Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico

by John Reed Swanton

Concentrating primarily on the Natchez Indians, but also profiling the Muskhogean tribes, the Tunican group, the Chitimacha, and the Atakapa, the comprehensive study describes each tribe's material culture, religion, language and social organization, with engrossing accounts of practices related to war, marriage, medicine, hunting, feasts, funeral ceremonies, and other customs.

Genres: Indigenous

448 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 1998

About the author

John Reed Swanton (February 19, 1873 – May 2, 1958) was an American anthropologist, folklorist, and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory. He is particularly noted for his work with indigenous peoples of the Southeast and Pacific Northwest.

Swanton married Alice M. Barnard on Dec. 16, 1903, with whom he had three children: Mary Alice Swanton, John Reed Swanton, Jr., and Henry Allen Swanton. He died in Newton, Massachusetts, on May 2, 1958, at the age of 85.

Reviews

[Zoe Saadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully informative, easy to read, the early French accounts concentrated according to topics, with whole paragraphs of citations, and more, with non intrusive analysis of the author that shows a great deal of original research and examination of primary sources.
If every book I research was organized so helpfully, I would spent half the time I usually spend on research and eventually turn lazy ;-)

[Charley E, Hoyt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good with many unexpected connects between tribes.