Series:

The Civilization of the American Indian

7 total works

Cover of A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest
In a convenient alphabetical format, this book describes the histories and cultures of the Pacific Northwest tribes, of which there are more than 150, belonging to 15 different language groups, which have inhabited the Pacific Coast, the semi-arid Columbia Plateau, and the arid Great Basin. Brief characterisations of the tribes provide information about tribal language, alternative names, house styles, diet, populations at certain dates, contacts with white explorers and traders, treaties, claims against the government of the United States, leading personalities and significant migrations and settlements. The section of the book which deals with the pronunciation of Pacific Northwest tribal names is supplied by M. Dale Kinkade.

Cover of The Cayuse Indians

The Cayuse Indians

by Robert H. Ruby and John A Brown

Published 31 December 1972
In this book, Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown tell the story of the Cayuse people, from their early years through the nineteenth century, when the tribe was forced to move to a reservation. First published in 1972, this expanded edition is published in 2005 in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the treaty between the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Confederated Tribes and the U.S. government on June 9, 1855, as well as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's visit to the tribal homeland in 1805 and 1806.

Volume 120 in The Civilization of the American Indian Series

Cover of Indians of the Pacific Northwest
More than one hundred Indian tribes in fifteen language groups inhabited the area of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Western Montana in the nineteenth century. This important work, the first composite history of the region's native inhabitants, covers the period roughly from 1750 to 1900, from the first white contacts to the aftermath of the Dawes Act. It is a valuable resource both for the serious scholars and general readers.

The cultures of the Pacific Northwest tribes were as diverse as their lands. Coastal peoples, such as the Makahs, hunted whales in huge wooden canoes thirty-five feet long. Near Puget Sound they developed an advanced technology and a stylized art in carved wood. Whites were shocked by the head flattening practiced by some coastal peoples and by the potlatch ceremony, in which they gave away their possessions. Farther inland, along the Columbia River, tribal economies centered around the salmon. The smoked fish was traded all over the region. On the east the horse transformed the way of life of the Shoshonis, Nez Perces, Kalispels, and Blackfeet. Each spring they crossed the Rockies to hunt the buffalo and fight for control of the hunting territory.

The first whites to enter the Pacific Northwest were Spanish mariners from the south and British and American traders stopping for furs on their way to China. Later the British North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company established trading posts. The whites brought gimcracks, guns, molasses, tobacco, alcohol, and disease. They took the pelts of the sea otter, seal, beaver, and buffalo in return.

Missionaries and settlers followed the traders. Catholic black robes and Protestants in buckskins competed with mixed success for the Indian's souls, while at the same time native religions held sway. Indian religious leaders, such as Spokane Garry and the Dreamer prophet Smohalla, were almost as important as the fighting chiefs.

By the 1840s epidemics had cut the Indians' numbers by two-thirds,. The few who survived were too weak to drive out the white settlers. Only truly extraordinary individuals could resist the changes introduced by the whites: the appropriation of traditional food-gathering and hunting grounds formerly held in common, the introduction of a cash economy, the demands of Christianity, confinement on reservations and farms and in schools, and allotment.

Many extraordinary individuals are portrayed in this history. The authors have written their account colorfully and movingly from the Indian point of view, and they effectively present the special identity of Pacific Northwest Indians.

Cover of Dreamer-Prophets of the Columbia Plateau
"This book is more than an ethnohistory, for there is insight into Euramerican history as well. It is worth reading just for the biographies of two interesting men". -- Choice.

Cover of The Spokane Indians

The Spokane Indians

by Robert H. Ruby and John A Brown

Published 31 December 1970
"The Spokane Indians" clearly and concisely spans the years from their prehistory to the present... highly readable.... This work has a positive place for those interested in Indian affairs today". -Oregon Historical Quarterly.

Cover of Half-Sun on the Columbia
Chief Moses (Sulktalthscosum or Half-Sun) was chief of the Columbias, a Salish-speaking people of the mid-Columbia River area in what is now the state of Washington. This award-winning biography by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown situates Moses in the opening of the Northwest and subsequent Indian-white relations, between 1850 and 1898. Early in life Moses had won a name for himself battling whites, but with the maturity and responsibilities of chieftainship, he became a diplomat and held his united tribe at peace in spite of growing white encroachment. He resisted the call to arms of his friend Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces, whose heroic campaign ended in defeat and exile to Indian Territory. Yet their friendship persisted, and after Joseph's return to the Northwest, the two lived out their lives on the reservation, sharing their frustrations and uniting their voices in complaint.

Cover of The Cayuse Indians
In this book, Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown tell the story of the Cayuse people, from their early years through the nineteenth century, when the tribe was forced to move to a reservation. First published in 1972, this expanded edition is published in 2005 in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the treaty between the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Confederated Tribes and the U.S. government on June 9, 1855, as well as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's visit to the tribal homeland in 1805 and 1806.

Volume 120 in The Civilization of the American Indian Series