An anthology of writings records the ideas and attitudes of American Indians throughout history and offers insight into their culture and struggles with the white man.

The Indian way: Epigraphs -- The beginning of newness: a Zuni creation legend -- Origin of the Arikara -- Journey to the West in search of tribal origins / Moncachtape (Yazoo) -- Constitution of the Iroquois Federation / Degandawida (Mohawk) -- A visit to the "Master of Life": a Delaware legend / Pontiac (Ottawa) -- Speech in response to missionary efforts, 1805 / Red Jacket (Seneca) -- A system of religion / Tenkswataya, or the Prophet (Shawnee) -- An Indian cosmogony / Chief Smohalla (Wanapum) -- Courtship and marriage / James Larpenteur Long and Red Feather (Assiniboine) -- Indian family life / Luther Standing Bear (Sioux) -- A Winnebago father's instructions to his son --A Pawnee mother's advice to her son, Lone Chief -- Life in the woods: boyhood memories of autumnal tribal activities (c. 1870-72) / Charles Eastman, or Ohiyesa (Santee Sioux) -- The years of a warrior / Wooden Leg (Cheyenne) -- Buffalo -- staff of life for the Indians / James Larpenteur Long (Assiniboine) -- Stealing horses from the Arapahoe / Chief Plenty-Coups (Crow) -- An Indian deer hunt / James Paytiano, or Flaming Arrow (Acoma Pueblo) -- The sun dance / Chief Dick Washakie (Shoshone) -- Human sacrifice / Eagle Chief (Pawnee) -- "Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide": a speech to governor Isaac Stevens of the Washington Territory, 1885 / Chief Seattle (Puget Sound Tribes) -- An account of Wovoka, the Paiute Messiah / Porcupine (Cheyenne) -- A defense of the Ghost Dance Religion / Masse Hadjo (Sioux) -- Autobiography / Poor Wolf (Gros Ventre) -- Funeral oration -- The end of the world: a Pawnee myth / Young Bull (Pitahaunat Pawnee). Captive nations: Epigraphs -- Remarks to Captain John Smith (c. 1609) / Powhatan (Powhatan Confederacy) -- Reasons for the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico: testimony given to the Spanish authorities on December 19, 1681 / Pedro Naranjo (Queres Pueblo) -- Speeches to the governors of New York and Virginia, in a council assembled at Albany in August, 1684 / Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca Chiefs -- Speech in [sic] behalf of the Six Nations to Pennsylvania officials, July, 7, 1742 / Canassateego (Seneca) -- Address to an Englishman on British-French relations with the Indians, 1761 / Minavavana (Chippewa) -- Speech to the French on reasons for making war on the English, May 25, 1763 / Pontiac (Delaware) -- Speech at the end of the Lord Dunmore's War / Logan (Mingo) -- Speech to the British at a council in Detroit, November, 1781 / Captain Pipe (Delaware) -- Letter to President Washington, 1790 / Big Tree, Cornplanter, and Half-Town (Seneca) -- Relations with the United States and Britain / Blue Jacket (Shawnee) -- Speech to Governor William Henry Harrison at Vincennes, August 12, 1810 / Tecumseh (Shawnee) -- Refusal of a land-purchase offer, in a speech made at Buffalo Creek, New York, in May, 1811 / Red Jacket (Seneca) -- Letter to William Eustis, Secretary of War, December 19, 1811 / Farmers-Brother (Seneca) -- Speech on the futility of fighting the Americans in the War of 1812 / Between-the-Logs (Wyandot) -- Speech to American Commissioners in response to the allegations that Indians had broken treaty obligations, July, 1815 / Black Thunder (Fox) -- Letter to the Governor of Pennsylvania, February 1822 / Cornplanter (Seneca) -- Why the Indians will not give up their land, 1827 / Kanakuk (Kickapoo) -- Response to a message from President Andrew Jackson concerning Indian removal, 1830 / Speckled Snake (Cherokee) -- Farewell letter to the American people, 1832 / George W. Harkins (Choctaw) -- Farewell speech at Prairie dr Chien, Wisconsin, at the end of Black Hawk War, August, 1835 / Black Hawk (Sac-Potawatomi) -- Surrender of a Seminole Band, 1841 / Coacooche (Seminole) -- A portion of a speech to a meeting of the New York Historical Society, 1847 / Peter Wilson (Cayuga) -- Speech to Canadian officials on land-purchase policy, given at a council at the Sault Ste. Marie, August 9, 1848 / Peau de Chat (Ojibway) -- An interview with Governor Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota, December, 1852 / Red Iron (Sisseton Sioux) -- Fourth of July address at Reidsville, New York, 1854 / John Quinney (Mahican) -- Speech to council of war on eve of the Sioux upsrising in Minnesota, August 18, 1862 / Little Crow (Santee Sioux) -- The great Sioux uprising of 1862 / Big Eagle (Santee Sioux) -- Letter to General Ulysses S. Grant, January 24, 1864 / Ely S. Parker, or Donehogawa (Seneca) -- An eyewitness report of the Sand Creek Massacre, November 28, 1864 / George Bent (Cheyenne) -- How the Indians are victimized by government agents and soldiers / Palaneapope (Yankton Sioux) -- The condition to the Winnebago Indians in Nebraska, October 3, 1865 / Little Hill (Winnebago) -- Speech at the Medicine Lodge Indian Council, addressed to the Indian Commissioner Nathaniel G. Taylor, October 20, 1867 / Ten Bears (Comanche) -- Speech at Cooper Union, New York, July 16, 1870 / Red Cloud (Oglala Sioux) -- Remarks made to General Gordon Granger during a conference on the matter of going to a reservation, 1871 / Cochise (Apache) -- Events leading up to the Modoc War, 1873 / Captain Jack (Modoc) -- Testimony about the white man's promises and intentions, August 11, 1873 / Blackfoot (Crow) -- The Battle of Little Bighorn, narrated by an Indian who fought in it, June 25, 1876 / Two Moons (Cheyenne) -- The Black Hills is our country: testimony to a federal commission, September, 1876 / Black Coal (Arapahoe) -- Indian conditions for treaty renewal, October 11, 1876 / John Grass (Blackfoot Sioux) -- A protest to Governor John W. Hoyt of the Wyoming Territory, 1878 / Washakie (Shoshone) -- The fate of the Nez Perces Tribe, 1879 / Chief Joseph (Nez Perces) -- A message for the President of the United States, 1881 / Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa Sioux) -- The killing of Big Snake, a Ponca chief, October 31, 1879 / Hairy Bear (Ponca) -- "The American nation is too powerful for us to fight" / Manuelito (Navajo) -- Reasons for leaving the reservation / Geronimo (Chiracahua Apache) -- Keeping treaties / Sitting Bull (Hunkapapa Sioux) -- Reasons for the trouble between the Indians and the government during the Ghost Dance excitement of 1890 / Red Cloud (Oglala Sioux) -- The massacre at Wounded Knee, on December 29, 1890 / Turning Hawk, Captain Sword, Spotted Horse, and American Horse (Sioux). Heading toward the mainstream: Epigraphs -- The reservation school (c. 1900) / Don Talayesva (Hopi) -- How allotment impoverishes the Indians: testimony before a Senate committee investigating conditions in the Indian Territory, November, 1906 / D.W.C. Duncan (Cherokee) -- The reservation system / Thomas L. Sloan (Omaha) -- Testimony during a 1915 trial for violating a Washington State code on salmon fishing / Chiefs Meninock and Wallahee (Yakima) -- "Let my people go": an address delivered at the Conference of the Society of American Indians in Lawrence, Kansas, September 30, 1915 / Carlos Montezuma (Apache) -- What the Indian means to America (1933) / Luther Standing Bear (Sioux) -- Indian self-determination (1934) / Ralph Fredenberg (Menominee) -- The Indian in wartime (1944) / Ella Deloria (Sioux) -- "Shall we repeat Indian history in Alaska?": speech to the Annual Meeting of the Indian Rights Association, January 23, 1947 / Ruth Muskrat Bronson (Cherokee) -- Problems of off-reservation employment / Jim Becenti (Navajo) -- An appeal for justice (1948) / Indians of the St. Regis Reservation, Hogansburg, New York -- "Whither the American Indian?": a symposium, 1954 / Daisy Albert (Hopi), Clarence Wesley (Apache), and N.B. Johnson (Cherokee) -- The importance of keeping the land (1955) / Dan Monongye (Hopi) -- The voice of the American Indian -- The Indian tests the mainstream / D'Arcy McNickle (Flathead) -- Testimony against proposed Congressional legislation, 1966 / Earl Old Person (Blackfoot) -- The war on poverty (1967) / Clyde Warrior (Ponca) -- A symposium on Indian education, June 1968 / Allen Quetone (Kiowa), Alex Saluskin (Yakima), Joshua Wesit (Assiniboine), and Ben Black Elk (Oglala Sioux) -- Fishing rights for the Indians of Washington State (1968) / Sidney Mills (Yakima Cherokee) -- The native Alaskans' land rights (1969) / John Borbridge (Tlingit) -- Planning grant proposal to develop an all-Indian university and cultural complex on Indian land, Alcatraz / Indians of all tribes -- Consolidating Indian efforts (1970) / Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux) -- Appeal to Congress for the return to Blue Lake, 1970 / Taos, New Mexico, Pueblo Delegation.