Henry Rowe Schoolcraft war ein amerikanischer Gelehrter, dessen Werk sich auf die indigenen Kulturen Nordamerikas konzentrierte. Seine umfangreichen Studien, einschließlich eines monumentalen sechsbändigen Werkes über amerikanische Indianer, offenbaren ein tiefes Interesse an ihren Traditionen und Lebensweisen. Durch seine Feldforschung und ethnografischen Beobachtungen trug er zum Verständnis dieser Ureinwohner bei, wobei seine Forschung oft von den Erkenntnissen seiner Frau profitierte, deren familiäre Bindungen zum Volk der Ojibwa maßgeblich waren. Schoolcraft bemühte sich, das Wissen über indigene Gesellschaften in einer Zeit tiefgreifender Umwälzungen zu dokumentieren und zu bewahren.
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
Material presented here is drawn primarily from Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's 1839 edition of Algic Researches—a rare, yet often cited publication. However, stories from two later Schoolcraft collections, Oneota and The Myth of Hiawatha, are also included in an appendix. Thus, a representative view of the entire body of Schoolcraft's published Indian legends is available in a single volume. With a new forward by Phillip P. Mason, this book is designed to reacquaint America with one of its often-neglected geniuses. It is apparent when studying Schoolcraft's writing that he was clearly one of the first European Americans to recognize the merit and value of the Native American heritage as expressed in oral tradition. Critics have been divided in their assessment of Schoolcraft's contribution to the collection and preservation of Native American lore. The tide of interpretation has seen Schoolcraft's work achieve an initial popularity, only to be rejected by members of the 1920s intelligentsia, the same individuals who critically embraced (and seldom properly attributed) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's adaptations of Schoolcraft's work. However, Schoolcraft received renewed attention, first in the 1950s, when Williams undertook to collect and edit the original volumes, and again today when the value and validity of the Native American oral tradition has, once again, been "discovered."
In this historically significant address, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft discusses the political and social organization of the Iroquois Confederacy. An important resource for students of Native American culture and history.
