American Indian Places: A Historical Guidebook

by Frances H. Kennedy

Book Overview

In the spirit of The Civil War Battlefield Guide comes this all-in-one guide to American Indian places, featuring illuminating essays and contributions from leading Indian scholars. Two 8-page color... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395633362
• ISBN13: 9780395633366
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

"Perfect Gift"

I purchased this book as a gift. The customer reviews were extremely accurate. The book was a hit. Thank you!

Indispensable Guidebook to Native American Sites in the U.S.

Ok, first the standard disclaimer: I am one of the contributors of one short essay to this volume...so I won't review my own essay on Blood Run National Historic Landmark ;-) However, there are over 370 sites and essays from every region and every era of the United States in this encyclopediac volume, except for Alaska and Hawaii. The indigenous people of Hawaii are not counted as Native American; it is uncertain why the Native Americans of Alaska were not included. All the profits from this book are being donated to the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall, a part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The thing that strikes me is that each essay was written by a tribal member or scholar who is especially knowledgeable about, and connected to, the particular site they write about. The overall organization of the book is based on both geography and theme; each section is comprised of several feature essays focusing on the themes important to the regiopn, along with numerous short essays that are numbered and keyed to a map for easy location by the reader. Before getting into the regions, there are some introductory essays with a historic focus (precontact to 1900) that set the overall context for the book. The regions in general correspond to the usual culture areas of Plains, Southwest, etc., and are keyed to several maps breaking the U.S. into five areas corresponding to the five sections of the book. Section One focuses on 84 sites in the Northeast region, shown in this book as being north of the Ohio River, from the East Coast, westward to Minnesota and the Mississippi River. The feature essays include "Early Mound Builders," "Effigy Mound Builders," "Eastern North America," "King Philip's War," "The Fur Trade," "The Seven Year's War," "Fort Johnson, Johnson Hall, and the Anglo-Mohawk Alliance," "American Indians and the American Revolution," "Fort Stanwix, Oriskany Battlefield, and Newtown Battlefield," "Under Treaty Oaks: Lingering Shadows of Unfinished Business," "Manoominike: Making Wild Rice," "The Black Hawk War," "American Indian Boarding Schools," and "Reformers." Section Two focuses on 108 sites (#85-192) in the Southeast region, shown in this book as being from the East Coast westward to the Mississippi River, eastern Texas and Oklahoma. The feature essays include "Sacred Places and Visitor Protocols," "Florida's Native American Heritage," "Three Places in the Domain of the Calusa," "Mississippian: A Way of Life," "The Rise and Fall of the Mississippians," "Franciscan Design for the Native People of La Florida," "Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: The Forced Removal of the Cherokee," "Removal and Recovery," "Constitutional Government Among the Five Civilized Tribes," and "American Indians and the Civil War." Section Three focuses on 59 sites (#193-251) in the northern Prairie-Plains region, shown in this book as being from the Mississippi River area westward to the northern Rocky Mountain