Schultz James W. My Life as an Indian: The Story of a Red Woman and a White Man in the Lodges of the Blackfeet

Skyhorse Publishing, 2010. — 480 p.In the year 1880, James Willard Schultz left the comfort of his home in St. Louis, bound for adventure in the Far West.
Fired by the writings of Lewis and Clark’s "Journal", "The Oregon Trail", Fremont’s expeditions, Schultz travelled across the breadth of the American continent to see some of the land and the tribes of which they told.
As a young tenderfoot, Schultz quickly found his feet and before long he was under the tutelage of the experienced trapper, Berry, who introduced him to a tribe of Piegan Blackfeet.
For the next few years, Schultz immersed himself in the ways of these Native Americans, assisting his friends in fighting rivals, hunting alongside them and even marrying Nat-ah’-ki, a Blackfoot woman.
As George Bird Grinnell states, "It is an animated and vivid picture of Indian life. The scene is on the plains in the old days, in the picturesque period when the tribe lived in a primitive way, subsisting on the buffalo and at war with hostile neighbours."
"My Life as an Indian" is essential reading for anyone interested in Native American culture as it depicts vividly how they lived and survived at a moment in history when their way of life was severely under threat.