Atlas of the North American Indian 
Product Description: - Atlas of the North American Indian, Third Edition chronicles the travel and experiences of Native Americans from the first voyage to North America to the present day. This new edition now features a bold full-color format and is bolstered by more than 120 full-color, detailed maps that cover important locations for American Indians, as well as highlighting their interactions with European colonists and other non-Native people. In addition, the updated text details the history, traditions, conflicts, land cessions, and contemporary ways of life for American Indians.This informative book is enhanced by more than 130 full-color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations of the people, places, and artifacts important in the history of Native America. Invaluable appendixes include a chronology of North American Native prehistory and history, a list of contemporary Indian nations in the United States, a list of contemporary Canadian First Nations, and a list of major Native place-names in the United States and Canada. A glossary, a bibliography, and an index are also included.
Customer Ratings: - Decent reference. this book is farely well written. The images are good, and the quality of the data is decent.
- Thoroughly written. Very well researched and written book! If you are interested in Native American past and cultures, this is a great resource.
- North American Indian Research. I am using this as part of my research to aid me with the series of paintings I am doing of North American Indians from the period 1850 through 1910. I found it interesting that of the paintings I have completed thus far, I often get asked by Native Americans if I have yet done any paintings of members of their tribes. This book helps with the geographical aspects of where my subjects may have been located at the time they lived.
- A complete and useful guide. A good resource for any student entering the field of North American Indian studies, this book is carefully organised and rendered. Waldman traces the many facets that have been used to explain who the North American Indians were, how they lived and where. The text is clear and direct, well-suited to the novice in this area of study. The wealth of maps and other illustrative material well supports the narrative, although space restrictions force a certain level of clutter at times.
Waldman opens the book with a description of how humans arrived in the Western Hemisphere. The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica, such as the Olmec and Maya are well summarised, before the author turns to the Southwest peoples - the Anasazi, Hohokan and Salado communities. He explains the often overlooked or poorly considered Moundbuilders of the Lower Midwest. The section on Indian Lifeways turns to areas like California, the Pacific Coast, and Subarcic regions. While these peoples didn t achieve the strongly hierarchical civilisations of Mesoamerica, their various social structures were complex and dynamic. Their economic systems allowed them to endure and they adapted well to change, something too often lacking in Mesoamerica. To a limited extent, the geography and environment hosting these people granted them the flexibility to maintain a dynamic society, even in precarious conditions.
One aspect of life they were poorly prepared for was the European intrusion. Waldman sets aside a section to introduce the problems introduced by European colonisation. The litany of wars and rebellions take up a hundred pages of the text. The accompanying maps showing battle sites sparkle with stars indicating clash sites. Some of these wars have almost disappeared from historical accounts of North American settlement. It s a good reminder of how the whites took over the hemisphere and what cost that hegemony extracted from the native population.
In time, war was replaced by Land Cessions and resettlement. The reservation system, never a fixed idea, is carefully explained by Waldman. The modern result of reservation communities and the ambivalent policies surrounding both the settlements and their populations gave rise to a new awareness among Indian people. The poor acknowledgement of Indian contributions in two world wars was but one of many irritants leading to uprisings at Wounded Knee and elsewhere. The author goes on to list major Indian government agencies and Indian organisations and facilities. Indian place names, often overlooked, are listed, with the modern nation structures for the US and Canada provided. In all, this book will be a firm base from which to expand a study of Indian circumstances for the future. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] - Good info, well organized. While I enjoy this book and its wealth of info and maps, it is a shame that the only map in color is on the cover. 4.5 stars.
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Atlas of the North American Indian (ID: 0816068585)
