Excerpt from The Taming of the Sioux No historian of prominence should presume to ask the public to take his work as the last word on the subject which it treats. There is bound to be some one who will find inaccuracies and deficiencies, and the whole work may be condemned on account of them. There never was a history written that is absolutely correct, so I suppose mine must be a little off on a few trivial matters. A deep student of the ethnology, phonology, psychology and anthropology of the Sioux may (I say may advisedly) find these defects. To him I offer no apologies, he has enough ologies now, and I don't wish to burden him with more of them. History is essentially didactical, indeed it is, and we soon tire of its prosiness, its unpicturesque display of data and long-winded statistics. However, there are some individuals who are ultra-pedantic, and to whom nothing appeals but what is strictly utilitarian. To such persons I commend certain parts of this work, while to the others - the great majority - the balance of it may prove entertaining. The absence of humor I greatly deplore, for it just seems that I cannot think up anythin' funny. But the reader may find a great deal to laugh about after all, if he is inclined to be critical. The old timers, God bless 'em, always take an important part in an historical work. But they seldom agree with each other. There is a psychological reason for this, as there is for most anything we do not clearly understand. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1917 Edition.

From April to November 1935 in Belgium, fifteen Lakotas enacted their culture on a world stage. Wearing beaded moccasins and eagle-feather headdresses, they set up tepees, danced, and demonstrated marksmanship and horse taming for the twenty million visitors to the Brussels International Exposition, a grand event similar to a world’s fair. The performers then turned homeward, leaving behind 157 pieces of Lakota culture that they had used in the exposition, ranging from costumery to weaponry. In Lakota Performers in Europe, author Steve Friesen tells the story of these artifacts, forgotten until recently, and of the Lakota performers who used them. The 1935 exposition marked a culmination of more than a century of European travel by American Indian performers, and of Europeans’ fascination with Native culture, fanned in part by William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West from the late 1800s through 1913. Although European newspaper reports often stereotyped Native performers as “savages,” American Indians were drawn to participate by the opportunity to practice traditional aspects of their culture, earn better wages, and see the world. When the organizers of the 1935 exposition wanted to include an American Indian village, Sam Lone Bear, Thomas and Sallie Stabber, Joe Little Moon, and other Lakotas were eager to participate. By doing this, they were able to preserve their culture and influence European attitudes toward it. Friesen narrates these Lakotas' experiences abroad. In the process, he also tells the tale of collector François Chladiuk, who acquired the Lakotas’ artifacts in 2004. More than 300 color and black-and-white photographs document the collection of items used by the performers during the exposition. Friesen portrays a time when American Indians—who would not long after return to Europe as allies and liberators in military garb—appeared on the international stage as ambassadors of the American West. Lakota Performers in Europe offers a complex view of a vibrant culture practiced and preserved against tremendous odds.

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Draws on Red Cloud's autobiography, which was lost for nearly a hundred years, to present the story of the great Oglala Sioux chief who was the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war.