The Fur Hunters of the Far West
This edition of Alexander Ross’s journals offers a completely authentic account of the earliest attempts by men of European background to come to grips with the climate, geography, and inhabitants of the Northwest at a time when resourcefulness and daring were prime virtues. Ross’s narrative also contains an on-the-scene interpretation of the conflict between American and British interests, their rivalry for the vast wealth in Northwest furs, the conflict between free trade and corporate enterprise in the wilderness, and the conflict with the North West Company.
Ross himself- a Scotsman by birth, at one time a trader for John Jacob Astor and the Americans- emerges as one of the heroic figures of both American and British frontier history. He recounts with frankness, keen perspective, and a fine sense of humor the human adventures of which he was a part.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-3392-8
304 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
University of Oklahoma Press, 1956
The Fur Trade – A History of Arms and Trade Goods
Based on the Private Collection of Milton von Damm
This book of over 460 illustrations of a private collection of Fur Trade Arms and Trade Goods that has been gradually accumulated over the past 30 years. It is accompanied by selected fur trade history to give context to the collection. The brief historical stories provide some insight into the importance of the fur trade, it’s early relevance to the development of North America and its impact on the life styles of Native Americans and western wildlife. Some examples of fine western art provide visual insight into trading, travel and transportation.
ISBN: 978-0-9819945-9-8
237 Pages
Hardcopy
11 1/4″ x 8 3/4″
Minuteman Press, 2013
The Greatest Mountain Men Stories Ever Told
Long the dominant icon embodying the spirit of America’s frontier past, the image of the cowboy no longer stands alone as the ultimate symbol of independence and self-reliance. The great canvas of the western landscape — in art, books, film — is today shared by the figures called Mountain Men. The emerged into the American landscape in the years following the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804-1806. They were trappers, who sought prize furs they could trade for supplies they needed for another year in the mountains. They were hunters, who depended on their skills to find buffalo, elk, and other game in the mountain vastness. They were survivors, who fought for their lives in the lands of Native Americans like the Blackfeet Indians. They were dreamers, seeking a free-spirited life of living alone in the mountains, untouched by the wars, politics, and rituals of life “down below.” Often dangers were so great they traveled and hunted in “brigades,” with dozens of companions.
Mountain Men – The toughest, most independent men of the American West.
ISBN: 978-1-4930-3287-7
281 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Lyons Press, 2018
The Hair of the Bear – Campfire Yarns and Short Stories
Surprise, deception and exaggeration abound in these outlandish stories which recall the independent, adventurous lifestyle of the early American frontier.
ISBN: 0-943604-30-3
178 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8″
Eagle’s View Publishing, 1991
The Hawken Rifle – Its Place in History
A book for the very first time that has the whole story of the St. Louis Hawken rifle based upon documentary evidence is related and presented in its historical perspective and woven into the fabric of a rapidly changing frontier we now call the Old West.
ISBN – 0-912611-03-0
104 Pages
Softback
7″ x 10″
The Fur Press, 1979
The Improbable Journey – Lewis & Clark’s Expedition
Of all the momentous events in the early history of the United States, perhaps the most significant was the Louisiana Purchase of 1804, by which a great swath of the North American continent was conveyed by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France o the still-young nation for fifteen million dollars.
Nearly doubling the size of the new nation, the Louisiana Purchase allowed President Thomas Jefferson to send Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their Corps of Discovery on an epic two-year journey to explore the new lands from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean.
ISBN: 978-0-615-40744-9
118 Pages
Hardback
13 3/4″ x 11 1/4″
G.M. Metz Publishing, 2010
The Indian How Book – Authentic Information on American Indian Crafts, Customs, Food and Clothing, Religion and Recreations
How did the Indians do things? How did they make their canoes, tipis, traps, bark lodges, and war bonnets? How did they treat women, marry, talk, dance, and dress? How did they hunt, use the peace pipe, perform the sun dance, make magic, gather medicine, and send signals? Each of the 74 sections are on how the Indians did something and are a fascinating and revealing exposition of Indian lore including many little-known facts
You will learn the true behavior of Indians, such as: how they were not taciturn (as seen in movies) but laughed and joked much of the time; how many Indians were not nomadic hunters but settlers who got most of their food from farming; and how, in general, Indians were not savages but native Americans who had a culture of their own with an educational system that practiced learning by doing, with respect for animals and the land, a religious belief in the spirits of the other world, and a veneration of the values of courage, integrity, honor and generosity.
ISBN – 978-0-486-21767-3
335 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
Dover Publications, 1975
The Indian Sign Language
In 1876 and 1877, Captain W. P. Clark commanded a detachment of Indian scouts — including Pawnees, Shoshones, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Crows, and Siuox — who conversed in sign language. They made requests, relayed information, and told stories with their hands, communicating in a language indispensable for quick understanding between Indians of different tribes. The scouts patiently taught Clark the sign system, which he patiently recorded in this book.
Originally written in 1884 for use by the United States Army, The Indian Sign Language is far more than a grammar book or curiosity. Clark worked closely with the Indians wo taught him the language, and his respect for them and their way of thinking informs every page.
Clark believed that sign language could assist him “to think like the Indians,” which he considered essential for a conscientious officer.
ISBN: 978-0-8032-6309-3
443 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
University of Nebraska Press, 1982
The Indian Tipi – Its History, Construction, and Use.
This book will show you how to make, use, and enjoy the best of all movable shelters, the Indian tipi or tepee. The American Indian was a strictly practical man. But he was also a born artist. As a result, his inventions are commonly as beautiful as they are serviceable. Sometimes we can make these of more durable materials, but we could never improve on the design.
The most notable contributions to civilization are the canoe, snowshoe, moccasin and the tipi. Many used the tipi for a place of shelter. A staple of an item that is still used today.
ISBN – 978-0-8061-2236-6
343 Pages
Softback
5 7/8″ x 9″
University of Oklahoma Press, 1957
The Journals of Lewis and Clark
In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank — not only on the map but in our knowledge. President Thomas Jefferson keenly understood that the course of the nation’s destiny lay westward and that a national “Voyage of Discovery” must be mounted to determine the nature and accessibility of the frontier.
He commissioned his young secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an intelligence-gathering expedition from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back. From 1804 to 1806, Lewis, accompanied by co-captain William Clark, the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, and thirty-two men, made the first trek across the Louisiana Purchase, mapping the rivers as he went, tracing the principal waterways to the sea, and establishing the American claim to the territories of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Together the captains kept a journal, a richly detailed record of the flora and fauna they sighted, the Indian tribes they encountered, and the awe-inspiring landscape they traversed, from their base camp near present-day St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River. In keeping this record they made an incomparable contribution to the literature of exploration and the writing of natural history.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, writes Bernard DeVoto, was “the first report on the West, on the United States over the hill and beyond the sunset, on the province of the American future. There has never been another so excellent or so influential…It satisfied desire and created desire: the desire of the westering nation.”
ISBN: 978-0-395-85996-4
504 Pages
Softback
5 1/2″ x 8 1/4″
Houghton Mifflin, 1997
The Lakota Way – Stories and Lessons for Living
Rich with storytelling, history, and folklore, The Lakota Way expresses the heart of Native American philosophy and imparts the path to a fulfilling and meaningful life. Joseph Marshall is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Sioux and has dedicated his entire life to practicing and teaching the wisdom he learned from his elders. Here he focuses on the twelve core qualities that are crucial to the Lakota way of living — bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion — and illustrates them with personal stories and archetypal Lakota tales. Whether teaching a lesson on respect imparted by the mythical Deer Woman or the humility embodied by the legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse, The Lakota Way is a compelling and profound work that offers a fresh outlook on spirituality and ethical living.
ISBN – 978-0-14-219609-0
240 Pages
Softback
5″ x 7 3/4″
Penguin Compass, 2001
The Lewis & Clark Trail – Yesterday and Today
William Hill commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with this guide to the history and the route of the Corps of Discovery. Hill explains the reasons President Thomas Jefferson sent the explorers west. He describes how the country expedition passed through looked two centuries ago and how it looks today.
Journals, maps, paintings, and photographs illustrate the story.
The Lewis and Clark Trail also contains information about the many museums, interpretive centers and historic sites, from Philadelphia to Astoria, Oregon, that have been opened and upgraded as part of the bicentennial celebration.
ISBN – 0-87004-439-7
288 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Caxton Press, 2004
The Mountain Men – The Dramatic History and Lore of the First Frontersmen
To know how the West was really won, start with the exploits of these unsung mountain men who, like the legendary Jeremiah Johnson, were real buckskin survivalists. Preceded only by Lewis and Clark, beaver fur trappers roamed the river valleys and mountain ranges of the West, living on fish and game, fighting or trading with the Native Americans, and forever heading toward the untamed wilderness.
In this story of rough, heroic men and their worlds, Laycock weaves historical facts and practical instruction with profiles of individual trappers, including harrowing escapes, feats of supreme courage and endurance, and sometimes violent encounters with grizzly bears and Native Americans.
ISBN: 978-1-4930-1882-6
246 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Lyons Press, 2016
The Mystery of John Colter – The Man Who Discovered Yellowstone
From the first account of “Colter’s Run,” published in 1810, fascination with John Colter, one of America’s most famous and yet least known frontiersmen and discoverer of Yellowstone Park, has never waned. Unlike other legends of the era like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Kit Carson, Colter has remained elusive because he left not a single letter, diary, or reminiscence. Gathering the available evidence and guiding readers through a labyrinth of hearsay, rumor, and myth, two Colter experts for the first time tell the whole story of Colter and his legend.
ISBN – 978-1-4422-6282-9
243 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
The Oregon Trail: Yesterday and Today
Here lies a description of the history of the Oregon Trail- from past to present. It is a unique blend of maps, guides, emigrant diaries and journals, old drawings and paintings, together with recent photographs. This book tells the story of the Oregon Trail in an interesting, easy to read manner and is packed with information for every one, the armchair traveler, the tourist, the historian and the Oregon Trail buff.
The realities of the trail are examined, as the misconceptions that have surrounded it are dispelled. The trail is explored through the eyes of the early emigrants’ art and diaries, which stand as evidence of their experiences and their true amazement as they traveled westward. Old paintings are compared to similar views today as photographed by the author while many of the landmarks along the trail still remain. Learn about he people and events that brought so many people west in the years of its development. Not only will you read about the trail, you will experience it almost as if you were and early emigrant yourself.
ISBN: 978-0-87004-319-2
197 Pages
Softback
6″ x 9″
Caxton Press, 2008
The Original Journal of Charles Larpenteur – My Travels to The Rocky Mountains Between 1833 and 1872
“Times lonesome enough to kill a dog.” Charles Larpenteur is speaking of a time in 1871 when he’d left the fur trade on the Upper Missouri and had begun his retirement in northwestern Iowa. But his language is reminiscent of that in his journal in which he speaks of the many long, dull, and melancholy days he’d spent at his remote post on that distant stretch of river, so far from the comforts of St. Louis. But his chronicle also is packed with intimate details of life on the frontier, with information on trading activities and its personnel, and on the repetitive disappointments that characterized his long life.
318 Pages
Hardback
7 1/4″ x 10 1/4″
The Museum Association of the American Frontier, 2007
