Rating: 
Summary: Very Helpful Resource
Review: "Atlas of the North American Indian" has been a very helpful resource in my studies of American tribes. I have endeavored in the past few years to create a comprehensive map of North American tribes at the point in which they were first discovered by those of European descent. This book by Carl Waldman has been extremely important in getting the information needed to further my project. Thank-you Mr. Waldman for writing such an informative work.
Rating:
Summary: Top reference source, a must-have for schools and libraries
Review: This is the Atlas every school (college and university) library should have. Most classroom teachers and all who asssume the resonsibility of any kind of Native American studies .
Although it has a good deal of Canadian material and maps, I am less certain how well it compares to Native atlas sources that might be available from Canadian publishers, lacking such comparisons, I can still say it is a fine source for those educators who wish to give an indignous overview perspective.
As to be expected in an atlas, maps are the heart of the visual presentations of data. These maps are black outlines and hatchings, most often on brownish colored ground. All except for a few big 2-page spreads will photocopy all right for class handouts (though white backgrounds would have been preferable). They are well labeled. Braun, a former real-property cartographer, has followed (and used many of the maps from) the classic renditions of Massey and Driver, to present physiographic features and cultural technologies of the pre-contact cultures. (The Massey-Driver maps are the only ones that are credited to a source, though I recognized sources for most of the others.) She reproduces only a few old maps, and those mostly for illustration. The analytic maps are clear, accurate outlines, and include (for the U.S.) present-day reservations, land claims (U.S. claims commission), cessions, and many maps summarizing historical and cultural data. For Canada, maps show all treaties in outline, but for present-day settlements, there is only the Canadian National Atlas Service folding map mess of some 2,400 specks, without even the numbers that correlate these with some 600 bands. Canadian Reserve maps are still wanting. In addition to maps and many black-and-white illustrations, a text divided into 7 chapters gives coherence to the histories and cultures. Chapter 1 covers very ancient times, prehistoric and (in the Beringia theory) conbtroversial among some of today's Natives who want to reject all migration theories in favor of cultural-religious accounts of tribal origins. This section is marred by uncritical acceptance of "Sandia man" now widely (and with many good reasons) regarded as an academic hoax. Ancient Civilizations covers those of Meso America, the southwest, and the Adena-Hopewell-Mississippian mound builders. Missing: Inuit-circumpolar. Chapter 3 covers pre-contact culture areas, which examines lifeways, population density (noting the controversy there), and how art, technology, transportation, shelter, etc. grew in relation to the physical conditions of the various areas. Chapter 4 deals with early contacts, primarily in North America, concentrating on the fur trade. (Mexico and cultures south are abandoned at this point.) Chapter 5 deals with Indian wars, from the Powhattan wars in what's now the U.S. through the Riel rebellions in late 19th-century Canada. Land cessions are covered in chapter 6. Chapter 7 covers concemporary Indian peoples in the U.S. and Canada, and includes interesting map-based analyses of Indian activism.
A 50-page appendix includes a chronology of important events, listings of tribes and bands of the U.S. and Canada with both historic and contemporary locations, a listing of places with Native names (U.S. and Canada), and a listing of museums and archaeological sites in both countries. A short (2-page) bibliography and an inadequate index complete the work, whose usefulness would have been improved by a "table of descriptions" for all the maps, as well as more complete sources for all of them.
Maps are catregorized by the authors as Historical, Military, Cultural, Contmporary, and Period, but the physiographic maps of Driver and Massey form a category themselves, and the maps are not tabulated or described except in their captions. Waldeman, the principal author, is former archivist for the New York State Historical Association, an amateur historian, and his wife is more an illustrator than a professional cartographer. -- Reviewed by Paula Giese (Native American Books, http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/books/bookmenu.html)
Rating:
Summary: Exhaustive
Review: A very good manual of information gathered on Native American culture. It has various chapters devoted to just plain loads of facts and figures and addresses and information on the North American Native Indian. I do not use it to read from cover to cover, but use it as a reference manual. I get lost in the amount of information.......
Rating:
Summary: An invaluable, information rich, historical survey.
Review: Carl Waldman's Atlas Of The North American Indian appears in a revised edition blending maps and illustration with a survey of the history, culture, languages and lives of American Indians groups. Most illustration is in black and white, with invaluable articles packing the presentation.
Rating:
Summary: An invaluable, information rich, historical survey.
Review: Carl Waldman's Atlas Of The North American Indian appears in a revised edition blending maps and illustration with a survey of the history, culture, languages and lives of American Indians groups. Most illustration is in black and white, with invaluable articles packing the presentation.
Rating:
Summary: well done
Review: Excellent reference handbook and easy to read. 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Second great book by this author that I've rated 5 stars
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Book that tells/graphs the story without bias.
Review: Highly recommended due to it's unbiased reporting of a long and very complex subject. It professionally avoids all the syrupy PC sentimentalism of the 90s "diversity" campaigns. Just the facts, figures, graphs, and awesome maps!! Refreshing break from all the extreme-leftist propaganda out there. Highly recommended for secondary teachers studying for the SS Praxis and SS SSAT Exams.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference work on North American Indian Nations
Review: I bought this book because I needed to have a clearer geographical picture on the North American Indian Nations covered by "500 Nations" (the TV-series and the CD-ROM). What I got is a lot more than I expected! The title "Atlas..." is truly an understatement! This book covers the geography, the social and historical issues involved in the genesis and evolution of these Great Nations! If you're looking for a very extensive reference work on the North American Indian Nations, buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Well-Organized, Informative, and Comprehensive
Review: I have always had an interest in the Native American history and tradition. I have bought several books in the past and been upset that they either seem to misrepresent the Indians or were too stereotypical. This book is not like that at all. In fact, this is one of the most informative, accurate and indispensable books that I have read regarding the Native American. The book covers almost every (if not every) Native American tribe known. Moreover, this book not only delineates their culture, locations, skills, history, etc., but it provides a chronology of prehistory and history of the Native American in one of the book's 7 appendices. This text provides the reader with information and facts about the ancient Indians, Geography (great maps), the art and technology, and even their clothing and transportation. This is definitely an invaluable tool for those who simply want to gain a greater understanding of Native Americans, or those who actually want to do some more serious research.
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