Blackfoot Lodge Tales: The Story of a Prairie People by George Bird Grinnell (review)

68 Western American Literature deal of the material are left unidentified. There is a brief chronology at the beginning of each section, but here too, the editors have fallen short, in that the chronological references to incidents in London’s life are all too short, or have been omitted completely. The text would have had a great deal more utility to future biographers and scholars, had some of these matters been pre­ sented in more detail by the editors. With these few criticisms however, this reviewer unhesistatingly states that the book is great. Jack London’s letters are the stuff from which great literature is derived, and they bring to light much about his life and thoughts that has hitherto remained unknown. G e o r g e H. T w e n e y , Seattle, Washington Blackfoot Lodge Tales: The Story of a Prairie People. By George Bird Grin­ nell. (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1962. 310 pages, $1.50.) The University of Nebraska Press is to be commended for reissuing in paper-back this long out-of-print classic of Western Americana. Reprintings such as this provide an occasion for re-appraising the positions of the early figures in all fields of study and stimulating renewed interest in those whose excellence sometimes has been neglected. It is hoped that the reappearance of this book will stimulate new interest in George Bird Grinnell, one of the out­ standing parental figures in American anthropology, who still is regarded largely as a “dedicated amateur.” This book first appeared in 1892, and is based on the author’s extensive personal knowledge of the three tribes of the Blackfoot nation. Grinnell came to be thoroughly accepted by the tribes for his continued interest in their well­ being. In recognition of this interest, they eventually entrusted to his care the welfare of the entire nation by making him head chief. He felt that many peo­ ple of his age, including many government officials, were ignorant of the Indian and his ways, and their treatment of him was due to that ignorance. Therefore, his books attempt to present the “real” Indian in order that others would come to share his respect for the Indian as a fellow human being. With this purpose in mind, then, Grinnell presents as the first half of his book thirty stories of the Blackfeet, recorded as they were told to him, with admirable simplicity. The first eleven stories are of war and adventure, fol­ lowed by seven of “ancient times,” before the tribal division, relating interpre­ tations of natural phenomena and the origin of certain social customs. The final twelve are tales of creation and the Creator, Na-pi (Old Man). The remainder of the book deals with a variety of subjects, including the history of the Blackfeet, their daily life and customs, tribal organization, and their religion. The book, then, should be of interest to many. Grinnell’s commentaries on the Blackfeet and their ways are a storehouse of information; and while some of his observations may have been found untenable by modem re­ Reviews 69 searchers, many more should still serve as source materials for those interested in the Plains Indians. But the book is also delightful to the ordinary reader for its presentation of a people whose honest expressions are recorded in all the freshness of their unpolluted, unrefined state. Reading them, one can, as Ruth L. Bunzel said of Grinnell’s Cheyenne tales, “. . . smell the Buffalo grass and the wood fires, feel the heavy morning dew on the prairie.” A l a n F. C r o o k s , Boise College The Mountain of Gold. By Max Evans, illustrated by Hugh Cabot III. (Dinwiddie, Ga.: Norman S. Berg, Publisher, 1965. 77 pages, $2.95.) A predominant theme running through Nobel Prize poet George Seferis’ work is the enormous handicap of being a modern Greek artist. With such a heritage to live up to, the poet, Seferis says, labors toward a day when at best he might conceivably equal the staggering artistic accomplishments of the ancients. He laments this lack of freedom Greeks inherit. Yet they seem not alone in attempting to establish a contemporary...