First published in 1904, George A. Dorsey's Mythology of the Wichita is a rich collection of American Indian folklore. WIth the help of a Wichita interpreter, Dorsey gathered sixty tales from the Wichitas living in Oklahoma and arranged them according to the first period, the creation; the second period, transformation; and the third period, the present.

For the Wichitas, tale-telling was of great instructional value for the young. The tales taught that braverly and greatness depended upon individual effort, no matter how low or mean might have been the individual's origin, and at the...

Spanning two and a half centuries, from the earliest contacts in the 1540s to the crumbling of Spanish power in the 17908, "Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds "is a panoramic view of Indian peoples and Spanish and French intruders in the early Southwest. The primary focus is the world of the American Indian, ranging from the Caddos in the east to the Hopis in the west, and including the histories of the Pueblo, Apache, Navajo, Ute, and Wichita peoples. Within this region, from Texas to New Mexico, the Comanches played a key, formative role, and no less compelling is the story of the...

Lieutenant Jose Cortes of the Spanish Royal Corps of Engineers was a keen observer of the native peoples of the Northern Borderlands of New Spain. Especially fascinated by the Apaches whom he observed at frontier presidios in the 1790s, he gleaned all possible information from veterans of the frontier service, and in the process grew from sympathetic inquirer to virtual advocate. Recognizing the strategic importance not only of the Apacheria but also of Indian peoples in the farthest reaches of New Spain, the zealous officer combed available archives, summarizing data reported over a...