author

Leo Crane

b. 1881

Drawn from years in the U.S. Indian Service, his books offer a firsthand look at Native communities in the American Southwest. Best known for writing about the Hopi and Pueblo peoples, he turned official experience into vivid historical narrative.

1 Audiobook

Indians of the Enchanted Desert

Indians of the Enchanted Desert

by Leo Crane

About the author

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 27, 1881, he worked in commercial and newspaper jobs before joining the Indian Bureau in Washington, D.C. Sources also place him in Arizona by 1910, beginning the period of work that shaped his later writing.

Leo Crane served as Indian agent at Keams Canyon for the Hopi and Navajo, then worked with the Pueblo Tribes of New Mexico; archival material also says he was later transferred to Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota and worked at the Colorado River Tribes Agency. His writing grew directly out of those years in the Southwest.

He is known for two books in particular: Indians of the Enchanted Desert, based on his time among the Hopi, and Desert Drums: The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, 1540-1928. No suitable verified portrait was confirmed from the sources I found, so no profile image is included.