Encyclopedia of North American Indians : Native American History, Culture, and Life From Paleo-Indians to the Present

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic reference work
Review: "Encyclopedia of the North American Indians" is probably one of the best reference works of its type for any subject. The entries are clear, concise and highly informative and there are a large number of useful photographs and illustrations. It covers all relevant subject areas connected to the Native Americans: history, literature, culture, customs and language, politics and contemporary issues. By itself it is a highly informative book, yet it also serves as a vehicle for further study of more specific subject matter; in this sense, it is very helpful that all entries include the names of their authors and that biographical information is also provided. The further reading lists are also very helpful. Anyone even remotely interested in Native Americans has to have this valuable resource on his/her bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: A fine reference.
Review: I don't know that it is exhaustive; I'm sure that there is information one might want that isn't to be found here, although I can't think of any examples off the top of my head. And I can't vouch for its veracity; I haven't the competence in the subject matter. Certainly, it is a marvellous reference for someone like me, who has little other knowledge of the subject, and wants a place to begin in gaining such knowledge.

The style of the entries varies considerably, as one might expect of a book that is a collection of entries by various authors; some of them seem very straightforward and mainstream in their approach, others are clearly written by activists seeking to balance centuries of European-oriented history with their own opposite cultural perspective. All are at least reasonably well-written, however, and quite enlightening.

Rating:
Summary: An invaluable reference for Native American studies.
Review: Over 260 contemporary authorities on North America's original inhabitants and their descendants make this encyclopedia truly worthy of the name. Contributors are themselves from a wide variety of Indian nations. Typical entry titles are "Food and Cuisine", "Jim Thorpe", "Origins", "Urban Indians", and "Women". An invaluable reference for any library, or for that matter an individual who wants to take that first step into researching their own Native American Roots as did one individual who attention I brought this item to. I have a back ground in Library and information studies with two advance degrees in that area which I think makes me feel qualified to say that everything that one wants is not on line and 20 years from now when the world have become gridlock with electronic noise which is really nothing more than useless or worse yet incorrect or misleading electronic information this could still sitting on your self. One of the things I like to do is test drive a reference tool by asking a typical reference question which I say with kind of smirk knowing that the only typical reference question is directional and the answer involves pointing down the hall to the men's or women's rest room. So since I lived for many years in South Central Wisconsin I have decided to find more About the Black Hawk wars since the route of the retreat for Chief Black Hawk was through what was to become 13 years later the University Of Wisconsin Campus. Since the item is arranged in dictionary format (With many Illustrations and photographs, and Maps) I simply turn to page 76-77-78 to a signed article by Roger Nichols of the University of Arizona. Marktaineshekiakiak 1767-1838 (Sauk War Leader and Spokesman): The article is concisely written on level which would make it accessible to a high school student but at the same time useful to a graduate student who might chose to use the article as an access point to a much wider area of Interest as would be my case due to my interest in both social economic and military history as in it starts with the individual and moves to the broad social an economic context. Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life from Paleo-Indians to the Present in addition supplies multiple access points through a general index; cross references, and in many cases furthers reading lists. Since I have written for number Encyclopedias over the years I most particularly like the idea of the articles being signed and the contributors being listed. Really a good reference tool works like The sighting scope on a large telescope: it bring you into an large And you can focus with as much detail as the granularity of the data will allow. I once wrote a paper on that but that another story. 756 Pages, Appendix, Index Maps, B/W Photographs, Paintings, Drawings.

Phil Kavney, Reviewer