Early Days Among the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1924 First edition. University of Oklahoma Bulletin, Series 281, University Studies 19. Edited by Stanley Vestal. Small octavo. 8½x5¾ inches. Pp. 91, [1, blank]. Original printed gray wrappers. 2 tiny chips to upper corners of front wrapper. A fine copy. Very rare. A key work on the Cheyenne. Seger probably knew the Indians with whom he worked during most of his life better than any literate white man who has left us a record. Seger, enlisted in the Union Army, participated in Sherman's March to the Sea, and was living in New Malden, Kansas in 1872 when a reservation was established for the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. Seger was hired to build houses and other buildings at the agency school. During this period, Seger developed an unusual rapport with the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, and was asked to serve as superintendent of the Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School. Involved with these people for years, Seger eventually (1893) built the federally funded Seger Industrial Training School and was its superintendent for twelve years. This first edition of this work (offered here) is very, very scarce. The title was eventually issued in hardback... ten years later! (also available). This is the first work edited or authored by Stanley Vestal, whose real name was W. S. Campbell. [Tassin: pp. 117, 280]..