The Cheyenne Indians, Volume 1: History and Society

by George Bird Grinnell and George Bird Grinnell

Book Overview

The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Their Ways of Life is a classic ethnography, originally published in 1928, that grew out of George Bird Grinnell's long acquaintance with the Cheyennes. Volume I looks at the tribe's early history and migrations, customs, domestic life, social organization, hunting, amusements, and government. In a second volume, Grinnell would consider its warmaking and warrior societies, healing practices and responses to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803257716
• ISBN13: 9780803257719
• Release Date: October 1972
• Publisher: Bison
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great insight to Cheyenne people part 1

I bought this book for one of my Native American studies classes and my teacher recommended it because he was Northern Cheyenne from Montana. This book (plus part 2) is great if you want to know more about Cheyenne history, culture, tradition, religion, and ceremony.

Highly recommended for those interested in NA history

Early writers of Native American history tend to fall into two groupings. There are those who relied only on written history, and therefore ignored most of what Indians had to say about their own past; and there were those who tried to serve as a conduit through which the Indians could tell their own history. Happily, Grinnell falls into the second category, and his work turns out to be both interesting, and readable.Though not as exciting as his better known work, The Fighting Cheyenne, which was a warrior history, this book provides a lot of information about the early history of the Cheyennes, and their migration westward. It also goes into many aspects of their culture and society. Volume one (which is the only one I have read so far) ends with a chapter on Cheyenne tribal government. Here Grinnell does a wonderful job of handling a topic, which is actually rather simple, but which eluded many white historians, such as George Hyde, who insisted on believing that chieftanship must have carried with it certain dictatorial powers. He also shows great insight into the status of women. So many white historians, even today, do not understand the high standing that women held in Plains Indian society. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Plains Indians, and I am quite anxious to get on to volume two which deals, among other things, with religious practices.