Frank Raymond Secoy wrote this classic work while at Columbia University in the early 1950s. In his introduction, John C. Ewers considers the influence of Secoy's book on scholars since its original publication in 1953. Ethnologist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, Ewers is the author of The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture (1955), Blackfeet: Their Art and Culture (1987), and other works.