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The author has used Swedish sources extensively and appears to have a detailed grasp of his materials. However, the book suffers from a maddening confusion in chronology. Elmen often fails to date his accounts of events and further confuses the reader by inserting dated references to earlier and later events in order to amplify the obscure “present” of his narrative (e.g., chapter two). The bibliography is ex- tensive and the index reliable. Indiana Historical Society, Lana Ruegamer Tam Indianapolis

The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King. By Herman J. Viola. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press and Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976. Pp. 152. Illustra- tions, notes, bibliography, index. $19.95.) Rhode Island born Charles Bird King studied under Benjamin West in England before settling in the District of Columbia after the War of 1812. A successful portrait paint- er, King met Thomas McKenney, superintendent of Indian trade and later head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mc- Kenney had already begun “The Archives of the American Indian,” a collection of Indian artifacts, and decided to em- ploy King to add portraits to his archives. In 1822 McKenney commissioned King to portray Pawnee, Oto, Omaha, and other delegates who were in Washington at government request. In the next twenty years King did portraits of at least 143 Indian leaders who visited the capital and often did replicas for himself and for his subjects. Included were such notable figures Petalesharro of the Pawnees, Keokuk and Black Hawk of the Sac and Fox, and Red Jacket of the Senecas. King also did portraits of Tenskwautawawa (the Prophet), the brother of Tecumseh, from the work of other artists. King’s Indian portraits constituted an important and impressive collection in precamera days and were an im- portant attraction for whites and for visiting Indians. The collection was decimated by fire in 1865 after having been moved from the war department to the Smithsonian Institu- tion, but fortunately King had done replicas of many of the portraits and others had appeared in Thomas McKenney’s and James Hall’s three volume History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836-1844). Book Reviews 157

Herman Viola, director of the American Anthropological Archives in the Smithsonian Institution, has located some sixty King portraits and a number of charcoal sketches and has presented them in an attractive, large format book. His text briefly describes King’s background and recounts Mc- Kenney’s work with the Indian office, the development of his archive and relations with King, information on the Indian delegations, and the events leading to the McKenney- Hall classic. Much of this story has been told before by Viola, especially in his biography of McKenney, and while there is perhaps less information on King than many readers might wish, this volume does focus necessary attention on the work of Charles Bird King. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Richard N. Ellis

Journey to the Green and Golden Lands: The Epic of Survival on the Wagon Trail. By Raymond N. Doetsch. (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1976. Pp. 112. Notes, illustrations, references, index. $9.95.) Sprightly in style and brisk in pace, this succinct volume focuses on struggles for survival on the trans-Mississippi wagon trails during the 1840s. Raymond N. Doetsch sheds light on crushing illnesses, daily aches and discomforts, and other misfortunes confronting those trekking west. He also stresses the ideas, however zany, of travelers, physicians, and quacks concerning causes and treatments of maladies. Noting that perhaps one in seventeen died en route, Doetsch high- lights some ugly relationships between diet, dirt, disease, and death, portraying the westward trek as no pleasure jaunt, no summer lark, and certainly nothing to be approached lightly. Although physical infirmities receive much attention, gnaw- ing anxieties and psychological wear and tear also are con- sidered, as are other factors affecting survival: equipment and supplies; social organization and social dynamics; leader- ship; useful knowledge and treacherous misinformation; geographical conditions; and questions of morality, including wrenching decisions to abandon disabled members. Drawing heavily from manuscripts and diaries, the book brims with dozens of sparkling quotations concerning mis- fortune and attempts to overcome it. Other strengths include candid references to evidence, including admissions of limita-