The Way to Independence

"In 1886 a small group of Hidatsa Indian people left their earth lodges in Like-a-Fishhook Village on the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota. Pushed by U.S. government policies and pulled by new opportunities, they moved up the Missouri River and built homes on the reservation at an isolated spot they called Independence. About 20 years later, Gilbert L. Wilson, and anthropologist with an insatiable interest and an a tireless pencil, went to Independence to record information about traditional Hidatsa life. There three members of one family--Buffalo Bird Woman, her brother Wolf Chief, and her son Goodbird--agreed to tell him their stories. This book is based on the memories of Buffalo Bird Woman's family shared with Wilson and on the cultural artifacts that they sold him. It is a powerful and personal description of one family's journey from a traditional, clan-oriented society ot the industrialized, individualistic world of 20th-century America. Their stories speak for the thousands of other Indian families whose experiences were never recorded"--Book cover.