Pacaritambo: Machu Picchu Magazine & Native American History: Northwestern Tribes Books

Native America History: Northwest & Inuit Tribes

Pacaritambo: The Machu Picchu Magazine & Native American Bookstore

Native American History Books

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ANCIENT ENCOUNTERS: Kennewick Man and the First Americans
by James C. Chatters. B&W photo section; B&W maps. Condition: Gently pre-read, if at all, 2001 Simon & Schuster hardcvoer & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Content: In this intriguing work of scholarly detection, forensic anthropologist James Chatters relates the story of a fossil discovery that has challenged received wisdom about the peopling of the Americas--and that has touched off a storm of controversy. On July 28, 1996, two students happened on a skull that peeked from the mud of a Washington riverbank. When police officers arrived at the site, they called in Chatters, a deputy coroner and scientist. At first glance, Chatters guessed that the skull was that of a white pioneer, perhaps a hundred or so years old, but on examining other skeletal remains, he began to suspect that the human eventually dubbed "Kennewick Man" was much older indeed. Various scientific tests proved him right: the skeleton was around 9,500 years old. But Kennewick Man, he announced, was also "Caucasoid" in appearance, a revelation that triggered charges of racism and tomb-robbing by local Native Americans, who claimed the remains as part of their cultural heritage. The announcement also drew in white supremacists, who seized on Chatters's discovery to argue that their forebears were the first to arrive in North America. Both the term "Caucasoid" and its racially charged interpretations were off the mark, Chatters writes, for Kennewick Man should be seen as an ancestor to us all. Some of his features, and those of other ancient remains found elsewhere in the Americas, suggest a kinship with peoples as various as Polynesians, Ainu, medieval Icelanders, and Australian aborigines. More important than bloodline is the revision that Kennewick Man and his cousins force in our account of the arrival of humans in the Americas, which, Chatters argues, happened in waves over long periods of time and involved people of widely varied features and genetic traits. Writing evenly of a controversy that continues to rage, Chatters provides a behind-the-scenes view of physical anthropology, as well as a fascinating revision of the human past. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

Price: $ 9.59

CHIEF JOSEPH OF THE NEZ PERCE, Who Called Themselves the Nimipu, "The Real People"
A Poem by Robert Penn Warren. Condition: UNREAD 1983 Random House hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, second printing. Content: Reviewer: "Written in Robert Penn Warren's final years, this book-length, narrative poem is searingly beautiful and historically accurate. Warren recounts the history of the peace-loving Nez Perce through the voice of their most famous leader, Chief Joseph. Warren's stark and forceful poetry combined with the tragedy of the historical event and the personal decency of its hero made this one of the most moving and memorable poems I've ever read." Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

Price: $ 6.59

COWBOYS AND INDIANS: The Shooting of J. J. Harper (2000 Arthur Ellis Award Winner, Best Non-Fiction)
by Gordon Sinclair, Jr. 2 B&W photo sections. Condition: Gently pre-read (it was my book - read twice) 1999 M&S large Trade Paperback, first printing. I didn't store this book well, and it is out of square with spine creases and small edge wear. Interior clean. Content: When J.J. Harper of the Island Lake Tribal Council was fatally shot on a wintry Winnipeg street in 1988, the city police department was quick to absolve the officer involved from all blame. Less than a day after the shooting, Police Chief Herb Stephen announced that Harper had died during a struggle for Constable Robert Cross’s gun. But the truth was not so cut and dried. Far from closing the case, Stephen’s remarks were just the start of this dramatic tale of sex, death, threats, flimsy charges, and a police force so out of control that a prominent lawyer, a senior Crown attorney, and a respected journalist all had reason to suspect they were being watched by the police. Pursued doggedly by Winnipeg Free Press columnist Gordon Sinclair Jr., the stranger-than-fiction story of the shooting of J.J. Harper points a finger at the growing disaster of race relations and policing in Canada’s inner cities. For nearly twenty years, Gordon Sinclair Jr. has been a writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, producing thrice-weekly, wide-ranging columns on whatever catches his eye about the city. Sometimes it is about wild trips with Governor General Ed Schreyer and writer Farley Mowat, sometimes it is about investigating a police shooting where the whole police department seems intent on covering up the truth. Sinclair pursued the story of the shooting of J.J. Harper so single-mindedly and so painstakingly, he became a character in this remarkable story, and a target for the police. He won a Manitoba Human Rights Award and a National Newspaper Award (the first of two) for his columns on the Harper case. Well worth the read, IMHO. The 2003 made-for-TV (APTN?) movie was directed by Norma Bailey and starred the great Adam Beach (J.J. Harper) and the equally great Eric Schweig (brother Harry) with Gordon Tootoosis and Currie Graham. Satisfying but not yet on DVD. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

Price: $ 5.59

GIVE ME MY FATHER'S BODY: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
by Kenn Harper, foreword by Kevin Spacey. Condition: Very Good +. 2000 Steerforth Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket). First American edition. Book was intended for a library, but never shelved - thus the mylar jacket in place. NO library markings. B&W photos, maps. Content: In a story that is peopled with well-known explorers, including Robert Peary, "Give Me My Father's Body" tells the tragic tale of Minik Wallace, "a live Eskimo specimen, " who was orphaned in turn-of-the-century New York. Told simply and interspersed with personal letters and newspaper clippings, the book examines Minik's life both as a cross-cultural meeting place and a deeply personal search for a place to call "home." Photographs throughout of Minik give a glimpse into the incredible differences between the multiple worlds he inhabited, and how impossible it must have been to live in these worlds successfully. The title derives from one of Minik's more harrowing experiences-- finding his father's bones displayed in a natural-history museum as a "curiosity"--and his attempts to retrieve the bones for a respectful burial. [1 copy available]
$ 6.59 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

Price: $ 6.59

INDIAN ART AND CULTURE OF THE NORTHWEST COAST
by Della Kew and P.E. Goddard. Wonderful B&W era photos. Condition: UNREAD 1997 Hancock House soft cover, 7th printing. Content: Most of this detailed study of the Native Americas of the Nortwest coastal area was written and pubished by Goddard in 1924. This edition was edited and supplemented by Della Kew who added some text and more B&W era photos and maps. This is an excellent study of NW tribes. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

Price: $ 6.49

LET ME BE FREE: The Nez Perce Tragedy
by David Lavender. B&W photo section. End pages decorated with the map of the Nez Perce journey. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1992 HarperCollins hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), no printing given. Pale personal library stamp on title page. DJ shows shelf wear with nics and rubbings to edges. Interior perfect. Content: A sub, sub title of this book is "The U.S. Army's war against seven hundred Nez Perce men, women, and children." One of the great historians of the American West, author of the highly acclaimed The Way to the Western Sea and the classic Bent's Fort, here draws on his studies of the fur trade to recount the history of the Nez Perce. Despite a long, unstinting friendship with whites dating from the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805, the Nez Perce later fared no better than other Native American tribes. Once nomads of a vast area where Idaho, Oregon and Washington converge, the Nez Perce were stripped of most of their land by treacherous politicians and economic interests under the so-called thief treaty of 1863. Lavender vividly traces the history of this tragic and illegal land grab from the arrival of Christian missionaries, like Marcus Whitman, to the capture of Chief Joseph's dissident band in 1877 following a long, bloody chase by U.S. troops. The author largely succeeds in demythologizing Chief Joseph, who reached heroic stature. Lavender has created a readable, informative account . [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 3.39 media shipping.

Price: $ 4.59

NUNAGA: Ten years of Eskimo life
by Duncan Pryde. 8 pages of color photos. . Condition: UNREAD (but not perfect) c. 1975 Walker & Company hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), reprint. Tiny "ding" to board & DJ edges. Interior perfect. Content: Reviewer: "Pryde, in 1955, read a Hudson's Bay ad in the Glasgow paper. It said, "Single, ambitious, self-reliant young man required. Must be prepared to live in isolation. " Duncan Pryde, then an 18 year old orphan, ex-merchant seaman and disgruntled factory-worker, decided to try his hand at fur trading and immigrated to Canada. He found that he could easily adapt to the remote and primitive life there. One of his first posts was isolated Perry Island where he fought someone all night long and was accepted by the people there because of it. He witnessed the sacred Eskimo shaman ceremonies; he was paid the ultimate compliment...the invitation to share a friend's wife. His story abounds in high adventure, incredible, near fatal sled and canoe journeys; seal, polar bear and caribou hunts; breathtaking encounters with the beauty of Arctic flora and fauna. He speaks of the native life...the Eskimoe's birth, death and marriage rites, their extraordinary tolerant sexual customs, their age-old and amazingly effective hunting skills." Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.89 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

Price: $ 4.89

THE PIIKANI BLACKFEET: A Culture Under Siege
by John C. Jackson. B&W era photos, drawings, maps, and art work illustrate. Condition: NEW 2000 Mountain Press Trade Paperback, no printing given. Content: John Jackson's Piikani Blackfeet examines the history and culture of the Piikani people, using government records, journals, and scholarly studies from both published and unpublished sources. Chapters chart the realities of early Native American life. [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

Price: $ 4.59

SAGA OF CHIEF JOSEPH
by Helen Addison Howard. B&W maps and drawings by George McGrath. Condition: Gently pre-read 1978 University of Nebraska Trade Paperback, 7th printing. Edge wear with pale diagonal "near-crease " front cover corner. Interior clean & tight. Content: Howard has written the definitive biography of the great Nez Perce chief, a diplomat among warriors. In times of war and peace, Chief Joseph exhibited gifts of the first rank. Even though he was a leader for peace and tribal liberty, he was destined to see the defeat of his people in the Nez Perce War of 1877 and the loss of all that was important to them—their lands, their horses, and their independence. The struggle of the Nez Perces for the freedom they considered paramount in life constitutes one of the most dramatic episodes of Indian history. This completely revised edition of the author's earlier War Chief Joseph presents in exciting detail the full story of Chief Joseph, with a reevaluation of the five bands engaged in the Nez Perce War, objectively told from the Indian, the white military, and the settlers' points of view. Especially valuable is the reappraisal, based on significant new material from Indian sources, of Joseph as a war leader. Of War Chief Joseph, reviewers said: "A priceless contribution to the history of a great and noble race;" "A stirring and dramatic biography of a great man;" "This work . . . is a standard in the field" (1 copy available)
$ 2.19 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

Price: $ 2.19

SELLING YOUR FATHER'S BONES: America's 140-Year War Against the Nez Perce Tribe
by Brian Schofield. Condition: NEW 2009 Simon & Schuster hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Content: The core of Schofield’s extensively researched historical saga is the arduous trek made by the Nez Percé tribe in 1877 in their attempt to elude the U.S. Army and avoid removal from their homelands. He intersperses and enriches this oft-told account with the lesser-known details of the environmental ravaging of these former Nez Percé lands over the last 140 years. These include the damming of the West from the 1930s on, the depletion of salmon and buffalo, and the tragic logging story, beginning a few years after the Nez Percé were forced off their ancient territory on the Columbia Plateau and continuing to the 1980s, by which time unregulated deforestation had “decimated watersheds and salmon runs,” eroded soils, and precipitated widespread flooding. Schofield deftly juxtaposes specifics from 1877—the settlers on Nez Percé land who later make a fortune taking copper from the Bitterroot Valley—with the modern-day consequences—the toxic-waste dump now surrounding Butte, Montana. Schofield’s illumination of this crucial point in history clearly illustrates the “Manifest Destiny” of 1845’s rescinding of “native, natural stewardship. (1 copy available)
$ 5.00 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

Price: $ 5.00

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NATIVE AMERICAN PONY BOOKPLATES
art by Deviney. Condition: NEW package of 12 bookplates made by pacaritambo books. The peel-off label stock is heavier than most bookplate materials and is matte and not glossy. They are as perfect as possible, and we feel the subject matter is much different than you can get at a big store. 3.0 wide x 4.00 high. Content: Prancing Indian Pony decked out in feathers with his portrait above. We can personalize your bookplate (the font is Enviro D) - just email us the name. Any questions, click here to email us.
$ 4.00 + $ 2.85 first class shipping. International shipping available.

Price: $ 4.00