The Cheyenne Indians, Volume 1: History and Society

I bought this book for one of my Native American studies classes and my teacher recommended it because he was Northern Cheyenne from Montana. This book (plus part 2) is great if you want to know more about Cheyenne history, culture, tradition, religion, and ceremony.

Early writers of Native American history tend to fall into two groupings. There are those who relied only on written history, and therefore ignored most of what Indians had to say about their own past; and there were those who tried to serve as a conduit through which the Indians could tell their own history. Happily, Grinnell falls into the second category, and his work turns out to be both interesting, and readable.Though not as exciting as his better known work, The Fighting Cheyenne, which was a warrior history, this book provides a lot of information about the early history of the Cheyennes, and their migration westward. It also goes into many aspects of their culture and society. Volume one (which is the only one I have read so far) ends with a chapter on Cheyenne tribal government. Here Grinnell does a wonderful job of handling a topic, which is actually rather simple, but which eluded many white historians, such as George Hyde, who insisted on believing that chieftanship must have carried with it certain dictatorial powers. He also shows great insight into the status of women. So many white historians, even today, do not understand the high standing that women held in Plains Indian society. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Plains Indians, and I am quite anxious to get on to volume two which deals, among other things, with religious practices.