Indigenous peoples -- North America -- Biography, Indigenous peoples -- North America 

"Brimming with authentic biographical data never before presented in a single source, this brilliantly detailed reference book vastly broadens our understanding of Indian life and customs. It presents life histories of 300 North American Indian leaders, from all regions and tribes, active between 1600 and 1977. It is the first such comprehensive study of a large number of important individuals since Hodge's famous Handbook of North American Indians (1910), and in style it combines both scholarship and vitality.

The emphasis in each biography is on the significance of each individual to the Indian people. Although persons of general familiarity (such as Tecumseh, Geronimo, Sitting Bull) are included, the total collection stresses lesser-known and more recent individuals — men and women in every field of endeavor, especially artistic, political, medical, and social leaders. Degonwadonti ("Lady Johnson" to the British), a great eighteenth century Mohawk diplomat; Charles Albert Bender of the Baseball Hall of Fame; Astidi San, the first in a long line of Navajo silver smiths — these names provide only small hints of the fascinating, unsual information packed into this volume.

Also included are dramatic portraits of many of the subjects, and intriguing pictures of Indian art objects such as face masks, paintings, and similar creations in silver, clay, stone, beadwork, and wood — many of which were once owned and used by these Indian leaders. These illustrations provide a vivid understanding of the world in which these Indians flourished — and in many instances they give a more dramatic insight than do written accounts.

For each profile the author provides native names and translations, family information, significant dates, and other vital data that recapture the circumstances and atmosphere in which each individual lived. His material is organized in such a way that it makes a surprising narrative of 375 years of Indian-White relations, and reveals a new perspective on the problems that confronted both peoples during the White settlement of the U.S. and Canada."--Book jacket. 

ix, 386 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm.