Lucy Thompson is, even today, one of the few Native American women to have written a book about her people. When she published To the American Indian in 1916, the world of the Yurok Indians of northern California seemed on the edge of collapse. Concerned about the survival of her people and their customs, and concerned also that the true story of the Yurok was not being told—not by the popular press, not by the anthropologists—she took it upon herself to write this remarkable book. An aristocrat by birth, and an initiate into the exclusive priestly society known as Talth, Lucy Thompson gives us a unique insider's view of a great culture.

Reviews

"Thompson sheds new light on the role of women in Indian life...essential to historians and lay readers alike....It serves as a bridge of truth that allows the reader to step back into the old world."—San Francisco Chronicle