Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : America Before It Was “America”

Chapter 1: The Rich, Troubled Past of the American Indian

The Price of Greatness

In the Beginning . . .

The Tribes of Then and Now

Unexpected Visitors

A Plethora of Persistent Personalities

War Stories

Dysfunction Junction

Daily Life

Home Is Where the Hearth Is

Family First

Language Lab

Pray Tell

Rituals

Christian Indians

The Indian Population Decline . . . and Hope for the Future

Native American Identity Today

A Bright Future

Chapter 2: The Great Migrations

How’d Everyone Get Here Anyway?

The Three Immigration Waves

The Stages of the Earliest Americans

Chapter 3: The Development of the Ancient Cultures

Clovis, Folsom, and Plano (11,500 b.c. )

Adena and Hopewell (1000 b.c. – a.d. 1000)

Hohokom and Mogollon ( a.d. 200 – 1450)

Chapter 4: Hardly a Vast Wasteland: America before 1492

Taking Advantage of Vast Resources

Cultural Diversity That Was Hardly Primitive

Debunking Pre-Columbian Stereotypes

Chapter 5: Settling Down: Tribal Settlements after the Great Migrations

The Major Culture Areas

The Arctic and the Subarctic

The Eastern Woodlands

The Southeast

The Plains

The Southwest

The Great Basin and Plateau

The Pacific Northwest

California

Chapter 6: The Five Civilized Tribes

What’s in a Name — a Tribal Name

Choctaw: The First Code Talkers

Cherokees and the Trail of Tears

Chickasaw: They Were Called Warriors

Creek

Seminole: The Unconquered People

Chapter 7: A Tally of Important Tribes

Navajo: “The People”

Lakotas, Nakotas, and Santee

Chippewa: We are Anishinabe

Pueblo: The First Apartment Buildings

Apache: Uncertain Origins

Iroquois: Call Us Haudenosaunee

Alaska: The Tlingit

Part II : Interacting with Others

Chapter 8: “Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue”

Sifting through Fact and Fiction

Columbus’s First Voyage (1492–1493)

Wiping Out the Welcoming Arawaks

Columbus’s Three Other Voyages

The Impact of Christopher Columbus

Chapter 9: The Spanish and French Stake Their Claims

John Cabot: England’s First Steps in the New World

Amerigo Vespucci: America’s Namesake

Pónce de León: Conquering the Tainos

Hernándo Cortés: Conquering the Aztecs

Jacques Cartier: Discovering Canada and the Great Lakes

Hernando De Soto: Creating Hostile Relations with Southeastern Natives

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado: Exploring the Southwest

Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle: Charting the Mississippi

Leaving the Native People Reeling

Chapter 10: Native American Chiefs and Notable Women

Men of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Men of the 18th Century

The 19th Century

Notable Indian Women: Not Stay-At-Wigwam Ladies

Chapter 11: Battle Cries and Peace Pipes

Weapons of Choice

War Parties Weren’t No Parties

The Colonial Era from 1621–1775

The American Revolution (1775–1783)

The Indian View of the American Revolution

The Louisiana Purchase

The War of 1812

Native Americans in the Civil War (1861–1865)

The Indian Wars

Native Americans in America’s 20th-Century Wars

Chapter 12: Delving into the Details of U.S.-Indian Relations

Tribal Sovereignty

Treaties (1608–1830)

Removal (1830–1850)

Reservations (1850–1871)

Assimilation (1871–1928)

Reorganization (1928–1942)

Termination (1943–1968)

Self-Determination (1961–present)

Major Recent Acts of Congress Concerning Indians

Part III : Working for a Living

Chapter 13: Mother Love

A Mother Feeds Her Children

Food on Four Legs

Making Good Use of Rich and Fertile Land

Seeking Seafood

Skins: The Lucrative Fur Trade

Chapter 14: Dressing for Purpose and Pride

Native Garb

Ceremonial Garb

Native American Accessories

Traditional Dress Today

Chapter 15: Home, Native Home

Wooden Homes

Tipis

Other Indian Dwellings

The Earliest Apartment Buildings

Native American Housing Today

The Mohawk Steelworkers

Chapter 16: Tools and Transportation

Hunting and Trapping

Carrying the Load

Travel Plans

Part IV : All in the (Native American) Family

Chapter 17: Tribes, Clans, and Bands

Coming to Terms in Indian Society

Men Ruled the Roost? Hardly

The Role of Women

Children

Chapter 18: Native Languages

An Impossible Question?

The Slow Extinction of Native Languages

Sign Language

Little Written Down?

Language As (the White Man’s) Weapon

Language As (the Native American) Weapon

Chapter 19: The Faith of Their Fathers . . . And How Native Americans Worship Today

In the Beginning . . . Native Peoples’ Creation Myths

The Elements and the Deities

Tools of the Spiritual Trade

The Totem Pole

Christian Indians? Not a Contradiction!

Part V : In a Modern World Not of Their Making

Chapter 20: The Slow Dwindling of Native Americans

Too Much to Defend Against

Defenseless Against Dastardly Diseases

Fighting

Starvation

Extermination

Today’s Challenges

Chapter 21: What’s a Tribe, Who’s an Indian, and What’s the BIA Got to Do With It

The Evolution of Indian Agencies

What It Takes to Be a Tribe

Chapter 22: Native Americans: Today and Tomorrow

An Indian By Any Other Name . . .

Repatriation: Resting in Peace

Native American Stats

Alcoholism and the Native American

Mineral Wealth and Offshore Banking: Native American Economic Bright Spots

The Top Ten Tribes Today

How Native Americans Ended Up in the Casino Business

Part VI : The Part of Tens

Chapter 23: Ten Native American Museums and Cultural Centers

The National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution; Washington, D.C., New York, Maryland)

The Indian Museum of North America (South Dakota)

The Museum of Indian Culture (Pennsylvania)

The Plains Indian Museum (Wyoming)

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (New Mexico)

The Anasazi Heritage Center (Colorado)

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian (North Carolina)

The Iroquois Indian Museum (New York)

The Mid-America All-Indian Center (Kansas)

The Wounded Knee Museum (South Dakota)

Also Worth Noting . . .

Chapter 24: Ten (Plus) Worthy Movies and Documentaries about Native Americans and Their History

Little Big Man (1970)

Powwow Highway (1989)

Dances with Wolves (1990)

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Christmas in the Clouds (2001)

Atanarjuat (2001)

The Native Americans (Documentary, 1994)

500 Nations (Documentary, 1995)

Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (Documentary, 1997)

Smoke Signals (1998)

Skins (2002)

Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native American (Documentary, 2003)

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006)