CRYING FOR A DREAM <i> by Richard Erdoes (Bear & Co.: $24.95, illustrated) </i>

Austrian-born ethnographer Richard Erdoes presents a celebration of the rituals of the Great Plains and Southwestern Amerindian tribes that stresses their belief in the sacredness of the Earth and the unity of all life. His exceptional color photographs supplement descriptions of rites from 19th-Century and contemporary sources. The resulting book offers a welcome counter to the popular images of Indians as either bloodthirsty savages in B Westerns or idealized noble red warriors. The inhabitants of an increasingly threatened planet have much to learn from the Indians’ reverence for the Earth and its creatures.