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Abstract:
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When he first encountered Native Americans in 1492, Christopher Columbus, thinking he was in India, called the people Indians.' His "Indians" have been the subjects of hundreds of books and thousands of professional articles. Most of the writing about American Indians, however, has to do vsdth their relationship with the European invaders, comparatively less of it has been aimed at the relationship of the various Indian groups with one another. Reasons for the omission are varied, but a primary explanation lies in the dearth of material from the Indian participants.
Recent scholarship has begun to focus on the association of the Indian groups with one another. Thomas W. Kavanagh's Comanche Political History: An Ethnohistorical Perspective, 1706-1975 was a recent study of Comanche diplomacy. It covered relations within the various Comanche divisions, with other Indian groups, and with the European invaders. Other works in this area include Frank Secoy's Changing Military Patterns on the Great Plains, John Ewers's The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture, and Symmes Oliver's "Social Organization of the Plains Indians" in University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology. |