This book was a pretty slow read for me. McClintock writes detail oriented documentary style, which makes for a somewhat dry read. However, he provides in interesting detail and perspective on the blackfoot indians, including details on private ceremonies.

McClintock spent a number of years with the blackfoot and was even adopted as a son which gave him a access to numerous ceremonies. He goes through each step of the various ceremonies in great detail. He also travels through the region, providing vivid detail of the landscapes and the animals.

What I found most interesting was the stories behind how each Indian attained their status to obtain their bundles, and consequently their obligations to give ceremonies. There seems to be an endless number of waves to attain a given status from catching an eagle, to surviving a bear attack, to catching an elusive beaver.

Also intriguing was their view of death and ghosts. And by McClintock's account they actually seem to have been visited by a ghost one evening.

Whether it be a plus or minus I'm not sure, but McClintock makes no attempt, to indicate what the blackfoot think about anything. Nor does McClintock tell us what he feels or thinks, except that he liked living with the Indians, as oppossed to modern civilizations.

This book, which incorporates autobiographical writings, provides a good overview of the life of Walter M. Pierce, a governor of Oregon and Congressman from that same state. Because of the use of the autobiographical writings, there is extremely detailed information about some aspects of Pierce's life that otherwise likely wouldn't have been covered, such as some of the close votes of his early political life. Unfortunately, the author is unable to explain why Pierce moved to Oregon in the first place or why a progressive like Pierce was also such a racist. Still, this is a good overview of the life of an important political figure in Oregon history and provides insight into life in Oregon in the early 20th century. There is also detailed information about the rise of the KKK in the state.

This is a relatively nice collection of short stories from the Pacific Northwest, from Native American myths to more recent legends. On their own, most of the stories are interesting, with a few that are really captivating and compelling. However, since Salmonson took the literary license to re-work most of them, she could have done a better job in creating some kind of common tread between them all. Thus, the book is a bit dissappointing. The most interesting part are the notes and commentaries at the end which provide some background on the various myths and legends Salmonson used to write the book.

The primary accomplishment of this book is its 500+ page discussion of the Washington Cascades without mention of The Mountaineers club! The first 140 pages deal with indians, immigrant trails and the Hudson's Bay Company. Nothing new here, a lot of references to Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle and a discription of Ross' trip over Cascade Pass. The next seventy pages are about the first boundry survey fron 1857 - 1862. This is the guts of the book and it is really good - vintage Beckey. It's researched from original sources and well footnoted. The next sixty or seventy pages are basically about the railroads. These stories have been told before in more detai but the recounting is interesting with an attention to the geography that is usually overlooked. (Yakima Pass?) The third part of the book is a superficial presentation of mining in the Northwest, early mountaineering on the volcanoes and the beginnings of the forest service. None of these are done particularly well and none of them have enough detail to complement the first part of the book. This section does have a thirty page section on the USGS topographers and the second boundry survey in 1901 - 1908. It was during this era that many of the first ascents in the cascades were done but the discussion is brief and clearly omits the majority of what Beckey wrote about these efforts in the CAG series. Overall I have to say that I was disappointed. I understand that the Oregon Historical Society lacked the funds to publish and held it up for a long time but I started hearing about this book in the early '90s and saw a mock-up of it's cover at their booth at bookfest in about 1995. I got very excited reading the first part of the book but ended up feeling like Fred got tired about halfway through, or that he lost interest and just glossed over everything after the boundry survey. Read Woodhouse about mining. Read Molenar and Haines or Rusk on mountaineering. Read Beckey's own Challenge of the North Cascades and the introductions and footnotes in the Cascade Alpine Guide series. Read Bates Three Fingers to get a flavor of the early forest service era - and there are probably better sources for people interested in that topic (Even Beckey's CAG intros and notes have more information that this book does.) Read Tabor & Crowder Routes and Rocks about the geology. Read Roe and Praether about the railroads (again, also covered in CAG). Read Miles Kolma Kulshan about Mt. Baker. Finally, read Carlos Schwantes. His railroad discussion and his regional history are a lot better than Beckey's. But read Beckey about the boundry survey. There's nothing else like it.

This book relays the Story of Susan B. Anthony with great detail. I was amazed with the history of Susan B. Anthony and her battle. The author includes actual newspaper quotes from the time of Susan B. Anthony. I would recommend this book as a research tool for the life of Susan B. Anthony.

First of all, even though the book was written before Nunavut, most of the cultural elements of the book are still valid. Also, being probably the only book that deals with teaching in an Inuit culture, it stands alone in terms of its significance.

Having said that, however, there are a few problems with the book:

1) It was much, much too short. Tompkins repeated herself quite a bit, which would be acceptable had the book been longer than 130 pages or so. Also, I found that she didn't go into much detail in regards to actual situations; more ancedotes to illustrate her points would have been welcome.

2) The book was written from the perspective of a principal, not a teacher. Tompkins was a very active principal, working alongside her staff, but most of the advice will be useless unless you're actually in a position of authority in a school. Don't get me wrong -- Tompkin's model is *exactly* how a school should work, but as I said, it will help administrators more than in-the-trenches teachers.

3) I realise that there are not as many secondary schools in NWT/Nunavut as elementary schools, but it was a bit of a shock to realise that the entire book was written from the perspective of a worker in an elementary school. Understandably, if you're a primary (or even middle years) educator this will not disturb you as much as it did me.

Being a secondary school planning on teaching in Nunavut, this book was decidedly less helpful than I had anticipated. However, if you match the target audience (principal of an elementary school), don't let the book's brevity disturb you!

When the front cover flap says "text offers a basic introduction to the Northweest Coast culture" put the emphasis on basic, very basic. The value of the book is in the photographs. This book includes not only old work and recent work but even work in progress. It includes petroglyphs, masks, dugouts, baskets, jewlery, totel poles, rattles, spoons i.e. a full introduction to the material culture. It also includes photographs of the region allowing one to envision the physical space in which the Native Americans lived.

I find the book as a whole much more like a tour of a well-planned musuem display than like an art book. As such it is enjoyable.

After setting the stage in volume I, Roosevelt falls into a hero worship of the famous names of the frontier and a larger than life portrait of the average, rifle-slinging frontiersman and backwoodsman (words Roosevelt equates with superheroes). While it would be improper to say that Roosevelt strictly confined his second volume to the little details, every page seems to resound with the latest Indian skirmish, a gruesome tomahawking, a white foray or retaliation, and the daily peril of Indian attacks. The American Revolution finds frequent appearance as the guiding backdrop to this volume, with the result being the repeated treatments of the British encouraging the Indians (through payments and promises) to set upon the American settlers. Overall a more specific volume than the first, I left the book thinking the whole nothing but an endless series of Indian battles.

The author is a lawyer who represented major industry in lawsuits against government agencies trying to keep salmon from going extinct. If you want industry's view of how ecosystems should be managed, read this book. It dismisses the best science available and promulgates the view that decent habitat is not necessary for salmon or other endangered species. For example, the author says that dams and reservoirs are good for fish because they don't have to work as hard to get upstream. He ignores the the scientifically proven fact that reservoirs increase water temperatures, and salmon cannot survive in warm water. He agrees with GWB's notion that all we need is "fish friendly turbines" in dams. This book might as well have been written by the aluminum and farming industries - not the sources I would turn to for unbiased, scientific information. It suggests that healthy ecosystems are unnecessary and that hatchery fish are the same as wild fish. If you want real facts about the salmon crisis, get "A Common Fate: Salmon and the people of the Pacific Northwest" by Joseph Cone. A MUCH better book.

The vast majority of the conservative, rural, and farming community are delighted with this book. They don't seem to have noticed that Mr. Buchal's final recommendations are for the radical restructuring of government. --- You will find his solutions in his chapters 14 and 15 which are fairly light on the more technical aspects.--- Specifically, he wants power over salmon recovery concentrated into the hands of a single individual and for all citizens to organize themselves into special interest groups and to gain a place at the table. This is essentially the structure of the Clinton's reinvention of government, based on group processes, which has emerged in Washington State in the three years following this book's publication. Mr. Buchal appears to have been aware of that plan and to have approved of it. But, his recommendations are well obscured by the extensive review of scientific information which tells the conservative and rural community what they want to hear. Thus, they come to be the backers of a liberal political agenda. --- One wonders if that was not the author's intention.

This book is something every person concerned with the plight of salmon should read. Not only is it very correct in finding the fault with our political system but it backs up every quote, statement or fact with an extensive list of references. Its amazing to me how not one person has seemed to point the reason for salmon's decreasing population on overfishing. Even when salmon was placed on the endangered species list, the total fishing harvest of salmon went up. BY ALL MEANS, READ THIS BOOK!

Much too small to be a pictorial, and what's with "Northwest Airways"? If the author can't get the company name right, what other facts are incorrect?

As another mentioned, this book can't even get the name right.
At no point was the company called "Airways", it was Northwest Oreint and then merged with Republic Airlines taking the name
of Northwest Airlines.

Being a 10+ vetern of Northwest Airlines I read lots of incorrect information in the book, so many that I would not even be able to list it all! In all a bad book!

I'm not sure why the photo of the cover says "Northwest Airways" when in fact, it should say Northwest Airlines. When I see a mistake like this, it's disconcerting. Kind of makes me think there will be more mistakes inside. And there are plenty more. This is only the most obvious one...