Synopses & Reviews
In Yuchi Indian Histories Before the Removal Era, folklorist and anthropologist Jason Baird Jackson and nine scholars of Yuchi (Euchee) Indian culture and history offer a revisionist and in-depth portrait of Yuchi community and society. This first interdisciplinary history of the Yuchi people corrects the historical record, which often submerges the Yuchi within the Creek Confederacy instead of acknowledging the Yuchi as a separate tribe.
By looking at the oral, historical, ethnographic, linguistic, and archaeological record, contributors illuminate Yuchi political circumstances and cultural identity. Focusing on the pre-Removal era, the volume shows that from the entrada of Hernando de Soto into the American South in 1541 to the Yuchisand#8217; internal migrations throughout the hinterlands of the South and their entanglement with the Creeks to the maintenance of community and identity today, the Yuchis have persisted as a distinct people. This volume provides a voice to an indigenous nation that previous generations of scholars have misidentified or erroneously assumed to be a simple constituent of the Creek Nation. In doing so, it offers a fuller picture of Yuchi social realities since the arrival of Europeans and other non-natives in their Southern homelands.and#160;
and#160;
Review
"The editor and contributors deserve congratulations for sustaining the nearly invisible Yuchi story line. Hope for future information rests in the questions raised by these and other scholars. This publication makes clear that the possibilities are enormous for ethnohistorians, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnologists, ethnographers, linguists, ethnobotanists, and geographers."and#8212;J.H. O'Donnell III , Choice
Review
"Future scholars of the Yuchi will undoubtedly begin with the conclusions and frameworks of Yuchi Indian Histories before the Removal Era. The essays in the volume are uniformly accessible and simultaneously insightful yet cautious in their conclusions. Scholars of the early South (native or otherwise) will appreciate their insights."and#8212;Andrew K. Frank, Journal of American History
Review
"This volume will stimulate a spate of new archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and linguistic analyses of the Yuchi."and#8212;Cameron B. Wesson, Plains Anthropologist
Review
"This important new collection further illuminates the intricacies of the political climate of the colonial Southeast and highlights the history of an important, understudied group."and#8212;Natalie Inman, Journal of Southern History
Review
"Yuchi Indian Histories before the Removal Era will interest historians of the Native Southeast and anyone with a stake in the Yuchi past, present, and future. That group, as this book shows, should include scholars across multiple disciplines."and#8212;Jessica R. Cattelino, Journal of Anthropological Research
Review
andquot;A must read for anyone interest in the Native Southeast.andquot;Dixie Ray Haggard,
Chronicles of OklahomaSynopsis
Most people are familiar with the famous pre-Columbian civilizations of the Aztecs and Maya of Mexico, but few realize just how advanced were contemporary cultures in the American Southwest. Here lie some of the most remarkable monuments of America's prehistoric past, such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Ten thousand years ago, humans first colonized this seemingly inhospitable landscape with its scorching hot deserts and upland areas that drop below freezing even during the early summer months. The initial hunter-gatherer bands gradually adapted to become sedentary village groups. The high point of Southwestern civilization was reached with the emergence of cultures known as Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon in the first millennium AD. Interweaving the latest archaeological evidence with early first-person accounts, Stephen Plog explains the rise and mysterious fall of Southwestern cultures. For this revised edition, he discusses new research and its implications for our understanding of the prehistoric Southwest. As he concludes, the Southwest is still home to vibrant Native American communities who carry on many of the old traditions.
Synopsis
Ten thousand years ago, humans first colonized this seemingly inhospitable landscape with its scorching hot deserts and upland areas that drop below freezing even during the early summer months. The initial hunter-gatherer bands gradually adapted to become sedentary village groups. The high point of Southwestern civilization was reached with the emergence of cultures known as Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon in the first millennium AD Interweaving the latest archaeological evidence with early first-person accounts, Stephen Plog explains the rise and mysterious fall of Southwestern cultures. For this revised edition, he discusses new research and its implications for our understanding of the prehistoric Southwest. As he concludes, the Southwest is still home to vibrant Native American communities who carry on many of the old traditions.
Synopsis
"A graphic, lucid account of the Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon highlights how these ancient cultures evolved so successfully in response to their changing habitat."--
About the Author
Jason Baird Jackson is an associate professor of folklore and American Studies at Indiana University. He is the author of
Yuchi Ceremonial Life: Performance, Meaning, and Tradition in a Contemporary Native American Community (Nebraska, 2003).