Lionel Youst and William R. Seaburg recount the compelling life story of Coquelle Thompson, an Upper Coquille Athabaskan Indian little known except by the Siletz Reservation community and a handful of visiting academics. Thompson's life spanned nearly a century, from 1849 to 1946. During his lifetime, he worked along the Oregon coast as farmer, hunting/fishing guide, teamster, tribal policeman, and, perhaps most importantly, he served as an expert witness on Upper Coquille and reservation life and culture for anthropologists.

While captain of the tribal police, Thompson was assigned to investigate the Warm House Dance, the Siletz Indian Reservation version of the famous Ghost Dance, which had spread among the Indians of many tribes during the latter 1800s. Thompson became a proselytizer for the Warm House Dance, helping to carry its message and performance from Siletz along the Oregon coast as far south as Coos Bay.

Thompson lived through the conclusion of the Rogue River Indian War of 1855-56 and his tribe's subsequent removal from southern Oregon to the Siletz Reservation. During his lifetime, the Siletz Reservation went from one million acres to seventy-seven individual allotments and four sections of tribal timber. The reservation was legislated out of existence less than a decade after he died.

Youst and Seaburg also examine the works of six anthropologists who interviewed Thompson over the years: J. Owen Dorsey, Cora Du Bois, Philip Drucker, Elizabeth Derr Jacobs, Jack Marr, and John Peabody Harrington.

Where do our distant ancestors come from, and which routes did they travel around the globe as hunter-gatherers in prehistoric times? Genomics provides a fascinating insight into these questions and unlocks a mass of information carried by strands of DNA in each cell of the human body. For Indigenous peoples, scientific research of any kind evokes past - and not forgotten - suffering, racial and racist taxonomy, and, finally, dispossession. Survival of human cell lines outside the body clashes with traditional beliefs, as does the notion that DNA may tell a story different from their own creation story. Extracting and analysing DNA is a new science, barely a few decades old. In the medical field, it carries the promise of genetically adapted health-care. However, if this is to be done, genetic identity has to be defined first. While a narrow genetic definition might be usable by medical science, it does not do justice to Indigenous peoples' cultural identity and raises the question of governmental benefits where their genetic identity is not strong enough. People migrate and intermix, and have always done so. Genomics trace the genes but not the cultures. Cultural survival - or revival - and Indigenous group cohesion are unrelated to DNA, explaining why Indigenous leaders adamantly refuse genetic testing. This book deals with the issues surrounding 'biomapping' the Indigenous, seen from the viewpoints of discourse analysts, historians, lawyers, anthropologists, sociologists, museum curators, health-care specialists, and Native researchers.

For Teachers and Administrators.

Follow Emilio "Dee" DaBramo's forty-five year career as a teacher and administrator that began in 1948.

During his tenure at the Mamaroneck, N.Y. Union Free School District (1960 to 1978), he solved the high school drop-out problem that was endemic in the socially, culturally and economically-deprived neighborhoods. His alternative school APPLE Program (A Place where People Learn Excellence) and his Summer Co-Op Program designed for the targeted neighborhoods, were a huge success. The APPLE Program garnered a ninety percent graduation rate and a resulting college graduation rate of better than seventy percent. His philosophy of Never Give Up on a Kid, and the organizational structure of these programs are well-documented and translatable to almost any school system.

For WWII Historians. Drafted into the Army Air Corps at age nineteen, Emilio DaBramo served as a Radio Operator on a B-24 bomber during WWII.

Fly along with the crew on their 31 missions over German occupied Europe. The exploits of the crew are well documented, including the disastrous carpet bombing raid at St. Lo, France and the heretofore untold story of the air delivery of 700,000 gallons of fuel to General Patton's Third Army tanks in France during Operation Cobra.

Re-live their crash landing in France after being shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire over Cologne, Germany.

For WWII G.I. Bill Historians. In 1945 Emilio DaBramo enrolled at Cortland State Teachers College under the WWII G.I. Bill. Read about the social and educational challenges that faced the veterans, the college administrators and professors after the WWII veterans arrived on campus.

For Special Olympic Historians. Emilio DaBramo's early work with the mentally and physically challenged individuals, in the late 1940's through the 1960's, caught the attention of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Impressed with his work, she appointed him as a volunteer member of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation's Advisory Committee and as a clinician for the Special Olympics. Read the heretofore untold story of his twelve year tenure (1968-1980) with the foundation during which time he conducted clinics in every state and in several European countries related to organizing and operating Special Olympic Games. He was the Games Director for the State of New York for the first twelve years of the program (1968 through 1980).

In tribute to Emilio "Dee" DaBramo, royalties from this book will be distributed as scholarships through the SUNY Cortland Foundation.

Very few people have lived a life comparable to that of Chickasaw Chief George Colbert; Butch Walker tells the story of this little known Celtic Indian man that lived a life worthy of a Hollywood movie in Chickasaw Chief George Colbert: His Family and His Country. This historic timepiece tells Colbert's story from a son of a Scots father and Chickasaw mother to a decorated military leader, successful ferry operator, plantation owner, businessman, and Chickasaw chief. George Colbert was a relatively unknown historical figure and decorated military hero that led the Chickasaws through Indian removal which was one of the darkest eras of American history. This man was trusted by the Indians, friends to the whites, and respected by local and national figures alike, including former presidents of the United States. Butch Walker has diligently researched the history, family, and overall historical significance of this Chickasaw Chief; Walker spent countless hours researching the life and legacy of George Colbert who was half Celtic (Scots) and half Indian (Chickasaw). George was never defined or limited by his blood quantum; he was a proven leader of the Chickasaw Nation. This book takes the reader from the birth of George's father, through the time of the French-Chickasaw War, beyond the Chickasaw Removal. The tale of the "Half-Blood Prince" of the 17th century is for anyone wanting to increase their knowledge of southeastern Indians, particularly the "Unconquered Unconquerable Chickasaws." The life of George Colbert appears to be taken right from the pages of a Hollywood script. Chickasaw Chief George Colbert: His Family and His Country is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about the Chickasaw Colbert family.

A fascinating and important volume which brings together new perspectives on the objections to, and appropriation of Native American Spirituality. Native Americans and Canadians are largely romanticised or sidelined figures in modern society. Their spirituality has been appropriated on a relatively large scale by Europeans and non-Native Americans, with little concern for the diversity of Native American opinions. Suzanne Owen offers an insight into appropriation that will bring a new understanding and perspective to these debates.This important volume collects together these key debates from the last few years and sets them in context, analyses Native American objections to appropriations of their spirituality and examines 'New Age' practices based on Native American spirituality." The Appropriation of Native American Spirituality" includes the findings of fieldwork among the Mi'Kmaq of Newfoundland on the sharing of ceremonies between Native Americans and First Nations, which highlights an aspect of the debate that has been under-researched in both anthropology and religious studies: that Native American discourses about the breaking of 'protocols', rules on the participation and performance of ceremonies, is at the heart of objections to the appropriation of Native American spirituality.This groundbreaking new series offers original reflections on theory and method in the study of religions, and demonstrates new approaches to the way religious traditions are studied and presented.Studies published under its auspices look to clarify the role and place of Religious Studies in the academy, but not in a purely theoretical manner. Each study will demonstrate its theoretical aspects by applying them to the actual study of religions, often in the form of frontier research.

Describes the political structure of some of the Native American tribes of North America, as well as their social conditions and their relationship to the U.S. government.

This volume provides insight into the family life of Native Americans of the northeast quadrant of the North American continent and those living in the adjacent coastal and piedmont regions. These Native Americans were among the most familiar to Euro-colonials for more than two centuries. From the tribes of the northeast woodlands came "great hunters, fishermen, farmers and fighters, as well as the most powerful and sophisticated Indian nation north of Mexico [the Iroquois Confederacy].