Indiana Magazine of History He Secured Illustrations from Other Sources, Including Numerous Private Collections
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250 Indiana Magazine of History he secured illustrations from other sources, including numerous private collections. Portraits, with illuminating comments, include traditional leaders: French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Hennepin; soldiers Anthony Wayne, William Hull, and George A. Custer; politicians Lewis Cass, Stevens T. Mason, James G. Birney, and Zachariah Chandler; Indian chiefs Tecumseh and Okemos; and men of distinction in other fields, Henry R. Schoolcraft, Father Gabriel Richard, James J. Strang, Douglass Houghton, and Charles T. Harvey. Persons sometimes neglected in other works include women Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Laura Smith Haviland, Caroline Bartlett Crane, and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone; educators John D. Pierce, James B. Angell, and Albertus C. Van Raalte; and obscure people such as those pictured on pages 85, 135, 153, and 166. Residents of the Upper Peninsula will find their region portrayed not only in the pre-pioneer period but in special chapters concerned with lumbering, mining, and the Great Lakes. The author appears to be more interested in the humanities than in wars and politics. Architecture receives considerable emphasis, with representative buildings of the Federal, Greek Revival, and Gothic styles much in evidence. (Many of these illustrations came from the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Archives.) May also seems to delight in presenting restorations which may be seen in Greenfield Village, Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Marshall. He notes with regret that numerous nineteenth century build- ings have been demolished “during America’s latest urban renewal craze . .” (p. 204). Not all that is depicted, however, is elegance-witness a pioneer farm near Greenville (p. 156), Charlie Goodwin’s Implement Shop in Colon (p. 163), and Ironwood in the 1880’s (p. 109). Books of this type are made possible by a fund established by the late John M. Munson, Michigan educator, whose career included presidencies at Northern Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University when they were regional normal schools. Indianapolis, Indiana Max P. Allen History of the Santee Sioux: United States Indian Policy on Trial. By Roy W. Meyer. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967. Pp. xvi, 434. Maps, notes, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. $7.50. ) In this era of racial awareness the American Indian remains a neglected minority group. Roy W. Meyer’s History of the Santee Sioux, however, sheds significant light on at least one portion of that race. His accurate and important study traces the course of the Santee from first white contact to the present time. It is not a pleasant story. As he points out, “Thc course they have followed in the past three centuries has, unfortunately, been mostly downward’’ (p. 358). The Minnesota-based Santee Sioux never attained the popular promi- nence of their plains brethren, perhaps because they did not kill Custer; but Book Reviews 25 1 their 1862 uprising proved equally as electrifying to the United States and far more devastating. This exploit proved the tribe’s undoing and hastened the process of cultural decline. The whites harried the tribe out of Minnesota, leaving only a handful of refvgees in the state. The bulk of the Santee were placed on reservations in Nebraska and South Dakota. Although an analysis of a relatively narrow segment of the Indian popu- lation, the story has broad application to the study of general Indian policy because, as Meyer notes, the “history of t!ie Santee Sioux is the history of the American Indian” (p. 371). The bitter fruits of the Dawes Act and other similar well-intentioned but ill-conceived legislation for the Indians are starkly portrayed. Also presented is the picture of a people who often loudly proclaimed their readiness for self-government but when given tho opportunity found themselves incapable of even financial independence from the federal government. Although this volume is not easy reading and certain statements of a general nature could be challenged, Meyer has thoroughly grounded his study by diligent rescarch at the National Archives, and the final product is a tribute to his efforts. More books like it are sorely needed because only after they are written can valid analysis of the success or failure of American Indian policy be made. National Historical Herman J. Viola Publications Commission, Washington The National Waterway: A History of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 2769-1965. By Ralph D. Gray. (Urbana: Univcrsity of Illinois Press, 1967. Pp. xi, 279. Notes, tables, illustrations, bibliographical essay, index. $8.95.) Ralph Gray’s admirable study of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. a short line linking the bay waters serving Philadelphia and Baltimore, is a traditional narrative account. It concentrates upon the history of the enter- prise, treating institutional development, entrepreneurship, politics, and fi- nance. But if the approach is familiar, the subject is not. This is the first full-length account of the Chesapeake and Delaware waterway, operated by a private company from 1829 to 1919, then controlled by the federal govern- ment, which converted the line to a sea level route in the late 1920’s. Under governmental control, the canal underwent enlargements (a major project is presently under way) ; and it is now a vital segment of the Atlantic Coast navigational system. The Chesapeake and Delaware histoiy is unusual, for it spans the long period from colonial times to the present. Gray (a member of the Indiana University faculty) provides invaluable information on early efforts in the 1760’s to survey the route; on the promotional effort that successfully saw the canal project to completion in 1629; and on the financing, administration, and traffic of the canal since then. He also emphasizes differences between .