Books published by publisher Galison Books

On September 4, 1805, in the upper Bitterroot Valley of what is now western Montana, more than four hundred Salish people were encamped, pasturing horses, preparing for the fall bison hunt, and harvesting chokecherries as they had done for countless generations. As the Lewis and Clark expedition ventured into the territory of a sovereign Native nation, the Salish met the strangers with hospitality and vital provisions while receiving comparatively little in return. For the first time, a Native American community offers an in-depth examination of the events and historical significance of their encounter with the Lewis and Clark expedition. The result is a new understanding of the expedition and its place in the wider context of U.S. history. Through oral histories and other materials, Salish elders recount the details of the Salish encounter with Lewis and Clark: their difficulty communicating with the strangers through multiple interpreters and consequent misunderstanding of the expedition’s invasionary purpose, their discussions about whether to welcome or wipe out the newcomers, their puzzlement over the black skin of the slave York, and their decision to extend traditional tribal hospitality and gifts to the guests. What makes The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition a startling departure from previous accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition is how it depicts the arrival of non-Indians—not as the beginning of history but as another chapter in a long tribal history. Much of this book focuses on the ancient cultural landscape and history that had already shaped the region for millennia before the arrival of Lewis and Clark. The elders begin their vivid portrait of the Salish world by sharing creation stories and their traditional cycle of life. The book then takes readers on a cultural tour of the Native trails that the expedition followed. With tribal elders as our guides, we now learn of the Salish cultural landscape that was invisible to Lewis and Clark. The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition also portrays with new clarity the profound upheaval of the Native world in the century before the expedition's arrival, as tribes in the region were introduced to horses, European diseases, and firearms. The arrival of Lewis and Clark marked the beginning of a heightened level of conflict and loss, and the book details the history that followed the expedition: the opening of Salish territory to the fur trade; the arrival of Jesuit missionaries; the establishment of Indian reservations, the non-Indian development of western Montana; and, more recently, the revival and strengthening of tribal sovereignty and culture. Conveyed by tribal recollections and richly illustrated, The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition not only sheds new light on the meaning of the expedition; it also illuminates the people who greeted Lewis and Clark and, despite much of what followed, thrive in their homeland today.

Everyone's favourite accident-prone dragon is back - and now you can join in the fun too! This fantastic new activity book is based on the bestselling book ZOG, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Packed with colouring-in, stickers, dot-to-dots, puzzles, spot the difference, mazes, simple word searches, there's plenty to keep Zog fans busy for hours.

Driving west from Lincoln to Grand Island, Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard remarks, is like driving backward in time. “I suspect,” he says, “that the migrating cranes of a pre–ice age period some ten million years ago would fully understand every nuance of the crane conversation going on today along the Platte.” Johnsgard has spent nearly a half century observing cranes, from a yearly foray to Nebraska’s Platte River valley to see the spring migration, to pilgrimages to the birds’ wintering grounds in Arizona and nesting territory in Alaska. In this book he draws from his own extensive experience as well as the latest science to offer a richly detailed and deeply felt account of the ecology of sandhill and whooping cranes and the wetlands in which they live.Incorporating current information on changing migration patterns, population trends, and breeding ranges, Johnsgard explains the life cycle of the crane, as well as the significance of these species to our natural world. He also writes frankly of the uncertain future of these majestic birds, as cranes and their habitats face the effects of climate change and increasing human population pressures. Illustrated with the author’s own ink drawings and containing a detailed guide to crane-viewing sites in the United States and Canada, this book is at once an invaluable reference and an eloquent testimony to how much these birds truly mean.

For soldiers in all wars, mealtime is a focal point of the day. Armies do indeed “march on their stomachs,” as Napoleon said. Soldiers of the Civil War armies, many away from home and mothers’ and wives’ cooking for the first time, were thrown back on their own resources both to prepare their own meals and often to stock their larders. No one in America, North or South, was prepared for the massive task of acquiring and distributing the uncountable tons of foodstuffs necessary to keep almost three million men fed. And yet food and mealtime were the dominant topics of interest and conversation, and the fodder for a great deal of the war lore. A Taste for War looks at what soldiers ate during the Civil War, where they got it, how they prepared it, and what they thought of it. Leavened with first-person accounts of finding and preparing food, A Taste for War includes more than two hundred recipes drawn from soldiers’ letters and diaries and from the few cookery guides furnished them by their governments. The recipes are adapted with instructions for modern preparation that allow readers to recreate the distinctive flavors and aromas of the Civil War.