Archives Of Aboriginal Knowledge. Containing All The Original Paper Laid Before Congress Respecting The History, Antiquities, Language, Ethnology, ... Tribes Of The United States (Volume Iv)

First-hand reports, sacred symbols, and early attempts to interpret Native America for a distant Congress. These older voices still speak. Volume IV of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's monumental Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge gathers original papers on the history, antiquities, language, ethnology, pictography, rites, superstitions, and mythology of the United States indigenous tribes. Compiled in the mid-19th century, it stands as a dense Native American ethnology and indigenous studies reference, rich in Native American primary sources and classic Native American folklore recorded at the time it was first written down. From ritual practices and indigenous rites and superstitions to Native American language pictographs and carefully noted vocabularies, this is a work for slow reading, reflection, and serious study. For anthropology students and an essential research resource for historians, this landmark 19th-century Native American record preserves a level of detail rarely matched since. Schoolcraft's painstaking documentation of Indigenous nations influenced generations of scholars of Native American mythology and culture, even as it must be read with awareness of its 19th-century perspectives. As one of the earliest large-scale government-sponsored surveys by Henry Schoolcraft on Native Americans, it captures testimony about lifeways, beliefs, and languages that were already under pressure from expansion and conflict. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Restored for today's and future generations. More than a reprint - a collector's item and a cultural treasure, suited both to active researchers and to readers and collectors who cherish foundational works on the peoples of North America.