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)