This book could tell you the answers or doubts about the Sioux indians.It tells you in the the point as if you lived with the Sioux indians.I really like this book because it really helps out in projects you need to research.

This unpretentious literary travelogue provides an excellent window into a number of top American crime writers and the (mostly urban) areas they inhabit. Williams' 1989 circuit of the U.S. is a kind of crime fiction grand tour, as he visits thirteen established and up-and-coming authors (only one of whom is female) in ten locations, each of which gets about 20-25 pages or so, as follows:

Miami >> Carl Hiassen (Lucky You, Stormy Weather), James Hall Louisiana >> James Lee Burke New Mexico >> Tony Hillerman Los Angeles >> James Ellroy, Gar Anthony Haywood San Francisco >> Joe Gores (32 Cadillacs) Missoula, MT >> James Crumley (Bordersnakes) Chicago >> Sara Partesky, Eugene Izzi Detroit >> Elmore Leonard (Be Cool, Cuba Libre, Pronto, Pagan Babies, Riding the Rap) Boston >> George V. Higgins New York >> Andrew Vachss

Williams is clearly a believer in detective fiction as social portraiture and commentary, and like myself, he's most interested in what is generally classified under the catchall terms "hard-boiled" or "noir." That is to say, crime novels about the everyday criminal world, as opposed to semi-mythical world of "The Godfather," the serial-killer world of Hannibal Lechter, or the cozy world of crime-solving cats or little old ladies. Williams tends to stay in the cheaper, and thus seedier, parts of the places he visits, and tries to get the writers to show him around, show him their world. In addition to touring the seedy side of America, Williams often takes side-trips of a musical nature--as befits his music journalist career. His contrasting of a (white) cajun fete with a (black) zydeco dance is one of the truly telling parts of his journey. The conversations with the writers are intermittently interesting, although it's interesting to note that many of them came from impoverished backgrounds and came to writing by accident. Another similarity is their rough treatment at the hands of Hollywood. Most of the writers are extremely forthcoming and open with Williams, the most notable exception being Higgins, who comes off as a pompous ass in comparison to the rest of the book's subjects.

Some twelve years after Williams' trip, it's rather amazing to find that 12 of the 13 writers are still going strong, with a string of books to their credit from the intervening years. Indeed some, like Carl Hiassen, James Lee Burke, James Ellroy, and Elmore Leonard have gotten considerably more famous. The one writer who isn't still producing is Eugene Izzi, who was found dead in 1997, hanging from his 14th-story office window in what was ruled a bizarre suicide...

Since writing this book, Williams has gone on to write crime fiction himself, including the 1983-set London novel Faithless, and a collection of stories set in the Cardiff underworld, Five Pubs, Two Bars and a Nightclub.

Gary C. Anderson is considered an expert on Dakota/Sioux history, largely due to this book, "Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650-1862." It is a reprint, I believe, of his doctoral dissertation, and includes a new introduction of the original 1984 printing ... For a neophyte such as myself, the book is a bit too detailed for an introduction to Dakota history, but Anderson does help the beginner by vigorously emphasizing general themes throughout the book.

Anderson's central theme in his book is one of kinship ties. In Dakota culture, Anderson argues, one could be "adopted" into a tribe, band, or Dakota family by going through either a ceremony or marrying a Dakota. Once this was done, that person (and there is no distinction among Indians or Whites in this matter) is considered a part of the tribe. White traders as early as the French in the 17th century used these ties to great effect because it allowed the traders to employ Dakota hunters as fur gatherers. But the ties also required the traders who used them to treat their new Dakota kin as family, something some traders failed to do on a regular basis. Some of these traders let the relationships lapse, or did not give gifts to their Dakota kin (an essential aspect of the give and take of the relationship). Throughout the book, Anderson sledgehammers this concept again and again, showing how kinship bonds so heavily relied upon in the earliest days of Dakota-White contact faded into obscurity as time went by and Whites gained the upper hand in the region in terms of military, political, and economic strength. By the time of the Dakota uprising of 1862, kinship ties were nearly nonexistent.

An effective way to read this book, and one that my professor is trying to drill into our heads, is to try and examine Anderson's findings from an Indian perspective. When this is done, numerous problems with the book emerge.

First, Anderson relies heavily on European sources for his information. While his list of these sources in the back of the book is truly impressive (he examines everything from diaries, travelogues, journals, letters, government documents, books, and treaties), his use of native oral tradition is scarce. Dakota oral stories do exist concerning contact with Europeans, but after reading this book, you would never know it. This may stem from the time in which Anderson wrote the book, as there is now a greater awareness of the need to utilize these sources in order to achieve a finer balance and larger historical picture.

Second, for an Indian scholar, Anderson at times shows a slight insensitivity to the Dakota. It is easy to get carried away with this point and indulge in the type of reckless statements made by the politically correct crowd, but a few statements Anderson makes could be considered crass. For instance, he calls Andrew Jackson's removal program, a program that forced Indians throughout the United States off of their land (often at gunpoint), "humane." During his exposition of the Dakota uprising in 1862, Anderson incessantly refers to Dakotas as either "friendlies" or "hostiles." Now this may be true from the standpoint of the settlers in the region dodging Indian bullets, but it probably had different connotations for those Dakotas who participated in the revolt.

Despite the few biased comments, Anderson doesn't disregard the shameful aspects of the treaty process between Dakotas and the United States government. Time and time again, treaties signed with the Dakotas promised much and delivered little. It was the traders who committed the most egregious sins; they used their position as suppliers for the Dakota to falsify debt records, presenting bills to the federal government for outlandish amounts of money "owed" to them by the Dakotas. When the treaty money finally came through, the traders skimmed this amount right off the top, often getting the amounts written directly into the treaty agreements. As if that isn't bad enough, some of the treaty commissioners indulged in a little corruption themselves, taking tens of thousands of dollars as "fees" for transporting the payments from Washington to the Dakota tribes in Minnesota. At least when this happened, it still meant the Dakotas got some of the money. Oftentimes, either the money didn't come through at all, or would be delivered months late, leading to starvation for the tribes who needed the funds for essential supplies. Eventually, the government realized they could purposefully withhold the money in order to force the Dakota to do things the government wanted done. This withholding of funds is what led to the destructive uprising in 1862, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Dakotas and Whites.

It would have been extremely helpful if Anderson included some decent maps in this book. We get two, one puny map of the upper Mississippi area and one of the Dakota reservations along the Minnesota River. Neither does effective service to the huge amount of place names Anderson drops during the course of his work. They also fail to help the reader place the various tribes within the Dakota Nation. This is important because Anderson often refers to the Mdewankantons, Sissetons, Wahpekutes, etc. These are the separate Dakota tribes, and they move about frequently, so frequently that locating them on the maps provided defies even the hardiest efforts.

For a detailed, scholarly history of the Eastern Dakota tribes, this book, despite its many flaws, does the trick. The research, for the sources it does utilize, is well done. Gary Anderson is to be commended for a fascinating look at a way of life long gone from the American scene.

Lakota Hoop Dancer not only explains about the dancing and dancer, but gives a feel for the land of the Lakota, their views of the world, and the people themselves and their values. The brief glossary and explanations of Lakota expressions within the book help. Students and others interested in American Indian tribes will enjoy this and gain insights. Excellent photographs enhance the text.

As a 5th grader I recommend the book *Legends of the Mighty Sioux* because it's a detailed, fun, and entertaining book. This book has a variety of stories, so you won't get bored reading one whole book. Some of my favorite stories in the book are "The Gift of the Peace Pipe", and "Maiden's Isle". My very favorite is "Punished Woman's Lake". It's my favorite story because the legend is about a married couple who is broken apart by the chief who wants to take a wife. So to protect her, at night, the real husband took her on his horse and they ran away together. But the chief realized that the wife was missing and sent out warriors to find her. When they found her, the chief killed the real husband and tied the wife to a tree until she said she said she would live with him. The chief had a bad heart and didn't wait for her answer and killed her. Because he murdered two innocent people, a lightning bolt hit him and he was also killed. No one knew where it came from. But from that day forever the Indians had a good heart learning that being bad never pays. I would change three things in this book: longer stories so people will be entertained longer, more scary stories so you could have more excitement, and more books written by this tribe. Thank You.

I found this book to be enjoyable and interesting. It reminds of the small town in south central North Dakota were I was raised. The rural life of these small towns has changed from the postcard displays but in many ways they retain the flavor of the pioneer spirit of the settlers. Historically, this book has value because the evolving nature of farming and rural life is bringing about the demise of more rural communities every year.

I thought this book was very good. It takes a really good book to get me past the first chapter, and this one kept me interested throughout the whole story. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery!

The Marranos of Spain is a landmark study for this period of Spanish history and the Jews of Spain. Its importance lies within the utlized sources, which for the first time in the scholarly research of Marranos, someone is intelligent enough to integrate Hebrew sources, religous as well as secular, in order to have a better picture.

However, Netanyahu's analysis leaves much to be desired. The debate about his analysis and contradictions have been discussed in Spanish Academia, and they are mainly due to some of the second or third sources he has utilized which are not reliable. Even his discussion of Jewish jurisprudence falls short when considering he's mixing two Jewish traditions (Spanish and German) in regards to forced converts, traditions that had not been merged in 15th century Europe. He tried to use all that he could to prove his thesis that the forced converts were truly sincere Christians, and in this process he purposely dismissed the psycological and socio-antropological analysis of this period. Basically what Netanyahu did was to find sources that said "black," and so black it was. He missed much on the complexity of this period.

As a pioneering work for the use of Hebrew sources, Netanyahu's work is most excellent, but again, he needs to revise many of his forced conclusions.

Mobil guides in general have some of the info you need for your stay but I prefer location specific guides more. They only list a few of each (hotels, restaurants, attractions etc.) Overall it was helpful but I wouldn't use it by itself. There isn't enough info about each area.

The book begins with a young Dakota Indian boy being told of the changes that occur in nature and in life by his father and ends with him continuing the "moon-stick" tradition he was taught despite it being a different time. Changes in nature and in the lives of the Sioux come with each new moon of the Sioux year. A "moon-counting stick" is used to keep track of each moon and is replaced every Spring, which is when the Sioux year begins. The illustrations in this book capture the changes of the seasons through color, from the brighter, fresher colors of spring to the warmer, deeper colors of autumn. Each season and corresponding Sioux activity is described poetically in an attempt to convey the spirit and feeling of the season and the people as they read nature's signs. I loved the use of color and poetry to capture the mood of each season and the mood of the Sioux, summertime sewing circles with strawberries to color leather leggings and the white of snow as "blinding" with the "biting" cold. I hesitate to give it 5 stars only because the phrase "the Great Spirit" is used, insinuating the Sioux believed in one great governing spirit when in fact, many spirits were acknowledged, each playing a role and in conjunction with each other. I did enjoy the universal lessons mentioned in the text, such as the need to recognize the presence of cycles in nature and life and to accept change as a part of life. An excellent book for introducing children to the seasons in general and specifically the Sioux view of the seasons. Also good for introducing the concepts of change and cycles.