Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2010 Issue

American Indians from Almagre Books

American Indians from Almagre Books.

American Indians from Almagre Books.


By Michael Stillman

Almagre Books of Santa Fe has issued a catalogue titled American Indians. It contains almost 500 items pertaining to America's first inhabitants. Dozens of tribes are represented, as are printings of government treaties and other documents concerning the natives (many of which were means of taking more of their land). There are accounts of wars, removals from ancestral lands east of the Mississippi, captivities, and even some strange ways some less than honest businessmen tried to exploit Indian culture to make a fast buck. You won't find many cowboys in this catalogue, but it is filled with material for those interested in America's Indians.

Item 417 was a timely book: A History of the Sioux Agreement. Some Facts That Should Not Be Forgotten. This work by Thomas A. Bland was published by the National Indian Defense Association. While the Indians still had overwhelmingly bad press in the U.S., there were some people who saw the injustices they faced, Bland being one. He speaks of the forced assimilation to which the Sioux were subjected and the stealing of their land by the government to give to settlers and railroads. The timing of this publication was circa 1888, not long before the final Indian war in America, when a group of the Sioux was overwhelmed in the horrific Wounded Knee Massacre. Priced at $175.

George Bird Grinnell was one of America's greatest naturalists. He studied the wildlife and people of the plains for decades. He was the naturalist with General Custer in 1874, wisely opting not to rejoin him in 1876. Grinnell spent time with everyone from the Indians of the West to another notable conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt. Along with his studies of natural history, Grinnell particularly focused on the Cheyenne Indians, and in 1915 he published this book: The Fighting Cheyennes. It covers the wars in which this tribe was involved, starting in 1838 and including the Little Big Horn. Item 101. $225.

Item 252 is a Map Showing Indian Reservations Within the Limits of the United States... This map shows Indian reservations, pueblos, communities and schools, along with army forts, many no longer in existence, as of the 1890 census. Published by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1892. $175.

Item 437 was one of the more interesting jokes/frauds perpetrated on the public: The Works of Sitting Bull in the Original French and Latin, with Translations, Diligently Compared. This item was created by Robert Dunlap Clarke, and evidently many people fell for it. Sitting Bull was a man of many skills, but speaking multiple European languages was not one of them. Clarke managed to convince many people that the great chief spoke French, Latin, Greek and German, and graduated from Oxford University. Clarke had served in the army at various forts in the West and had been on General Crook's staff, undoubtedly adding perceived authenticity to his claims. Offered is the 1878 edition, issued the year following the first. $1,750.

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    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
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    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
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    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
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    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.
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    July 23, 2025
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    July 23, 2025
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