern New York City anthologizes essays reinterpreting and updating the history of New York's Puerto Rican community and its leadership from the beginnings of the great migration in the 1940s down to the present day. Organized in chronological order and including chapters by noted historians, sociologists, and political scientists, Boricuas In Gotham covers diverse issues of culture, demography, language, economic status, politics, and community organization. Also available in a hardcover edition (1558763554, $69.95), Boricuas In Gotham is a seminal work of impressive scholarship and a welcome contribution to Latino Studies supplemental reading lists as well as 20th Century American History reference collections.

CHOICE Magazin: January 2005

"Collaboratively compiled and edited by the team of Gabriel Haslip-Viera (Director of the Program in Latin American and Latino Studies, City College, CUNY), Angelo Falcon (Senior Policy Executive for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund), and Felix Matos Rodriguez (Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Policy, Hunter College), Boricuas In Gotham: Puerto Ricans In The Making Of Modern New York City anthologizes essays reinterpreting and updating the history of New York's Puerto Rican community and its leadership from the beginnings of the great migration in the 1940s down to the present day. Organized in chronological order and including chapters by noted historians, sociologists, and political scientists, Boricuas In Gotham covers diverse issues of culture, demography, language, economic status, politics, and community organization. Also available in a hardcover edition (1558763554, $69.95), Boricuas In Gotham is a seminal work of impressive scholarship and a welcome contribution to Latino Studies supplemental reading lists as well as 20th Century American History reference collections."

This new and very important collection of essays reinterprets and updates the history of New York's Puerto Rican community and its leaders from the beginnings of the great migration in the 1940s to the present time. The collection also honors the memory of the late Dr. Antonia Pantoja, who was perhaps the community's most important and influential activist and institution builder during this period.
The book is organized in chronological order and includes chapters by noted historians, sociologists, and political scientists, such as Virginia Sánchez Korrol, Ana Celia Zentella, José Cruz, Francisco Rivera Batiz, and Gabriel Haslip-Viera. These chapters focus on issues of culture, demography, language, economic status, politics, and community organization.
Eminently useful in college-level courses that deal with Latinos and other ethnic groups in U.S. society, the book ends with essays by Angelo Falcón and Clara E. Rodríguez that assess the legacy, current status, and future prospects of the Puerto Rican community in New York.

Gabriel Haslip-Viera, City College, CUNY, is the editor of Taíno Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics. Angelo Falcón, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, is the author of numerous articles on Puerto Rican/Latino politics. Félix V. Matos-Rodríguez, Hunter College, is the author of Women in San Juan: 1820-1868.

This is a fun book and all Scouts should own one. We see how some things change, but we also see how some things don't. Truths remain true and common sense and good remain so as well. Pick one up!

This is a great book showing the scout perspective. The other half is the Handbook For Scout Masters 1914 recently reprinted. The two show both sides of the picture and are both funny from their angle.

Lot of info is out of date here, such as their dietary and first aid, but that is what makes it fun.

Superb book. In the world we live in there is constant change, this book demonstrates that somethings are timeless.

I was a Cub Scout, Weblo, and Boy Scout for years. Some of my fondest memories are of times spent with my fellow scouts around the campfire, telling stories, jokes, and just being BOYS. This edition reminds me of the pre-PC and pre-secular Boy Scouts, when scouting was almost a calling for teenage boys, and certainly contributed to their moral and ethical upbringings. In this day of anti-God, anti-anything-as-long-as-it's-secular-humanism, it's refreshing to read a handbook with advice on serving one's God, and that it should be a regular part of one's life. Kudos to the publisher for re-introducing a classic.

"The Bridge in the Jungle" is one of those strange books you don't know how to respond to at first. On one hand it's absolutely tragic and, on the other, it's filled with some of the funniest passages imaginable. More or less condensed into a twenty-four hour period, Traven describes how an Indian community bands together, sometimes with folly but often with strength, when a young boy disappears into the bush.

Throughout the story Traven gives an intimate account of peasant life in southern Mexico, nevering missing a detail of how the campesinos live, think and act. In fact the narrative is filled with so many astute observations that you feel, at times, Traven works better as an anthropologist than as a novelist.

But, unfortunately, some of these observations sound a little sentimental. It's the only work by Traven that seems to run in circles, at times even becoming boring. He praises the spiritualism of Indians one too many times and focusses on their diet rather than moving on with the plot.

He does, however, redeem himself with the character of Sleigh, an expat who's made the jungle his home. He's like a good-natured version of Kurtz -- wise, crazy, but harmless.

On top of all this, Traven makes his usual attacks against the oil industry and organized religion.

If you enjoyed any of his "jungle books," then gives this one a read.

I confess that I am a major afficionado of B. Traven. My politics have mellowed over the years but I enjoy Traven's political perspective. I believe B. Traven was an ararchist at heart. He attacked big government and big business as evil but saw the uncorrupted individual as nobel and good. In the rural Mexican Indian community he found, for himself, the most ideal form of government he had ever encountered. His Jungle Books were a tale of conflict between good and evil; peasant and capitalism. His book, The Bridge in the Jungle, is his ode to the Indian peasant community. He brings us into their midst throught his vagabond American who stumbles upon a small village at the time a tragedy is unfolding. A young boy has drowned and we witness their suffering and their coming together. We see the corruption of their society by misunderstood influences from the outside world. The example I remember best is the musician who, when asked to play something during the funeral march, comes up with "Yes We have no Bananas". Neither the musician nor anyone else except our American narrator comprehends the total inappropriateness of the song. All in all, a beautiful story of a disappearing society.

By chance I came upon Traven at the library when I noted that he had authored "Treasure of Sierra Madre," a film classic that I automatically associate with Hollywood's old Bogey.

Not knowing anything more than that I picked-up "The Bridge in the Jungle," and what I found most fascinating was finding a story that so honestly stripped away cultural biases and opened a window to another universe. It revealed the dignity of a community dealing with death of a young boy in an obscure jungle town in early nineteenth century Mexico, and it also provided a vivid account of a proud Aztec culture on the threshold of extinction.

I wish I could see more modern American writers, who, like Traven, would more readily examine how cultural biases skew our understanding and appreciation of the quiltwork of cultures that inhabit our amazing World.

This book was dedicated by Traven to the mothers of the world. It is a cold, crude and, at the same time, compasionate and tender view on a child's death and the terrible, extreme pain it produces on his mother. It also describes the quite particular, "uncontaminated" and honest reaction the event creates among a small Indian community in Chiapas. All this is told by Gales, the main character, an American adventurer that hardly tries to undertand what is actually going on and how he feels about it.

Although the plot is very simple, this novel has some passages of an extraordinary literary intensity. It is also full of irony and sometimes sarcasm too.

Well, it can be said The Bridge in the Jungle is a sad, tragic novel but it is beautifully written and that is what matters.

Chocolate. what is better than that? Oh yea, brownies! Excellent cookbook with tons of variety!

I am in chocolate heaven everytime I open this book. The recipes are simply the best, chocolatiest, fudgiest, gooeiest I have ever tried. Even her recipe for cocoa brownies are moist and fudgy whereas usually cocoa brownies turn out dry and chewy.

I am working my way through this book and so far everything I made have been winners. This book has everything from classic fudge brownies to touches of unconventional flavors like balsamic vinegar, lemongrass and ginger. Having said that, I'm not an adventurous baker so I would probably give such recipes a miss. Still this is a book I use all the time and it hasn't disappointed me yet. And probably never will.

This book covers the best of the most decadent brownie recipes.....
It also has some alternatives for those with sensitivities to wheat, etc.
Overall a well written, well researched cookbook! Definitely worth owning.

This book is fabulous! I have tried a number of the recipes and they are all wonderful. The author has fun notes with each recipe as well suggestions to make the brownie treat fancy enough for a dinner party dessert. Every time I make one of these brownies, everyone wants the recipe. Great book to give as a hostess gift.

Bridger, decendent of the reknown Mountain man, Jim Bridger, has written an outstanding book on two of history's most colorful and enduring icons of the American west and the dynamic process that each dealt with during the late 19th century America. Bridger is one the best entertainers in American today and this book only shows a small example of his profound abilities. Years of research and documentation of historical events pays tribute to truth, justice, and injustices, of the American West. This book should be a standard fare for all collegiate history classes and for the general public at large. History is always multi-sided and Bridger illustrates that to perfection. This is a must read. It will impress both scholars and the general public. BRAVO MR. BRIDGER! We look forward to the next! Sing on Great Spirit!

For years, Bobby Bridger has been presenting the story of Buffalo Bill in a musical act called Pahaska, a one-hour series of enthralling songs that tell the story of Bill Cody. Now, Bridger puts down the guitar and period garb from his act to show the history behind his art. In this historical tome, Bridger shows the serious academic side of his art. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of the West. Bridger's look at how the modern romantic vision of the American West was created is intriguing and as captivating as his music.

For years, Bobby Bridger has been presenting the story of Buffalo Bill in a one-hour musical act that tells the story of Bill Cody in a series of enthralling songs. Now, with this historical tome, Bridger has completed the circle. This is the history behind Bobby Bridger's art. Bridger puts down the guitar and period garb used in his musical drama to show readers the serious academic side of his personality. If you want some intriguing inquiry and suggestion about how the modern vision of the romantic west was created, this book is a must read.

For years, Bobby Bridger has been entertaining audiences musically with his Ballad of the West. One of the hour sets, Pahaska, tells the story of Buffalo Bill in what Bridger describes as Homeric ballads. Now, Bridger puts aside the guitar and period garb to show his serious academic side. "Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West" is the history behind his music. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the old west and is an intriguing look into how the popular vision of it was created.

Originally published in 1917, reissued in 1987, now released again with a new introduction by Jeffrey R. Hansen, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden presents an agricultural calendar year's activities as remembered by Buffalo Bird Woman, an accomplished Hidatsa gardener born around 1839. Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden was a doctoral dissertation by a man who believed "It is of no importance that an Indian's war costume struck the Puritan as the Devil's scheme to frighten the heart out of the Lord's annointed. What we want to know is why the Indian donned the costume, and his reasons for doing it (p.xix)." Wilson also went on to write Goodbird the Indian His Story and Waheenee: An Indian Girl's Story (biography of Buffalo Bird Woman, 1839-1921). Using biography to study a culture was effective because it highlighted the variety of traumatic cultural shifts, changes, and transmutations painfully experienced by Buffalo Bird Woman and her family. The use of empathy informs the dated, 'superior' dominant culture outlook. Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden has been called a classic anthropological document. It certainly is that and more. As a model of respectful viewing and learning, as a mirror of the complex lifeway of ;the agricultural Plains Indians, as a chronicle of human adaptation, survival and ingenuity in the face of cultural disenfranchisement, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden sets the bar for the standard. In addition, it gives eloquent testimony to one of the enduring gifts of the Hidatsa - their varieties of corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers. Even more enduring, perhaps, is the contribution highlighted by Jeffrey Hanson: "buffalo Bird Woman's Garden is not the end, but the beginning. It is a foundation, a viewpoint, and it presents a cultural relationship with nature that we can all appreciate and from which we can all derive benefit. (p.xxiii). Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden describes planting, preparation, cultivating, harvesting and storing practices, as well as traditional songs and prayers sung to honor and encourage the garden's yield. Beautifully detailed drawings by her son Edward Goodbird illustrate Buffalo Bird Woman's descriptions of gardening and storing produce and other activities. It is easy to see that modern ethnologists and authors such as W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear drew fairly heavily from the information presented in Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden. This is an enduring testament to a lifeway revalued today perhaps more as it should be.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

This is a Minnesota Historical Society reprint of the anthropological study done by Gilbert Wilson in 1917, originally published as "Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation." Wilson was among the first of a new school of American anthropologists that felt Indian cultures should speak for themselves, and not be spoken for by "white man's" interpretations. Consequently, the book really is, as the subtitle says, "an Indian interpretation." Most of the text is translated directly from Buffalo Bird Woman's own words, complete with stories, jokes, and personal anecdotes about village life. By the time you are done reading it, you will feel as if you met her personally.

I bought it because I am a Minnesota gardener, so I wanted to see what tips I might pick up from the ways of the indigenous people. The book is rich with useful gardening lore, including diagrams of various tools and structures, along with detailed descriptions of the different kinds of beans, corn, and squash that the Indians grew. Plus, there are native recipes you can try.

I was surprised to learn that, when the Indians dried squash, they didn't use mature fruits with hard skins like we do today, but preferred to cut them when they were 4 days old -- at about 3 1/2 inches diameter. They were more tender that way, easier to slice, and they dried better. The best squashes were marked in the field and allowed to mature for seed.

I also found it interesting that the Indians kept the different colors of corn separate, not like the multi-colored "Indian corn" we buy today for fall decorations. Although Buffalo Bird Woman did not understand the science behind genetics, she and her fellow Hidatsa gardeners did notice that corn varieties will "travel" (her word) from one patch to another if different colors are planted too closely together. So, women with adjoining fields would agree to plant the same varieties side-by-side, to help prevent this "traveling."

The Hidatsa women also understood the principles of good seed-saving techniques, and carefully chose seed from the very best squashes and corn ears in the crop, thereby improving their strains from year to year. Composting, however, was apparently unknown. Leaves and brush were burned, not composted, and they regarded manure as a dirty substance to be removed from the garden. But the Hidatsa did know the value of fallowing, and would allow a less-productive field rest a minimum of two years to renew itself.

Some of the techniques in this book are still quite useful today. I have begun pre-spouting my squash seeds, and planting them in the SIDES of the hills instead of on top, to help prevent the heavy rains from damaging the seedlings. Some of the fencing designs have found their way into my rustic Minnesota garden, too.

This book is also a priceless resource for "living history" re-enactors or "back to the land" homesteaders who might want to know how to build a traditional corn-drying platform, a food-storage cache, a homemade rake, or any of the other tools used successfully for many centuries before the Europeans came here. Simply a delightful book!

This is a unique and irreplaceable book. In the early 20th century, the author interviewed Buffalo Bird, an old Hidasta Indian woman about Indian farming methods in the mid 19th century. The result is a primer on how the Indians grew corn and other crops on the Great Plains. Interspaced with the explanation of agricultural techniques are charming stories, songs, recipes, and ancedotes told by Buffalo Bird. She also describes how the Indians preserved their crop.

The Hidasta lived in North Dakota and this book is a primer on how to garden in the State without recourse to chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or motor powered equipment. The Hidasta grew five crops: corn, beans, squash, sunflower seeds, and tobacco. Their methods of cultivation, storage, and usage of each crop is described, usually with enough detail to be copied by the modern low-impact sustainable agriculturalist. A large number of illustrations and photographs supplement the text and show how the Indians built fences, dug storage pits, dried squash, and laid out their fields.

A good introductory essay introduces the Hidasta, Bird Woman, and the author to the reader. The whole book is only about 150 pages, but there's a wealth of cultural and agricultural information here presented in a charming and easy-to-digest format.

Smallchief

A "must have" for anyone who is interested in doing a garden using authentic Native American practices, as used in the tribes in the Missouri Valley area. Details on laying out the garden, maintaining it, food storage, construction of tools, etc. are all included with sufficient clarity for reproduction.

This book is great for parents, children, and teachers. It covers butterfly gardening, understanding butterflies, identifying butterflies, and provides a wonderful variety in pictures and information. It is presented in a format that is of interest to all ages. This book needs to go to print again and be widely available. If it doesn't, grab one while you can.

This book is great for parents, children, and teachers. It covers butterfly gardening, understanding butterflies, identifying butterflies, and provides a wonderful variety in pictures and information. It is presented in a format that is of interest to all ages. This book needs to go to print again and be widely available. If it doesn't, grab one while you can.

This is a wonderful book, packed with an amazing amount of information, engagingly presented, in its 144 colorfully illustrated pages. The author's fascination with, and immersion in, his subject is apparent, and generates a responding enthusiasm in the reader. Learning that, for instance, high altitude plants tend to be pollinated by birds, not insects, because of the lower temperature and humidity, and because they are less fragrant, may not be needed to make a butterfly garden, but it is a fun snippet of knowledge.

The book can be divided into three major segments: The first two chapters tell us about butterflies (and moths) in literature and lore, as well as nature. The second section (chapter 3) provides brief discussions of over two dozen butterfly species, with an emphasis on food sources for both the caterpillars and adults. The third section is about the plants one can place in one's garden to make it attractive to wild butterflies; not only food sources, but as roosting places. Over 100 plant species are discussed, organized by type (shrubs, trees, annuals) and season. This is followed by a chapter on the general principles of designing a garden for butterflies, with two example garden plans.

A fascinating read for the armchair gardener, no coffee table book yet profusely illustrated, "TheButterfly Garden" is also full of good and specific advice for attracting these beautiful creatures.

This book is great for parents, children, and teachers. It covers butterfly gardening, understanding butterflies, identifying butterflies, and provides a wonderful variety in pictures and information. It is presented in a format that is of interest to all ages. This book needs to go to print again and be widely available. If it doesn't, grab one while you can.

Since I grew up in an area near an Indian reservation in central MN, and now live in an area that was formerly a reservation in central OR, I had to read this book by Rick Steber about his viewpoint. It brings us great sadness to realize how difficult it's been for the American Indian population to assimilate and succeed in our current culture, and why alcohol plays such a great role in their attempts. I did enjoy reading 1491 which documents their predecessors' success in living a better life as the early natives to this continent. I'm glad to hear we're beginning to see the necessity for restoring the prairie grasses and conservation practices of burning, etc. that were successful for the early forestation and conservation of our country.

As I lived close to this area during the time of this book, it was thrilling to read Rick Steber's view of the happenings at that time.

It supposedly is not based on facts. I remember too well the incidents and the stories of the law enforcement officers relating to the "trouble with the natives". Humourous as it was at the time, it is truly a sad tale of loss of another one of our native American tribes and the plight the white man has brought to them.

The characters in this book are drawn deeply and realistically. I could not put this book down.

Buy the Chief a Cadillac is indeed a wonderful historical novel, although fairly recent history, as the time period of the book is in the early 1960's.
The Klamath Indian tribe, living on a million acre reservation in southern Oregon, is about to be terminated. The government passed a plan where they would pay each Indian $43,000 and in return, the reservation would be no longer. This novel is set in the days just before and immediately after the Termination Act took place.
Full of well fleshed out characters, mean drunks, crazy cowboys, whisky swilling loggers, lawmen both good and bad, this book is a darn fine read. It is historically correct and explores clearly one of the last really big rip-offs of the Indians by the US Government.
Buy the Chief a Cadillac is fueled by 60's rock and roll, a river of potent booze, hopped up hotrods, guns, chaos, greed, murder and abundant mayhem. We meet and journey with each of the many and varied interesting characters from their own point of view, something that works very well.
The book is tight, keeps the reader turning the pages; the writing is crisp, clean, and clear, and has a definite ring of authenticity about it. This is the first of Rick Steber's books I've read and I plan to read more of them. I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading about the West, for those interested in American history, and think it would make an excellent book for professors to have their students read in classes that deal with the American Indian, the reservations, the 1960's. A terrific book by a talented writer.