INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEAST: Then and Now

Obviously the result of extensive research, this hefty volume offers a wealth of factual background on the Southeastern Indians' customs, assimilation and removal, and current situations. The traditional modes of clan organization, marriage and child-rearing, warfare, food cultivation and preparation and dancing are reconstructed from available evidence -- including the quoted observations of such contemporary travelers as William Bartram and Jean-Bernard Bossu. There are capsule biographies of notable leaders -- among them, Alexander McGillivray and John Ross -- and short tribe-by-tribe histories of the course of white encroachment, increasingly restrictive treaties and eventual displacement. The profusion of material might have been more smoothly organized, but the author's intention to create a ""source book"" for use in ""Indian and non-Indian school libraries"" has certainly been amply fulfilled. With a very impressive bibliography and lists of museums and archaeological sites, this is the logical starting place for research on the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminoles and their neighbors.