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Explore accounts of Oklahoma’s Freedmen as told by their descendants in these stories of resistance and resilience on the Western frontier. The Freedmen of Oklahoma were black people, both enslaved and free, who had been living among the Indian nations. After the official abolition of slavery in 1866, they forged an identity as their own people as they faced the challenges of the western frontier. By 1906, before Oklahoma statehood, over 20,000 people were classified as “Freedmen” from Five Tribes: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations. For decades, their descendants have been rediscovering their family history and restoring its place in the larger narrative. Angela Walton-Raji has compiled this collection of stories, told by descendants from all five tribes, to ensure that the Freedmen of Oklahoma claim their vibrant part of the state’s heritage.

Storytelling has been a vital and vivid tradition in Apache life. Coyote tales, the creation legend and stories of historic battles with Comanche and Anglo intruders create a colorful mosaic of tribal heritage. Percy Bigmouth, a prominent oral historian of the Mescalero and Lipan Apache tribes, realized in the early twentieth century that the old ways were waning. He wrote in longhand what he had learned from his father, Scout Bigmouth, a prison camp survivor at Fort Sumner and participant in the turbulent Apache Wars. Join author Lynda Sanchez as she brings to light the ancient legends and lore of the Apaches living in the shadow of Mescalero's Sacred Mountain. Seventy-five years in the making, this collection is a loving tribute to a way of life nearly lost to history.

Pull on the uncanny threads from the legendary tapestry of New Mexico's Native American heritage.

Ancient Indian history and present Native American cultures are woven together in the Land of Enchantment. The threads of these tales stretch back to Mimbres burial grounds and prehistoric trade routes. Stories and traditions tie the land to its people, in spite of the cycles of slaughter and theft that have threatened to pluck them apart. Descend into the kivas of Chaco Canyon or seek out the high mountains where the clouds mark the stones. From legends of the Salt Woman to the legacy of the Ghost Dance, Ray John de Aragon examines the mysteries of the mesas.

In January 1873, Secretary of War William W. Belknap authorized the Military District of New Mexico to enlist fifty Indian scouts for campaigns against the Apaches and other tribes. In an overwhelming response, many more Navajos came to Fort Wingate to enlist than the ten requested. Why, so soon after the Navajo War, the Long Walk and imprisonment at Fort Sumner, would young Navajos volunteer to join the United States military? Author John Lewis Taylor explores this question and the relationship between the Navajo Nation and the United States military in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Llano Estacado, or "Staked Plain," of Texas and eastern New Mexico spreads two hundred miles across what early visitors called "an ocean of land." No other place on Earth is quite like it. Humans first inhabited the area more than twelve thousand years ago. Subsequently, settlers came to convert the grassland to ranches and then to sprawling farms. Every new generation performed its duty at this cultural crossroads, from the trade routes established by the comancheros to the fateful meeting between Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley at Lubbock's Cotton Club. Noted West Texas historians Paul H. Carlson and David J. Murrah compiled and edited fifty-six brief stories presenting the Llano Estacado's heritage at its liveliest and most unfamiliar.

Arizona's Navajo and Hopi cultures span multiple generations, and their descendants continue to honor customs from thousands of years ago. Contemporary artists like Hopi katsina doll carver Manuel Chavarria and Navajo weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas use traditional crafts and techniques to preserve the stories of their ancestors. Meanwhile, emerging mixed-media artists like Melanie Yazzie expand the boundaries of tradition by combining Navajo influences with contemporary culture and styles. Local author Rory Schmitt presents the region's outstanding native artists and their work, studios and inspirations.