Key Indian History with Native Provenance
And Still the Waters Run
Publication: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940. First Edition.
Notes: The uncommon first edition of this classic work of American history with Native provenance. And Still the Waters Run spurred a reappraisal of Native American history from a perspective sharply critical of the US government and the Dawes Act, which encouraged the breakup of tribal lands, contravening centuries of treaty agreements with tribes. The book, which is still in print, now carries the subtitle, "The Betrayal of the Five Civlized Tribes." It essentially argues that most of Oklahoma is stolen land. "Threatened by libel suits from prominent Oklahoma businesspeople and politicians named in the manuscript, the University of Oklahoma Press declined to publish the book" (Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture). When Princeton hired the UO press director Joseph A. Brandt, he took the book with him and saw it into print.
"The book is one of the half-dozen or so major works in Indian law and policy... This hard-hitting investigation of the implementation of the Dawes Act stands as a monument to the practical value of the historical method in a policy setting. In one word, this is a classic" (Rennard Strickland, Friends and Enemies of the American Indian in American Indian Law Review, Vol. 3, No. 2).
xii, 417, [1: blank] pgaes.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing, with no indication of later printings). A very good copy in a very good dust jacket with some loss at the top and bottom of the rear flap fold, a couple of old tape repairs on the back (verso) of the jacket, and a moderate amount of insect spotting to the rear panel. As they say, better than it sounds and rather hard to find.
This copy has the ownership signature of W. W. Keeler (1908–1987), the first elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee nation, a nice Indian provenance.
Item No: #365118
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