For your consideration is this 1931 First Edition of, "The Red Man in the New World Drama--A Political-Legal Study with a Pageantry of American Indian History", by Jennings C. Wise, 54 illustrations. A treatise against the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and unchecked migration and settling of the West, with a comparison of the European and American settlers to Old World barbarians. Jennings C. Wise added a new dimension to our understanding of the American Indian when he wrote of their history in religious and political terms, as a part of the world drama of conflicting religions. A fascinating chronicle of a past marked both by tragedy and by greatness, and a witness to a present actively seeking new definitions and manifestations of tribalism. In Wise's perspective on the early history of America, leaders such as Dekanawida, Hiawatha, and Tamenend stand out against a background of treachery and bloodshed stemming from pervasive Jesuit interest in obtaining and settling new lands. Although the Proclamation of 1763 marked the transit ion of the Indian tribes from vassals of the British Crown to political dependents of the United States, Wise demonstrates how men like Colonel Joseph Brant, Little Turtle, Tecumseh, John Ross, and Osceola were unable to prevent their tribes from becoming pawns in the diplomatic machinations of Great Britain, France, and the United States. As a recurring symbol of the cycle of broken treaties, retaliatory attacks, new treaties broken again, Wise uses the seventy-six-year struggle of the Yankton Sioux to regain the Red Pipe Stone Quarry in Minnesota, a traditionally sacred ground. The government's claim on that land led, in Wise's view, to the so-called Minnesota Massacre, the Sioux Uprising of 1874, the death of Custer, the killing of Sitting Bull, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee. It was not until 1927, with Wise as legal counsel, that the Supreme Court upheld the original contention of the Sioux, though they were irrevocably divested of their shrine. "The Red Man in the New World Drama" is vitally relevant today for the insight it offers into the past and the nature of the relationship that has existed between Indians and white America.
This book is in good overall condition, the red cloth bound gold gilt stamped cover has soiling and staining, scuffing along the edges noted. Stamped gold gilt on cover show slightfading on spine, front cover stamped gold gilt depiction of a male Native American warrior. Spine is loose at both covers. Intact pages exhibit age tanning and slight foxing throughout. Measures 7.25"W x 10.25"L x 2.5"D