Dahcotah, or, Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling

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Author: Eastman, Mary [Henderson] (1818-1890)

Year: 1849

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Place: New York

Description:

xi+[3]+i-xxi+33-268 pages with frontispiece, plates and drawings by Captain Seth Eastman. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/2") rebound with three raised spine bands and red labels to spine black lettering. (Sabin 216850) First edition.

Mary Henderson Eastman spent the years from 1841 through 1848 at Fort Snelling, where her husband, Captain Seth Eastman, was stationed. During this period, the Eastmans entertained many Native Americans in their home and undertook a dual recording of the Dakota. While Seth, a talented artist, portrayed them on canvas, Mary elicited from them their stories and legends for a written record. She saw the Sioux as 'a race of tall, fine liking men; and many of those who have not been degraded by association with the frontier class of white people, nor had their intellects been destroyed by the white man's fire water, have minds of high order' Mary Eastman decided to gather their stories and legends for publication. The resulting work is believed to have inspired Longfellow to write Hiawatha a few years later.

Condition:

Former library copy with title page library markings excised out and replace with backing, foxing and some toning else good to very good.


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