The Nation of the Willows (signed By Dr. Robert C. Euler), Limited to 200 Copies of Which This is #70

Flagstaff, Arizona (1965): Northland Press. First Edition in Book Form. Octavo. Limited to 200 copies signed by Robert C. Euler who wrote the foreword. The present copy is #70. 75 pages, with the 4 page promotional account laid in. Cushing's 1882 account of his visit to the Havasupai Indians, or 'The Nation of the Willows" . In the first part of the narrative, entitled "The Ride Thither," Cushing and two Indians set out from Zuni northwestward to Havasu Falls. In establishing the dramatic pattern of their journey Cushing adopts a familiar quotidian rhythm: early morning enthusiasm is regularly succeeded by midday toil, danger, heat, and hardship, which is resolved, relieved by evening arrival, relaxation, and the camaraderie of the campfire - or happy arrival in Havasu village. Within this established rhythm, however, Cushing constructs a second cycle: as the party rides along, Cushing describes the changing, deceptive shapes and patterns of the land as they are approached. His remarkable life living among the Zuni, learning their language, eating their food (critics considered a dirty, uncivilized way of life), he became the leading expert on the tribe and its culture. They designated him as second chief. A fine copy bound in 1/4 green cloth over marbled paper covered boards pictorial stamped in black depicting a willow tree, in publisher's fine slipcase.