Historian David La Vere has gathered a wealth of vivid detail 
about life among the former Texas Indian peoples, including the 
Kiowas, Comanches, Wichitas, Caddos, Tonkawas, and Lipan 
Apaches. Culled from 112 volumes of the Indian-Pioneer Histories 
in the Indian Archives at the Oklahoma Historical Society, these 
oral histories also include interviews with non-Indian neighbors. 
Together, their recollections provide an exceptional picture of the 
details of daily life—war and raiding, hunting and planting, 
foodways, dress, parties and spiritual practices, education, health, 
and housing.

    La Vere sets the stage for this ethnographic detail with a lively, 
readable history of the succession of peoples who lived in Texas 
from the Paleo-Indians until the present. It is a clear overview of 
the basic social structures of the tribes, the relations among tribes 
and, later, of the Indians with the Europeans who came to the 
region.

_________________________________________________________

DAVID LA VERE is a professor of history at the University of 
North Carolina–Wilmington. He is author of The Texas Indians. 
His Ph.D. is from Texas A&M University.


Number Eighteen: Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West 
and Southwest


What people are saying about this book

". . . a fascinating and unexpectedly candid view into the lives of 
Texas Indians."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly

" . . . all interested scholars, tribal members, students, political 
leaders, and general readers will benefit from reading this book."
—Western Historical Quarterly

"Lively, often poignant reading which gives voice to a previously 
all-but-silent people!"—Book Talk