Preface, North American Indians of the Plains

Assiniboin Warrior
(After Maximilian)

This little book is not merely a guide to museum collections from the Plains Indians, but a summary of the facts and interpretations making up the anthropology of those Indians. The specimens in this Museum were, for the most part, systematically collected by members of the scientific staff while sojourning among the several tribes. They were selected to illustrate various points in tribal life and customs, or culture. The exhibits in the Plains Hall contain, as far as space permits, most of the typical objects for each tribe; yet, it has been physically impossible to show everything the Museum possesses. So the most characteristic objects for each tribe have been selected and care taken to have the other objects common to many tribes appear at least once in some part of the hall. The ideal way would be to get every variety of every object used by each subdivision of a tribe and exhibit all of them in their entirety; but few collections can be made so complete, and even if they could, space in the building could not be found for them. The exhibits, then, should be taken as material indices, or marks, of tribal cultures and not as complete expositions of them. This handbook, on the other hand, deals with the main points in the anthropology of the Plains Indians many of which (as marriage, social and political organization, language, etc.) cannot be demonstrated by collections. The statements in the text are made upon the authority of the many special students of these Indians in whose writings will be found far more complete accounts. Citations to the more important works will be given in the bibliography. The illustrations are chiefly from the anthropological publications of the Museum and for the most part represent specimens on exhibition in the Plains Hall. For a mere general view of the subject, the legends to the maps, the introduction, and the concluding chapter are recommended. The intervening topics may then be taken up as guides to the study of collections or the perusal of the special literature.

North American Indians of the Plains

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North American Indians Of The Plains, Clark Wissler, 1920