Like for a lot of other people, my interest to the Red Indians, the real American People, was evoked by the books of Karl May, the German author. The cracklin' of a campfire, the silent approaching, the famous knee shot, Old Shatterhand's guns Henrystutzen and Bear Killer, Winnetou's Silver Rifle - Karl May linked his picture of the noble wild one with exciting adventures, which I swallowed up. Who does not know the Winnetou books with all its different characters: the good ones like Old Shatterhand, Jim Hawkins, Old Surehand, all Apache; the bad ones like Santer, the Kiowas and all the other enemies of the good ones. A fantastic-real world rose in my fantasy.
During the 70's the AIM (The American Indian Movement) was known in
Europe by the occupation of Wounded Knee. My interest changed from the past to
the present situation of the tribes.
Russell Means and Dennis
Bank replaced Tecumseh, Cochise, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Dull Knife and
the other Indian historic leader. A lot of them were named on a piece of paper
on my desk "in memoriam".
I want to recommend three books:
Dee Brown: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
C.W. Ceram: "First
American : A Story of North American Archaeology "
Alvin M.
Josephy: "500 Nations : An Illustrated History of North American Indians
"
This book is well known because of the TV version with anchorman Kevin
Costner.
Since years I
was looking for one book: Mari Sandoz: "Cheyenne". This book released
large embarrassment with me. Unfortunately it is today no longer available on
the market. But the German
ebay helped me, and now this book enriches my library.
In my little archive I have a lot of newspaper articles from the 70's, but also all issues of different years of German publications "Kalumet" (no longer published), "amedian" (no longer published) and "Magacine of Americanistik".
I recommend the following links:
Looksmart offers a well sorted list of links.
The Karl May-Museum
in Radebeul has a good overview on the history of the Native American, in
addition to all the other good informationen and links related to Karl May, THE
German author of Indian literature.
No way to miss the Smithsonian
Institution. Here I recommend especially
Smithsonian: Native American History and Culture and the
National Museum of the
American Indian. Both links will lead you into a lot of other related
sites. Enjoy the history of the original owner of America!
Additionally I want to recommend indians.org and hanksville.org