Atlas of the North American Indian | 
|  | | | Title: | Atlas of the North American Indian | | Author: | Carl Waldman
Molly Braun (Illustrator) | | Publisher: | Checkmark Books | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | March, 2000 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0816039755 / 9780816039753 | | List Price: | $21.95 | | You Save: | $7.02 | | Amazon Price: | $14.93 | |
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Product Description
Combining clear, informative text with a wealth of maps and illustrations, this unique resource offers the most comprehensive coverage available in a single volume on the history, culture, languages, and lifeways of Native American groups across North America.
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Customer Reviews:
• A Complete And Useful Guide 09 April, 2006
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]
- Reviewed by customer ID: AJDYDG7YZY9QL
• Good Info, Well Organized 03 September, 2005
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.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A306W3JTJRMP4R
• North American Indian Research 06 January, 2007
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.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A27XWMR70GNCL2
• Thoroughly Written 21 January, 2008
Very well researched and written book! If you are interested in Native American past and cultures, this is a great resource.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1JBQ0VLCCWSLF
• Second Great Book By This Author That I've Rated 5 Stars 20 April, 2004
Great maps explained by easy to understand text passages are the hallmarks of this user friendly and highly informative, not to mention interesting, book. I'm very impressed by Carl Waldman's work, which is characterised not by fawning apologias but by respectful insightful investigatory analysis.
- Reviewed by customer ID: APZYHMZX5GDOF
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