"[Tribes of California] is one of the most remarkable documents ever printed by any government."
-Alfred L. Krober, Handbook of the Indians of California (1925)
The Tribes of California (1877) by Stephen Powers is the third volume of a nine-part series entitled Contributions to North American Ethnology (all available from Cosimo Classics). It is a collection of reports that the author recorded while traveling the state on foot and horseback. The reports are divided into four sections entitled "Early Years," "California Native Americans," "Tribes of California," and "Legacy." In them, he discusses all aspects of the indigenous peoples' lives-their spiritual beliefs and practices, their languages and stories, their arts, and their medicines. First published in the Overland Monthly journal, they were eventually brought together in this collection by the US Geological Survey in 1877. This book offers a critical contribution to the history of Native Americans and is a must-read for anthropologists and students of Native American history.