A brief survey of life in five North American Indian tribes--Makah, Hopi, Creek, Penobscot, and Mandan--at the time Columbus arrived in the New World.

Recreates the cultures of the ancestors of today's Indian peoples--their religions, customs, tools, weapons, arts, architecture and scientific knowledge--on the basis of evidence from archaeological sites both large and small, bringing to life the North America of edges previously relegated to a kind of historical limbo.

When Europeans first arrived in North America, between five and eight million indigenous people were already living there. But how did they come to be here? What were their agricultural, spiritual, and hunting practices? How did their societies evolve and what challenges do they face today? Eminent historians Theda Perdue and Michael Green begin by describing how nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers followed the bison and woolly mammoth over the Bering land mass between Asia and what is now Alaska between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago, settling throughout North America. They describe hunting practices among different tribes, how some made the gradual transition to more settled, agricultural ways of life, the role of kinship and cooperation in Native societies, their varied burial rites and spiritual practices, and many other features of Native American life. Throughout the book, Perdue and Green stress the great diversity of indigenous peoples in America, who spoke more than 400 different languages before the arrival of Europeans and whose ways of life varied according to the environments they settled in and adapted to so successfully. Most importantly, the authors stress how Native Americans have struggled to maintain their sovereignty--first with European powers and then with the United States--in order to retain their lands, govern themselves, support their people, and pursue practices that have made their lives meaningful. Going beyond the stereotypes that so often distort our views of Native Americans, this Very Short Introduction offers a historically accurate, deeply engaging, and often inspiring account of the wide array of Native peoples in America. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

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Illustrated in full color, with full-color & black-and-white photographs and maps. Each chapter of this striking survey of Native American life begins in a uniquely appropriate way: with a dramatic, double-page painting showing the dwelling of a particular tribe. From a Zuni adobe pueblo to an Iroquois communal long house, paintings introduce the reader to the book's eight chapters covering the continent's eight regions and offer a comprehensive examination of the lifestyles of North America's native peoples. This splendid reference volume is enhanced by six essays by Native American contributors about their life today--a valuable feature that places the historical material in a contemporary context. A glossary, resource-guide sidebars on such topics as "how to read" a totem pole and the introduction of horses to North America, and over one hundred paintings, color photographs, and maps ensure that this book will rise above all others in bringing to life the world of the American Indian.

Illustrates and describes the lifestyles of the great Indian tribes that inhabited the continental United States

A reference guide to Native American history, culture, and life contains contributions by more than 260 experts, and includes articles on present-day community life, treaties, and the status of women