The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game: A Study of Cultural Change

x+338+[1 ad] pages with plates, figures and bibliography. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6 1/4") bound in original publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering to spine. First edition. Studies the history of the Pawnee from the very early 1800's. Looks specifically at the complexities of the ghost dance and the hand game and maintaining the essential values of the Native American culture. The author, after briefly stating the nineteenth century history of the Pawnee in their relations with the American government, has ably developed the thesis that the Ghost Dance Hand Games "were the chief intellectual product of Pawnee cultural impasse by 1890. The Pawnee were led, almost forced, into adoption of the Ghost Dance religion by reason of the conditions arising from their pathetic history of the past hundred years. Condition: Lightly soiled else a better than very good copy.