1914 INDIAN RESERVATION HISTORY. The American Indian - A Plea for Justice, 1850-1914, With Maps.

Warren King Moorehead’s The American Indian in the United States (1914) is a foundational work in early twentieth-century Native American studies and federal Indian policy reform. Published during an era of forced assimilation and land allotment under the Dawes Act, the book served as an urgent exposure of the corruption, land swindling, and systemic neglect within the Board of Indian Commissioners, of which Moorehead was a member.

Known as the "Dean of American Archaeology" for his extensive excavations of Mound Builder sites in the Ohio Valley and South, Moorehead turned his attention in this volume to contemporary Indian affairs, documenting the dire social and economic conditions of tribes across the nation. The inclusion of the two large folding maps, frequently missing from surviving copies, is essential, as they detail the historical distribution and administrative status of reservations during a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape for Indigenous peoples.

This the copy of Thomas L. Eyerly, himself a pioneering figure in Texas Panhandle archaeology and a contemporary of Moorehead. In 1907, while affiliated with Canadian Academy in Texas, Eyerly led the very first scientific archaeological excavations of the Buried City complex along Wolf Creek, bringing the Panhandle Plains region to national archaeological attention. The relationship between Moorehead and Eyerly underscores a shared network of early American archaeologists working during the discipline's formative transition into formal scientific methodology.

The extensive handwritten annotations on the rear of the 1914 folding map, given Eyerly’s field operations in the Southern Plains, likely preserve primary linguistic observations or comparative vocabulary notes recorded during his field studies among regional tribes, such as the Kiowa, Comanche, or Apache. An invaluable historical document of early twentieth-century American anthropology.

Inscribed "To T. L. Eyerly with the author's compliments. Warren K. Moorehead." 

Moorehead, Warren K. The American Indian in the United States. Period 1850-1914. The Present Condition of the American Indian; His Political History and Other Topics. A Plea for Justice. 1914. First Edition. 440pp.

Good example in original pictorial cloth, some faded spots as shown [and seemingly rather common]. Similar but moreso on the rear. Foredge of back board just nibbled through cloth. Textually very crisp and clean, slightly shaken as usual under the wight of this rather dense small 4to. Both folding maps present, but detached, apparently for use. Both in a very good state.