Indian

With classic British understatement, Harold Maxwell-Lefroy (1877-1925) describes this two-volume, 800 page guide as an “imperfect” attempt to describe the insects of the Indian subcontinent. Published in 1909, Indian Insect Life is “largely a product of [Maxwell-Lefroy’s] spare time and scanty holidays.” One wonders what he would produce if he were able to devote his full time and energy.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library has an extensive collection of books about European and American architecture and architectural ornament. This copy of the rare 1834 Essay on the Architecture of the Hindús written by Rám Ráz (1790-1830), a native of India, is not a book you would typically expect to find in the collection. The author compares Hindu architecture with the Greek, Egyptian, or later European architecture that is helpful in understanding sources of design, particularly of temple architecture.

Part of a three-volume collection of Native American biographies and strikingly vivid portraits, this publication contains some of the finest American lithography of the 19th century. Published from 1836 to 1844, Thomas McKenney, US Superintendent of Indian Trade, wanted to preserve "in the archives of the Government whatever of the aboriginal man can be rescued from the destruction which awaits his race." His enlightened view that American Indians ought to be "looked upon as human beings, having bodies and souls like ours" was unfortunately shared by few at that time.

Where the Salmon Run follows the life and activism of Billy Frank, Jr., a member of the Nisqually tribe in Washington state who became one of the most prominent American Indian activists during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.  Frank was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 because his activism—Frank hosted fish-ins that were modeled after sit-ins—that led up to 1979 Supreme Court case United States v. Washington, commonly known as the Boldt Decision.

Arctic Memories is an overview of Inuit life written for young people. The stories and illustrations are full of beauty and relay so much about life and culture in the Arctic. Author and illustrator Normee Ekoomiak was one of the the most prolific Inuit artists of the 20th century whose life, as a victim of the residential school system and homelessness, shows both the injustices suffered by Canada’s indigenous peoples and their remarkable resilience against that injustice.

Inuktitut is not just the name for the language of the indigenous peoples of the Eastern Arctic. It also means “like one of the Inuit” in that language, reflecting not only how one speaks, but also the culture, attitudes, lifestyle, and behaviors of Inuit peoples: Inuktitut is a way of life.

Although only about two percent of the population of India is Christian, it is common to find both Christian and non-Christian Indian artists who have used Christian themes in their art. The beginnings of Christianity in India are not well known but tradition has it that the apostle Thomas founded a number of churches in Kerala in 52 AD. Vasco da Gama (1469-1524), the Portuguese explorer, landed in Calicut in 1498 and by 1542 the Roman Catholic missionary Francis Xavier (1506-1552) had reached Goa. These contacts with the west brought examples of European art into the Indian subcontinent.

Cree, an Algongian language with nine dialects, is the most widely spoken aboriginal language across Canada. It is a written language using traditional syllabics, which is the text in this 1949 hymnal, which also includes a useful syllabarium. Based on shorthand, the Cree syllabic system was constructed in the mid-1800s by a Canadian Methodist missionary. Each symbol represents a consonant that can be ‘written’ four ways by directional placement. Psalms and Hymns compiler, Rev.

For just twenty five cents in 1963, you could buy this little book, documenting plants in Window Rock, Arizona, at the Navajo Tribal Museum. The plants listed in this catalog were collected in the area. The actual dried plant specimens now reside at the Jepson Herbarium at  the University of California, Berkeley. Each plant entry is simple, listing the scientific name, common name, and a brief description of the landscape where the plant was found. In some cases, elevation is listed as well.

Book artist and engineer Joe D'Ambrosio wrote, printed, illustrated, signed, and bound just 125 editions of this book. The first twenty-five copies of the printing have a deluxe binding and additions such as extra hand-coloring, metallic inks, and feathers. This edition is one of the rare twenty-five. The text of the tale is letterpress printed in four colors on two different colors of confetti paper.

Originally produced and published for the students of the Rock Point Community School on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona, this book became prominent as Volume 11 in the Sun Tracks, a series of contemporary Native American literary works. Between Sacred Mountains portrays Navajo world view based upon the land and how it has sustained the lifeways of the Navajo people. Text and stories are written and told by Navajo traditional knowledge holders, healers, educators, artists, and numerous specialists in the field of Navajo Studies.

Together, the Goodwin and Guenther Collections in the Arizona State Museum form the most significant collection of Apache cultural materials dating from the mid-1800s to 1985. In the early 1930s, Grenville Goodwin came to Arizona to attend prep school, but instead was drawn to the Apaches and spent his time studying their way of life. He gathered items from them, and earned the trust of knowledgeable elders who recreated things no longer made – all which he thoroughly documented, detailing their construction, meaning, and use.

Featuring Ann Nolan Clark’s poetic prose and softly-colored illustrations by renowned Chiricahua artist Allan Houser in The Desert People, this book teaches us about the yearly cycle of Tohono O’odom traditional life and culture through the experiences of a young boy being taught by his father. Clark was an award-winning writer and educator whose books about American Indian life, culture, and language helped educate a generation of American Indian students during the New Deal years.

This book showcases evocative pictures of Southwestern churches taken by Douglas Kent Hall, a well-known documentary photographer. Originally from New York, Hall moved to the small village of Alcalde in northern New Mexico. He spent time travelling throughout the Southwest and along the Mexico-U.S. border in the 1980s gathering material for two photographic books.