Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians

Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Soft cover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Minor edge and corner wear; lightly scuffed and scratched; some light shelf wear; spine is gently creased; overall a very crisp and clean used copy! Black and white pictorial wrapper with black and white lettering. 332 very clean unmarked and uncreased informative and historical pages and 20 wonderful pages of historic black and white photographs and illustrations! "In the seventeenth century, French and Spanish explorers encountered four regional alliances-Cahinnio, Cadohadacho, Hasinai, and Natchitoches-within the boundaries of the present-day states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. Their descriptions of Caddo culture are the earliest sources available, and Swanton weaves the information from these primary documents into a narrative, translated into English, for the benefit of the modern reader. For the scholar, he includes in an appendix the extire test of three principal documents in their original Spanish. The first half of the book is devoted to an extensive history of the Caddos, from De Soto's encounters in 1521 to the Caddos' involvement in the Ghost Dance Religion of 1890. The second half discusses Caddo culture, including origin legends and religious beliefs, material culture, social relations, government, warfare, leisure, and trade. For this edition, Helen Hornbeck Tanner also provides a new foreword surveying the scholarship published on the Caddos since Swanton's time............