With over 150 Illustrations

In Plains Indians, Thomas E. Mails closely examines, with skill and perception, the thirty-five Indian nations living on the Great Plains during the years between 1750 and 1850.  This fascinating and handsome book explores a way of life rich and sophisticated in its every dimension: religion, heritage, tradition, government, family life, social life, crafts, hunting skills and warfare.  This life-style, with a profusion of splendid ceremonies, is one of the finest the world has ever seen.

Plains Indians, illustrated with over 150 meticulous pen-and-ink and charcoal drawings, brings alive for the reader the intricate, inventive beauty of Indian costume and regalia as words alone could not do.  The text and pictures combine into a spectacular whole, a soaring evocation of a way of life tragically gone.

The author accepts the belief that all societies and cults originated in a legend, a vision or a dream, and goes on to describe the societies and their ceremonies as they were at the height of the Plains nations' glory.  He understands and empathizes with this complex way of life as if it were still existing in its fullness.