A close collaborator of the historical department of the Santa Ana Museum in his native California, the author is known as a botanist of such high order that some years back the British Museum sought his assistance in assembling a remarkable collection of Pacific Coast specimens of medicinal herbs and Indian artifacts.
Mr. Romero, whose Indian name is Ha-Ha-St of Tawee, presents his material in highly entertaining manner, and his remarks, some of them _sotto voce_, are extremely apropos. Adding to the color of the book is a wonderful legend written by the author's father, Chief Als Pablo, Chief of Police of the Indian reservations in the Southwest at the turn of the century.
The book is dedicated to the memory of the author's uncle, Chief William Pablo of Guana-pia-pa, medical herbalist and medicine man. It is a unique treasury of authentic Americana, fortunately preserved for our time.
VANTAGE PRESS, INC. 120 W. 31st St., New York 1
John Bruno Romero is a descendant of the Chu-Mash, once the largest and most powerful of Indian tribes, whose domain included all the islands along the California Coast, and, on the mainland, from the San Fernando Mission northwest to San Francisco and north-northwest to the High Sierras.
Mr. Romero was born in Santa Barbara, where he studied Spanish and Latin at the Franciscan School Mission, and attended the Sherman Institute, where he was a student of English and scientific subjects. He was later graduated from the Detroit Veterinarian College.
At one time, the Cahuilla Indians controlled the lands of California southward to the end of what is now the Mexican peninsula. When the Chu-Mash tribe, in its later years, had dwindled in numbers, Mr. Romero joined the Cahuilla tribe "to help fight the United States Government for our land treaty rights." Today this tribe is the second oldest in California and the strongest in membership.
The author's interests are wide. He is a director of Indian Affairs for seven Southern California counties, and while his principal hobby is medicinal botany, he is also a collector of minerals, stamps, books, and fossils, and dabbles in taxidermy. Fond of children, he has adopted and reared ten orphans. At one time or another, he has worked as a surveyor, explorer, geologist, and antho-botanist, and his home is a veritable treasure trove of interesting archaeological, geological, and botanical specimens which he has collected in the mountains and deserts of Southern California and Arizona--in sections where the white man has seldom traveled.