Books in the Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians series

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature.The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.

Koasati Dictionary is one of the first modern dictionaries ever published of a language of the Muskogean language family, whose speakers formerly occupied most of the southeastern United States. When first met by Europeans in the sixteenth century, the Koasati people were living in eastern Tennessee. Early in the eighteenth century they moved to southcentral Alabama and eventually migrated to present-day Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. Today their language survives in southwestern Louisiana, where it is still spoken by the majority of tribal members living there.Published three years after Kimball''s richly detailed Koasati Grammar, this dictionary is the second of three monographs to result from his fifteen-year study of the language. In this work, Kimball provides the user with a substantial introduction outlining Koasati grammar and then organizes dictionary entries into two parts, the first arranged from Koasati to English and the second from English to Koasati. In addition to English translations, entries in the Koasati-English section include sample sentences that illustrate word usage as well as illuminate traditional Koasati culture. Most of these sentences are taken from narrative texts.The dictionary, like Kimball''s grammar of Koasati, is an indispensable reference work for linguists, anthropologists, and historians - indeed, for anyone interested in the native culture history of the southeastern United Stated.Geoffrey D. Kimball is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Tulane University.

Creek (or Muskogee) is a Muskogean language spoken by several thousand members of the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations of Oklahoma and by several hundred members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. This volume is the first modern grammar of Creek, compiled by a leading authority on the languages of the southern United States.

Until the late eighteenth century the Arikaras were one of the largest and most influential Indian groups on the northern plains. For centuries they have lived along the Missouri River, first in present South Dakota, later in what is now North Dakota. Today they share the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with the Mandans and Hidatsas. Although their postcontact history and aspects of their culture are well documented, Douglas R. Parks's monumental four-volume work Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians represents the first comprehensive attempt to describe and record their language and literary traditions. Volumes 1 and 2 present transcriptions of 156 oral narratives in Arikara and include literal interlinear English translations. Volumes 3 and 4 contain free English translations of those narratives, making available for the first time a broad, representative group of Arikara oral traditions that will be invaluable not only to anthropologists and folklorists but to everyone interested in American Indian life and literature.The narratives cover the entire range of traditional stories found in the historical and literary tradition of the Arikara people, who classify their stories into two categories, true stories and tales. Here are myths of ancient times, legends of power bestowed, historical narratives, and narratives of mysterious incidents that affirm the existence today of supernatural power in the world, along with tales of the trickster Coyote and stories of the risque Stuwi and various other animals. In addition, there are accounts of Arikara ritualism: prayers and descriptions of how personal names are bestowed and how the Death Feast originated.

Today the Osage tribe numbers about 18,000, but only two elders still speak the traditional language. Osage Grammar is the first documentation of how the Osage language works, including more than two thousand sentences from Osage speakers, and a detailed description of its phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Presents a study of kinship relations and household organization among the modern Cayugas, located in Ontario, Canada, that aims to fill a gap in our knowledge of modern Cayuga culture and history and make a significant contribution to our understanding of Iroquoian social organization.

The Yuchis are one of the least known yet most distinctive of the Native groups in the American southeast. The famous naturalist William Bartram visited a Yuchi town in 1775, at a time when the Yuchis had moved near and become allied with Creek communities in Georgia. This title examines the significance of community ceremonies for the Yuchis.

Introduces the oral literature of Native American peoples in Puget Salish-speaking areas of western Washington. This work provides information on the processes of language translation and of rendering oral traditions into written form.

Tells the story of Bennett County, using snapshots of community events and crises, past and present, to reveal the complexity of race relations and identities there

Formerly an independent tribe living along the North Fork of the Loup River in central Nebraska, the Skiris united with the South Band Pawnee groups in the late eighteenth century. This volume comprises approximately 4,500 entries that represent the basic vocabulary of the Skiri language.

An account of the early years of the Jamestown colony.

During the summer of 1963, Harvard linguist Karl V. Teeter travelled along the Saint John River, the great thoroughfare of Native New Brunswick, Canada, with his principal Maliseet consultant, Peter Lewis Paul. Together they recorded a series of tales from Maliseet elders. Tales from Maliseet Country presents the transcripts and translations of the texts Teeter collected.