Indians of the Southeastern United States

Swanton

John, R.

Library Reprints

First published in 1942, John R. Swanton’s Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians is a classic reference on the Caddos. Long regarded as the dean of southeastern Native American studies, Swanton worked for decades as an ethnographer, ethnohistorian, folklorist, and linguist. In this volume he presents the history and culture of the Caddos according to the principal French, Spanish, and English sources.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.

Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians

History

Americas

Books, art, and movies most often portray the frontier army in continuous conflict with Native Americans. In truth, the army spent only a small part of its frontier duty fighting Indians; as the main arm of the federal government in less-settled regions of the nation, the army performed a host of duties. The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West examines the army’s nonmartial contributions to western development. Dispelling timeworn stereotypes, Michael L. Tate shows that the army conducted explorations, compiled scientific and artistic records, built roads, aided overland travelers, and improved river transportation. Army posts offered nuclei for towns, and soldiers delivered federal mails, undertook agricultural experiments, and assembled weather records for forecasting.
The "multipurpose" army also provided telegraph service, extended relief to destitute civilians, and protected early national parks.

The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West

THREE LIVES O/T LAST ENGLISH (Garland Library of Medieval Literature)

Scholarly Title

The Dream of the Rood is a poem that has entranced generations of scholars. It is one of the greatest religious poems in English literature, the work of a nameless poet of superb genius. This edition presents a conservative text with variant reading described in the notes. In his introduction Professor Swanton describes the Vercelli Book, in which the full text of The Dream of the Rood is found, and gives an account of the Ruthwell Cross, the sources for which are scattered and not normally familiar to students of Old English. The relationship between the two texts, the doctrine behind the poem and its style and structure are also discussed. The edition includes extensive notes and glossary.

The Dream of the Rood (Exeter Mediaeval English Texts & Studies)

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

University of Exeter Press

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