The Delight Makers

Description

The Delight Makers (1890) is a novel by Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier with an introduction by Charles Fletcher Lummis. Written after nearly a decade of research spent living among the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, The Delight Makers attempts to recreate the past through a blend of fiction and historical analysis. This unique anthropological novel, although naturally limited in scope due to Bandelier's western worldview, is nevertheless a fascinating example of creative scholarship and a well-intentioned project by an important preservationist of America's indigenous history. "It is a narrow valley, nowhere broader than half a mile; and from where it begins in the west to where it closes in a dark and gloomy entrance, scarcely wide enough for two men to pass abreast, in the east, its length does not exceed six miles. Its southern rim is formed by the slope of a timbered mesa, and that slope is partly overgrown by shrubbery." Set in the beautiful landscape of New Mexico, The Delight Makers is the story of the Queres, ancestors of the modern Pueblos. Once a powerful people ruled by the secretive Koshare, or "Delight Makers," the Queres faced opposition between local clans and eventually engaged in a catastrophic war with the Tehua tribe. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Delight Makers is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1840-1914) was a Swiss American archaeologist. Born in Bern, Switzerland, he emigrated to Illinois with his family as a young boy. Mentored by anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, Bandelier turned to archaeology and ethnology, working with Native Americans in the American Southwest and Mexico. Alongside F. H. Cushing, he became an authority on the indigenous cultures of Sonora, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 1892, he travelled to Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, working with the Hemenway Archaeological Expedition. While in Isleta, New Mexico, he befriended Charles Fletcher Lummis, a journalist and activist who would collaborate with Bandelier on The Delight Makers (1890), a novel on Pueblo Indian life. Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928) was an American journalist, activist, and historic preservationist. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, he was homeschooled by his father and attended Harvard University. To pay for his studies, Lummis published Birch Bark Poems, an acclaimed collection. In 1880, he married Dorothea Rhodes in Cincinnati, where he worked for a local newspaper. Offered a position with the Los Angeles Times, Lummis embarked on a 3,507 mile journey by foot across the American West, sending dispatches along the way. He became the first City Editor of the Los Angeles Times upon arrival, but after several years suffered a debilitating stroke that forced him to resign. He went to New Mexico to recover, eventually settling with the Pueblo Indians at the village of Isleta. In 1890, Lummis joined his friend Adolph Bandelier in his study of the local indigenous people. He became a prominent activist for Indian rights, clashing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and eventually founding the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles.