Books with author Herman J. Viola

I was not sorry at all. I was a happy boy. Those white men had come to kill our mothers and fathers and us, and it was our country (Black Elk, Oglala Sioux). Known to generations of white Americans as "Custer's Last Stand" or the Battle of Little Bighorn, it was, to the Plains Indians, the Battle of the Greasy Grass--a great, if short-lived victory against the whites who would soon overrun their country and destroy their way of life. Now, for the first time in a book for children, the story of the Greasy Grass battle is told from the Indian point of view, in a series of dramatic eyewitness vignettes. Assembled from the recollections of twelve Indian participants in the battle, the book is divided into thirty brief chapters that, together, create a compelling narrative of the battle and the events that preceded it: Sitting Bull's vision of white soldiers falling into his camp "like grasshoppers," Custer's impetuous advance and attack, and finally, his dramatic defeat. An introduction and epilogue provide the historical context and a chronology, bibliographic note, maps, and more than a dozen archival photographs make this an outstanding curriculum item. The voices assembled here create a dramatic memorial to a fabled event in the history of the American West.

Illustrated in full color, with full-color & black-and-white photographs and maps. Each chapter of this striking survey of Native American life begins in a uniquely appropriate way: with a dramatic, double-page painting showing the dwelling of a particular tribe. From a Zuni adobe pueblo to an Iroquois communal long house, paintings introduce the reader to the book's eight chapters covering the continent's eight regions and offer a comprehensive examination of the lifestyles of North America's native peoples. This splendid reference volume is enhanced by six essays by Native American contributors about their life today--a valuable feature that places the historical material in a contemporary context. A glossary, resource-guide sidebars on such topics as "how to read" a totem pole and the introduction of horses to North America, and over one hundred paintings, color photographs, and maps ensure that this book will rise above all others in bringing to life the world of the American Indian.

I was not sorry at all. I was a happy boy. Those white men had come to kill our mothers and fathers and us, and it was our country (Black Elk, Oglala Sioux). Known to generations of white Americans as "Custer's Last Stand" or the Battle of Little Bighorn, it was, to the Plains Indians, the Battle of the Greasy Grass--a great, if short-lived victory against the whites who would soon overrun their country and destroy their way of life. Now, for the first time in a book for children, the story of the Greasy Grass battle is told from the Indian point of view, in a series of dramatic eyewitness vignettes. Assembled from the recollections of twelve Indian participants in the battle, the book is divided into thirty brief chapters that, together, create a compelling narrative of the battle and the events that preceded it: Sitting Bull's vision of white soldiers falling into his camp "like grasshoppers," Custer's impetuous advance and attack, and finally, his dramatic defeat. An introduction and epilogue provide the historical context and a chronology, bibliographic note, maps, and more than a dozen archival photographs make this an outstanding curriculum item. The voices assembled here create a dramatic memorial to a fabled event in the history of the American West.