Customer Reviews

American Plains Indians (Trade Editions)

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This Osprey book serves as a well-written introduction to the ceremonial and military sides to the culture of the Indian peoples of the Central Plains, c. 1800-1890. Though this is an excellent visual source (like all books in this series) and the author is a well-known scholar of Native American studies, do not buy this book looking for a thorough history of the tribes and their wars-only the last three pages are used to offer the briefest of outlines of the Plains Wars c. 1851-1890.

This book would be very good for someone seeking to learn about the various warrior societies of the Plains Indians; these are very well illustrated and the author gives much information on their social roles in their tribes. Many aspects of non-military Indian culture, including the roles of spirituality and women, are also dealt with in surprising detail. There are lots of black-and-white photos of Indian chiefs and warriors, and line drawings throughout. One particularly interesting drawing (if a little morbid to the average modern American reader) is a chart showing how all the various body parts of a buffalo were put to good use by the Indians-as opposed to the contemporary white men, who are well known for their mass slaughters of more meat than they could have ever used.

Overall, buy this book if you are looking for a good, solid intro to the material culture and warrior and religious societies of the 19th Century Plains tribes. If you are looking for their history and their more famous leaders, however, look elsewhere.