The Tlingit Indians by George T. Emmons; Edited with additions by Frederica de Laguna

The Tlingit Indians, George T. Emmons; Edited with additions by Frederica de Laguna. Published by Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, American Museum of Natural History New York, 1991. First Canadian Edition. 8vo up to 9½" tall., 489 pp. with bibliography, index; illustrated throughout with black and white photos, diagrams and text drawings. Beige cloth boards with copper spine titles, blindstamped illustration front board, mapped endpapers. Single line inked library stamps to endpapers, one stamp to title and one to top outer edge and otherwise contents are in fine condition without marks, tears or folds. Residue tape marks to front boards and which are otherwise fine. Jacket is laminated with creasing, fading to spine with ruffling to tail and head.

Published as number 70 in the Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. A detailed study of the history, customs and social life of the Tlingit. Emmons unfinished anthropological papers were edited and added to by de Laguna over a thirty-year period to provide the most detailed and important study of this West Coast tribe.

Lieutenant George Thornton Emmons, U.S.N., was stationed in Alaska during the 1880s and 1890s, a time when the Navy was largely responsible for law and stability in the Territory. His duties brought him into close contact with the Tlingit Indians, whose respect he won and from whom he gained an understanding of and respect for their culture. He became a friend of many Tlingit leaders, visited their homes, traveled in their canoes when on leave, purchased native artifacts, and recorded native traditions. In addition to an interest in native manufacturing and in the more spectacular aspects of native life - such as bear hunting, Chilkat blankets, feuds, and the potlatch - Emmons showed the ethnographer's devotion to recording all aspects of the culture together with the Tlingit terms, and came to understand Tlingit beliefs and values better than did any of his non-native contemporaries. He was widely recognized for his extensive collections of Tlingit artifacts and art, and for the detailed notes that accompanied them.