The Encyclopedia of Native America Book

North America has two histories. One starts with Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the "New World." The other starts millennia earlier, when a people began to spread across the vast continent, developing cultures and traditions as varied as the landscapes of North America. To truly understand one history, we must first know the other.

Divided into seven cultural and geographic areas, The Encyclopedia of Native America explores the vast cultural wealth of Native America, from the Northeast, home of the Iroquois League, which provided the writers of the United States Declaration of Independence with a blueprint for democracy, to the remarkable cliff dwellers of the Southwest, to the peoples of the Great Basin and Plateau, one of the continent's most rugged and harsh terrains, where every resource is dedicated to simple survival. We also see how these cultures withstood the devastating impact of European colonization and the always changing, always uneasy relationship between Indian and European peoples.

Drawing on a rich oral tradition of song, story, and legend, Native American scholar Trudy Griffin-Pierce tells of a history both ancient and ongoing, a saga of the rise and fall of nations and of remarkable leaders, from warriors chiefs to current activists fighting on the environmental, educational, and native rights fronts. Lavishly illustrated with paintings, photographs, and maps, this story is sung with Indian voices and seen through Indian eyes, a perspective that enables us to see America in a rich new light.

Divided into seven cultural and geographic areas, The Encyclopedia of Native America explores the vast cultural wealth of Native America, from the Northeast and the Iroquois league, to the Southwast and the cliff dwellers. Drawing on a rich oral tradition of song, story and legend, Pierce tells of a history both ancient and ongoing. Illustrations.