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This easy-to-read, interesting ethnographic study gives a picture of Wintun cultural life as it existed in pre-white times. A 17 x 22' color map of their territory is included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best Map of the Native Languages of North America
This is a wall-sized version of the map accompanying volume 17 "Language¨ of the Handbook of North American Indians, the multivolume series produced by the Smithsonian Institution. It is by far the most detailed, accurate, and comprehensive map available of the location of distribution of the many native languages of North America. Most maps of North America as a whole show only major languages or even just language families. The more detailed maps cover only particular regions. I just wish this map could be purchased laminated. ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1958, THE SOUTHEAST IN EARLY MAPS is William Cumming's classic study of the mapping of the Southeast before the American Revolution. By analyzing printed and manuscript maps of the area in the light of other contemporary primary documents, the book traces the expansion of geographical knowledge about the Southeast over the course of its discovery and colonization. 24 color and 100 b&w illustrations. ... Read more

Product Description
The Canadian subarctic is a world of forest, prairie, andmuskeg; of rainbow trout, moose, and caribou; of Indian hunters and trappers.It is also a world of boomtowns and bars, oil rigs and seismic soundings; ofwhite energy speculators, ranchers, and sports hunters. Brody came to thisdual world with the job of "mapping" the lands of northwest British Columbiaas well as the way of life of a small group of Beaver Indians with a viable hunting economy living in the path of a projected oil pipeline. The result is Mapsand Dreams, Brody's account of his extraordinary eighteen-month journeythrough the world of a people who have no intention of vanishing into the past.In this beautifully written book, readers go on a moose hunt; trap beaver;mourn at a funeral; drink in white bars; visit camps, cabins, and traplines bypickup truck, on horseback, and on foot. Brody's powerful commentary alsoretraces the history of the ever-expanding white frontier from the firsteighteenth-century explorer to the wildest corporate energy dreams of thepresent day. In the process, readers see how Indian dreams and white dreams,Indians maps and white maps, collide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Brilliant Writing -- Timeless Perspective
I usually eschew much associated with Canadian History. Canadians, like Australians, have an exagerated sense of their own importance in the world. Most of the literature from Canada, especially on native peoples either is very particular or waxes wildly about such things as noble indians with a mystical, yet undefined attachement to their land. Such analysis does nothing either for the First Nations peoples or the whites that might be trying to understand them.

It takes of course a Brit like Hugh Brody to really tell Canadians what exactly that connection is with the land. Sometimes mysterious, sometimes just simply empathetic, from hunting practises to the function of dreams in Beaver culture, Brody descibes in a combination of narrative and anecdotal evidence the beauty of the Beaver People in North Eastern British Columbia.

While the context is noticably Canadian (the Canadian and British govts. never waged war against the Indians in the same way the US did) the lessons are truly timeless and something that one can take away and extroplate on other social problems and situations. The economics of the attachment to the land are well detailed - that is the function of the maps. Brody shows that there is a clear link, palpable and real, to the land and it is hard to argue with him.

One personal thing I would add is that having camped and hunted in this region with my father, Brody's prose are so evocative that I could at times feel the bite in the fall air, the smoke from fires around the village and the wide sweeps of gravel in the wild rivers and creeks teaming with trout. Brody writes extremely well and on the strength of his prose alone I am looking to add more or his titles on native peoples to my reading list.

When Dreams Collide
The Big Boys planned to build a pipeline from Alaska down to the US Midwest, bringing energy from source to consumer.The line had to cross some hundreds of miles of British Columbia, over land that had once belonged exclusively to Indians, but which had already been invaded by trappers, sport hunters, ranchers, oil and gas explorers, loggers, drillers, and the beginnings of suburbia.By some miracle, somebody thought that it might be a good idea to see what the Indians thought about this.It seems they had never been consulted up to then.Treaties had been made, then subverted---the old North American pattern.In general, nobody had paid much attention to the Indians of northeastern British Columbia.It was believed that their way of life was kaput, that they were all alcoholics living on welfare, and that they hadn't kept their traditions.It seems they had been living for centuries in an "energy corridor" without a viable way of life.But now they were seriously in the way.Enter Hugh Brody, a British anthropologist.

In MAPS AND DREAMS, Brody accomplishes the near impossible.He writes a marvelously sensitive, interesting report, incorporating such often-boring details as hunting and land use maps, and accounts of meetings.Not only does he show that the culture of the Athapaskan Indians was alive in 1979, he allows them to speak, describes the land use situation from their point of view, and connects their economy with their culture and daily lives.His book is at once a report, an answer to those who had written off the Indians, and a readable work of anthropology.White man's dreams of ever bigger projects, ever more exploitation of the land, he says so exactly, "are the most established carcinoma of the North American imagination".They are ever poised to crush the Indian dreams.The Indian dreams, of how to find game, how to find their way to Heaven, stand in the way of the white man's maps---the maps that show where to put the pipeline, where to drill, where to stake out more claims.Both the Indian maps on paper, which showed how they used the land and their traditional dream maps, showing the way to the Beyond, stood in the way of the white man's dreams.A few thousand souls against the tide of Western visions of "progress". We don't find out what happened, but it wasn't looking hopeful. Different maps, different dreams.For good anthropology, for deeper understanding of the problems of the Far North, for just a fascinating book, you can do a lot worse than read MAPS AND DREAMS.

An Eloquent Argument for Co-existence
I came to this book in an effort to understand how First Peoples adaptedto the landscape they live in.Mr. Brody eloquently presents the people,their land, and their inherited way of life.It is heartbreaking to readhow their claims to this way of life have been ignored in the past hundredyears under the impact of colonization. I lived in this area as a childand it is difficult to describe the impact of this book - it presentsaspects of experience so many in our inherited colonial culture wish toeither eradicate or to ignore.This book is a powerful indictment of theway the people and the land in this province have been abused.

can we understand?
Maps and dreams is a special book. As the lector, we can understand a reality that is far from us. The writter give us the chance to know somme people by is experience. He also explain the politic context in which thispeople lives and why they have somme specials demands for theircommunauties. The book is not perfect, but he propose to the lector aseries of questions that only the lector could answer or the autochtonesthemselves. ... Read more

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Find out how the Aztec, Maya, Mixtecs, Tarascans and Olmecs lived - explore the excitement of the sacred ballgame, the cult of violence, the drama of ritual sacrifice, and the sacred culture of the land of the sun god. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting information
I picked this book just as a fun read, because it was new at the time and written by a major author on the subject. It was really well done and it seemed more or a picture book than written book. Perfect for my first archeology casual read.

This is not really meant to be a complaint, just an observation. Parts of it was hard to read because there was a lot of information about who came from where. Of course that had to be a part of it, but when you're trying to read it, it all runs together. xyz came from xzy and on and on. Since the nouns of the different peoples and locations are all from another language, it was really hard to follow. There were plenty of maps but still hard to follow.

The other thing I noticed about reading it was how many other questions I still had, which wasn't answered. For example, it comes to mind that I would have liked to know more about Cortez. But then, that wasn't the focus of the book. This book is about the everyday life. I guess I'll read another book.

All in all a very well done book about---the title says it all. Some of the information was amazing and fascinating. ... Read more

Product Description
A 21-1/2 x 27-1/2" map of North America displaying the boundaries of hundreds of Native American tribes.Rivers and lakes are indicated in blue.Originally published to accompany Volume 38 of the series University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology (1939), the map was so useful that it was made available on its own as University of California Map Series No. 13.Longitude and latitude lines are printed on the ocean regions.
The map is printed on medium-weight white paper.The "cover image" displaying on this web page is a sample section of the map and represents about 1/16th of the complete map.The map ships by itself (no case/cover), folded.
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Customer Reviews (3)

You are there
This is a marvelous treasure trove of information that you usually only get snippets from in introductions or read about in passing during story telling time.

There are 44 different ways to look at the same Zuni region. Each with a map and a definition.We see at any given time Traditional Zuni Agricultural Area, Grazing Area, Hunting Area, Plant Collection Area, Mineral Collection Area, Religious use Area, and much more there are sketches and monochrome photographs of structures, people, and areas.

I especial like the standard picture of Frank Hamilton Cushing in his version of Zuni garb.

This is truly an atlas and any you would use today and concentrates on the terrain but includes the Zuni migration and encounters with other people. The information is far too dense to be able to describe in a simple review.

The authors are T.J. Ferguson, Archaeologist, Pueblo of Zuni, and E. Richard Hart, historian and writer, and director of the institute of the American West.

This book is perfect for someone wanting to bet past the cursory information. It would be indispensable to anyone writing or talking or just understanding the area, its uses and history.

You are there
This is a marvelous treasure trove of information that you usually only get snippets from in introductions or read about in passing during story telling time.

There are 44 different ways to look at the same Zuni region. Each with a map and a definition.We see at any given time Traditional Zuni Agricultural Area, Grazing Area, Hunting Area, Plant Collection Area, Mineral Collection Area, Religious use Area, and much more there are sketches and monochrome photographs of structures, people, and areas.

I especial like the standard picture of Frank Hamilton Cushing in his version of Zuni garb.

This is truly an atlas and any you would use today and concentrates on the terrain but includes the Zuni migration and encounters with other people. The information is far too dense to be able to describe in a simple review.

The authors are T.J. Ferguson, Archaeologist, Pueblo of Zuni, and E. Richard Hart, historian and writer, and director of the institute of the American West.

This book is perfect for someone wanting to bet past the cursory information. It would be indispensable to anyone writing or talking or just understanding the area, its uses and history.

You are there
This is a marvelous treasure trove of information that you usually only get snippets from in introductions or read about in passing during story telling time.

There are 44 different ways to look at the same Zuni region. Each with a map and a definition.We see at any given time Traditional Zuni Agricultural Area, Grazing Area, Hunting Area, Plant Collection Area, Mineral Collection Area, Religious use Area, and much more there are sketches and monochrome photographs of structures, people, and areas.

I especial like the standard picture of Frank Hamilton Cushing in his version of Zuni garb.

This is truly an atlas and any you would use today and concentrates on the terrain but includes the Zuni migration and encounters with other people. The information is far too dense to be able to describe in a simple review.

The authors are T.J. Ferguson, Archaeologist, Pueblo of Zuni, and E. Richard Hart, historian and writer, and director of the institute of the American West.

This book is perfect for someone wanting to bet past the cursory information. It would be indispensable to anyone writing or talking or just understanding the area, its uses and history.
... Read more

Product Description
Monumental work includes demographics, linguistic relations, social structures, folkways, religion, material culture, more. Surveys of the Yurok, Pomo, Maidu, Yokuts and Mohave receiving most attention. A remarkable piece of organization and exposition. 479 illustrations. 40 maps.
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Customer Reviews (4)

An Enduring Classic
Certainly a tough slog if you're going to read it from cover to cover, Kroeber's Handbook of The Indians of California is still relevant nearly 100 years after its initial release by the Smithsonian.I'd enjoy reading this book, but I'm glad I finally did.No other single volume will give a similar overview of pre contact California civilization.

Outstanding ethnography, and still the best
California has the most culturally diverse Indian ethnography of any U.S. state. Since California habitats range from coastal near- rainforest to dry desert, the Indians have developed a wide range of cultural and technological innovations to deal with it. The linguistic relations are also complex and diverse, a particular interest of mine, and I thought Kroeber did a fine job of discussing this, too. Altogether, Kroeber spent 17 years compiling and writing this great work, and it shows.

Some of the tribes understandably receive more coverage than others, because little was known about them at the time. For example, the Wappo and Washo Indians only have four and half pages each in the book, but the Yokuts section has 70 pages, but this is understandable given the original publication date of 1925 by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Since then, our knowledge of many of the tribes has become significantly greater, or at least less sketchy, but you'll have to consult other sources for that.

One notable thing about the book is the photos of various individuals, most of which could probably not be obtained today--such as the picture of the "Karok man in warrior custume in rod armor and helmut," or the "Hupa (man) measuring dentalium money against tattoos on his forearm," two truly quite striking photographic portrayals.

Despite its deficiencies (which are still modest considering how old it is), this still ranks as the best compendium of knowledge about California Indians, and one of the greatest ethnographies ever written.

On a personal note, I thought I'd mention I had Kroeber's son, Ted, as my psychological statistics professor at San Francisco State back in the mid-70's. Although I never had the opportunity to meet the father, Ted was a really cool psych. prof., and I enjoyed his class. He said his father would often tell him and his sister Ursula (Ursula LeGuin, who became a famous science fiction author), stories about the Indians when they were children, and he would occasionally regale us with stories about his famous father in class, which helped to break up the necessary discipline and technical rigors of a statistics class.

A Lasting Record
Alfred Kroeber deserves admiration as one of those men who ensured that our knowledge of Native American peoples would not be lost.He is perhaps best known as the friend of Ishi and, sometimes, for his concept of"culture" as "superorganic", but it is this work that Ifeel is his most lasting contribution.

Though some of the information hasbeen corrected by subsequent researchers (checking Kroeber's work againstmore recent publications is reasonable), the Handbook remains useful toanyone who wants an overview or details about the numerous peoples whoinhabited the state before the coming of the Spanish in 1769.

WhereKroeber is sketchiest is, of course, where the peoples had beenexterminated before his investigations began shortly after the turn of thecentury.His work on the Yokuts and the Mojave, on the other hand, isextensive and helps us to understand some of the culture of their nowmissing neighbors.He has left no people unaccounted for.Thanks to thisvolume, interest in the California Indians has been stimulated for all timeand with that interest has come a desire to preserve.

All Californiahistory lovers and anthropologists need this book on their shelves.

Not worth the price
The content of this book is EXCELLENT.However, the "hardcover" version is just a hard cover slapped on OVER the paperback--not worth the extra $100+. ... Read more

Product Description
This is more than a book of poetry. Joy Harjo travels through many worlds, across many boundaries. Mvskoke tribal song and storytelling, Navajo and Hawaiian philosophies, the music of the Middle East, and the poetry of western civilizations can all be heard in these songs and stories that bear witness to the cruelties of history and the miracles of human kindness at the border between this century and the next. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Get out the map
What an incredible collection! This collection of poems and autobiographical stories is full of politics, poignant observations, philosophies, all to an indigenous beat, and all bearing witness to the madness of our world. And especially to the atrocities done in this world, past and present. By letting us see through her eyes, Harjo makes the politics personal, and brings the novice reader into her fiery views, making us feel and see in different ways. I was most affected by the prose stories between the poems. And judging by the other reviews, this isn't even Harjo's best work overall!

More personal (individual) less universal
I am fond of all Harjo's works - printed or recorded; I was surprised, then, when this volume left me less satisfied than usual with her work.Her writings have moved from poetry to poetry and prose poems to this book subtitled poems and tales - some of the tales are more essay than tale.Looking specifically at the essays, I realized why I was less satisfied with this book:her work is more personal, more self revealing in a way which makes it less universal.But one of the real strengths in much of her writting is that she writes of the particular - her Native American cultural background - in a way that makes it ring as true experience, as universal truth.

Once I recognized this shift and read A Map to the Next World with a mind set closer to how I would read confessional poetry, I began to appreciate some of the pieces I first considered weaker in a more favorable light - for example, the design of light and dark - an essay on snap judgment based on hue of skin.The piece Returning from the Enemy is a very strong autobiographical piece alternating prose and poetry - the former being individual and personal, the latter being more universal.The alternation of the two build upon each other as fact and truth ... an thus built a splendid foundation for understanding both the truth of Joy Harjo's life as well as truth of all our lives.

Her poetry has strong and wonderful images - from Songs from the House of Death, Or How to Make It Through to the End of a Relationship comes "I run my tongue over the skeleton / jutting from my jaw. I taste / the grit of heartbreak".

As usual, Joy Harjo is a master worth reading; this book simply requires a slight adjustment in effort of understanding.

A review from a New York reader
In A Map to the Next World Joy Harjo offers a powerful insight into her culture, rooted in profound spirituality. At the same time her words demolish the artificial boundaries between many worlds - physical,religious and cultural - mapping dynamic interchanges in a universaldimension. In a similar manner, her poems interact with the prose piecesthat follow. Such a format gives the reader an opportunity to listen to thepoet's own comments, the lucid and fluid process of her thoughts, theexperience from which the poem was written. The poetic voice and theautobiographical"I" thus become the poet and the storytellerwho interact with each other, adding a new layer to the poem - that of aspoken word, in her best native tradition. A Map to the Next World has thelyrical, visionary fire and original poetic technique of the previous booksby Harjo. However, this new collection opens up a larger picture of herworld: it articulates "the intricate context of history andfamily" (p.31), in which destruction and redemption lead to "thevery act of our beautiful survival" (p.51). Once again, Joy Harjo isbearing witness of her journey toward acceptance, wisdom and wholeness, inan outstanding poetic form.

The Essential Native Woman
There is not a more vital, imaginative, or creative Native writer than Joy Harjo being published today. She writes with such brutal honesty and lyrical clarity, that I come away from reading her works with goosebumps. Reading Joy Harjo is like standing out in the desert in an electricalstorm. Her newest work, "A Map to the Next World," takes thereader inside the psyche of the Native woman.I have heard her read thepiece, "The Power of Never," for example.It is one of thoserare pieces which has the power to change your mind, to transform the wayyou view your world and your attitude toward it. If you would like tohave insight into the mind of one of the major figures on the literaryscene today, you should buy "A Map to the Next World," and send acopy to a friend, and recommend it to another as I did. As a friend saidto me recently, "Joy Harjo is the real deal."And I can tell youfor fact...this is true.

Phil Hall, Executive Director Nizhoni Bridges,Inc.

Personal Work w/ Philosophical Wisdom to Live By
Though I was sometimes bothered by all the first-name references to the poet's friends and family as Harjo relates autobiographical stories and discoveries, I found much beauty in the personal history of a woman whosework I respect and admire. Harjo does not pretend to know the answers toall the important questions; instead she ponders along with the rest of us,sometimes in awe, sometimes in fear, and always with those words of wisdomthat comes from a seasoned observer and storyteller. This is a gem of abook that grows on you. ... Read more

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Excellent Atlas Exploring the Native American Experience
Historical atlases have long been prized reference tools for historians of the American West. They permit a wealth of information to be depicted on each page and the maps included in them have the ability to communicate not only stark spatial features but also a wide range of other types of historical detail. Francis Paul Prucha's "Atlas of American Indian Affairs" is a most welcome addition to this aspect of historical study. Long a leading historian of the Indian experience in America, Prucha now captures with great comprehension the spatial dimensions of both the historical and contemporary events of Native Americans.

This atlas consists of 109 maps divided into ten individual sections and presented chronologically. Collectively they illustrate quite well the westward movement of the Indian frontier in the nineteenth century and the continued importance of Indian ethnicity in the Twentieth. There are maps relating to tribal lands and culture areas, census information, land cessions, reservations, the Indian experience in different regions of America, the Indian wars, and cultural aspects such as Indian agency locations, Indian schools, and Indian hospitals. Prucha has kept the narrative in this book to a minimum--including only a short preface, introductory statement to each of the ten major sections, and an outstanding explanation of themes in explanatory references at the end of the book. The philosophy that less is more paid off in this book as the individual maps are generally quite easy to understand and pack a wealth of information. For example, I was especially interested to follow chronologically Indian population statistics as compiled in the census from 1890 through 1980, as well as urban Indian populations between 1960 and 1980. The growth and diffusion of American Indians throughout the continental United States during the period since World War II was especially intriguing.

For all that such a capable work as this has to recommend it, maps intrinsically have limitations. Only so much information can be displayed both in any given map and in any atlas. The question of what topics to cover, the amount of data to include, and how best to display it for ready interpretation are challenging issues. Overall, Prucha has done a commendable job of this. ... Read more

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Place names are cultural artifacts that tell us as much about how people lived as do relics dugs from the ground.They are historical records from which the location and migration of people, plants, and animals can be charted.Virgil Vogel's thirty years of research into Native American influence on geographical names has resulted in an absorbing account that illuminates the history and culture of Wisconsin Indians. ... Read more

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The New York State Museum is pleased to be able to offer Robert E. Funk’s classic work Archaeological Investigations In The Upper Susquehanna Valley, New York State Volume 1. This volume presents the results of a decade-long multidisciplinary research program on the prehistory in the Upper Susquehanna. Over 20 sites were excavated, many with repeated occupations of the Archaic and Woodland periods. The project added a vast body of information about the prehistoric occupation and environmental history of the region. The various chapters cover the project’s research design, environmental contexts, background information on European contact, and synthetic treatments of the project’s results.

This is a critical volume for understanding the human and environmental history of New York and the broader Middle Atlantic and New England regions. ... Read more

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At one time, Dane County in Wisconsin had more than 1,500 effigy mounds. Despite attempts to preserve them, as many as 80 percent were destroyed by agricultural practices and urban expansion. This self-guided tour booklet chronicles the history of earthen mound building, outlines past preservation efforts, and locates and describes 20 mounds accessible to the public. The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation contributed toward the cost of producing this booklet. A map is included. ... Read more

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In many North American indigenous cultures, history and stories are passed down, not by the written word, but by oral tradition. In Maps of Experience, Andie Diane Palmer draws on stories recorded during travels through Secwepemc ? or Shuswap ? hunting and gathering territory with members of the Alkali Lake Reserve in Interior British Columbia. Palmer examines how the various kinds of talk allow knowledge to be carried forward, reconstituted, reflected upon, enriched, and ultimately relocated by and for new interlocutors in new experiences and places.

Maps of Experience demonstrates how the Secwepemc engagement in the traditional practices of hunting and gathering create shared lived experiences between individuals, while recreating a known social context in which existing knowledge of the land may be effectively shared and acted upon. When the narratives of fellow travellers are pooled through discursive exchange, they serve as what can be considered a ?map of experience,? providing the basis of shared understanding and social relationship to territory. Palmer?s analysis of ways of listening and conveying information within the Alkali Lake community brings new insights into indigenous language and culture, as well as to the study of oral history, ethnohistory, experimental ethnography, and discourse analysis.

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Josh Strickland spends the summer working with his cousins in East Texas. At a mysterious garage sale, Josh buys a cowboy hat that has something hidden inside a map. Could the map lead him to a dead mans treasure? ... Read more