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In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians
This “flowing, lucid, and satisfying…story of Indian nations” ( The Washington Post ) traces the history of North American Indigenous peoples from the Pleistocene era to the present—a must-read for anyone wishing to gain a broader perspective on not only Native American history, but United States history in general.
Today, some two million American Indians inhabit the United States, less than one percent of the nation's population. Their origins have always been viewed from a 500-year-old perspective—from the point of view of the Europeans who “discovered” the New World. Yet the true story of the American Indians begins some seventeen thousand years ago—and it is past due for a telling that shows Indians as they are, rather than as westerners wish them to be.
Recent archaeological findings, newly discovered written accounts, and never-before-published records have contributed to a whole new understanding of our country's oldest ancestors. Drawing upon the latest research, as well as his own personal experience living among the Hopi tribes, acclaimed author and former Natural History magazine editor Jake Page covers all aspects of Indian life throughout the ages. From the Pleistocene era to Custer's Last Stand, the Trail of Tears to the Indian Civil Rights Act, the establishment of reservations to the negotiation of casino property, In the Hands of the Great Spirit reveals the astonishing endurance of a group of people whose experience is as varied as the world is old.
Today, some two million American Indians inhabit the United States, less than one percent of the nation's population. Their origins have always been viewed from a 500-year-old perspective—from the point of view of the Europeans who “discovered” the New World. Yet the true story of the American Indians begins some seventeen thousand years ago—and it is past due for a telling that shows Indians as they are, rather than as westerners wish them to be.
Recent archaeological findings, newly discovered written accounts, and never-before-published records have contributed to a whole new understanding of our country's oldest ancestors. Drawing upon the latest research, as well as his own personal experience living among the Hopi tribes, acclaimed author and former Natural History magazine editor Jake Page covers all aspects of Indian life throughout the ages. From the Pleistocene era to Custer's Last Stand, the Trail of Tears to the Indian Civil Rights Act, the establishment of reservations to the negotiation of casino property, In the Hands of the Great Spirit reveals the astonishing endurance of a group of people whose experience is as varied as the world is old.
480 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 2003
63 people are currently reading
1309 people want to read
About the author
Jake Page
68 books14 followersJake Page was a celebrated editor, science writer, and novelist who made complex topics accessible through wit and clarity. Though he never studied science formally, his role editing Natural History Books at Doubleday sparked a lifelong passion for explaining science to general readers. As science editor and columnist at Smithsonian magazine, he wrote with elegance and humor on a wide range of subjects, from aspirin to Zane Grey. Page authored dozens of books, including works on birds, earthquakes, and Native American history. His fascination with the American Southwest led to a mystery series featuring a blind sculptor-detective. Collaborating with his wife, photographer Susanne Anderson, he produced detailed cultural studies like Hopi and Navajo. His major nonfiction achievement, In the Hands of the Great Spirit, traces 20,000 years of American Indian history. Whether exploring anthropology or writing fiction, Page championed curiosity, clarity, and the belief that science was too important to remain only in expert hands.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
October 29, 2019
A few years ago I took a college level course dealing with history. I got into a dispute with the teacher about time lines. She refused to draw one for the class while I vehemently defended time lines, stating that they put things into perspective and helped students find their way through a confusing array of facts.
Well, we never got a time line and since she was the most beautiful teacher I've ever had, I was distracted enough during her lectures that the time line was forgotten, but I stand by its defense!
In this panoramic look at the situation of the first Americans who inhabited the New World from just after the last ice age right through the European discoveries and up to the present, Jake Page puts everything in place and makes the connections between the vast regions of the Americas.
Languages, lineage, inter-tribal conflict, cultural practices are all held up for view, starting with the great migration across the hundred-mile wide land bridge from Asia to North America.
Though I am a fan of native-American cultures, I was surprised to learn that the fierce warriors of the plains - the Sioux and the Cheyenne, came out of the forests of Minnesota where they were sedentary, and took up the life of horse-mounted nomads within only a couple of centuries before they were chased from the plains by the U.S. Cavalry. The tall-grass plains were essentially empty before then.
Migration pressure was underway before the pressure of whites from the east coast was felt, so it is wrong to think that native-Americans were all stable societies in place and undisturbed before the white man appeared. Quite the opposite, there were preexisting hatreds between tribes that whites were able to exploit to their own advantage when they arrived on the scene.
The re-introduction of the horse to the New World was the key factor in putting populations in motion, as mounted tribes found their range greatly expanded. Page even mentions the psychological high of suddenly being up on a horse racing over the land at speeds never thought possible by those limited to foot travel. It couldn't help but put ideas of power into the heads of the riders, just as the gun did with Europeans interacting with the Indians. Interestingly, it also degraded the status of women, who were reduced from relatively equal partners in tribal activities,to stay-at-home workers who accomplished the necessary drudge work, kept fires burning and clothing being made as male warriors competed for glory on horseback.
The reader is in for a journey through the mound sprinkled areas of the eastern part of North America in the time of their glory (check out Cahokia!), to the canal building culture of the Hohokam in what is now southern Arizona, to the pueblos of northern New Mexico and the maritime tribes of the Pacific Coast. The New World was far from an empty and untouched land.
You'll find an examination of the Spanish missionary movement and the efforts of the Conquistadors. The impact of disease is carefully assessed, that could easily kill 90 percent of a tribe even before white people were sighted. For full detail on this see Jared Diamond's excellent Guns, Germs and Steel.
Never boring, In the Hands of the Great Spirit is full of action and interesting information that any reader, whether a newcomer to native-American history or a devotee of it, will appreciate.
PS - for those interested in extra-terrestrial intelligence, consider the fact that of all the area of the earth, humanity appears to have originated at a specific place in Africa and the Americas remained empty of humans or pre-humans until only 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
My point is that conditions on Earth were obviously ripe for the rise of life (billions of years ago) and the rise of humanity (millions of years ago), yet the latter (and possibly the former) only happened in one place on this huge globe. So finding other planets that may approach conditions on Earth is hardly assurance that life, far less something like human life, would be found there.
Well, we never got a time line and since she was the most beautiful teacher I've ever had, I was distracted enough during her lectures that the time line was forgotten, but I stand by its defense!
In this panoramic look at the situation of the first Americans who inhabited the New World from just after the last ice age right through the European discoveries and up to the present, Jake Page puts everything in place and makes the connections between the vast regions of the Americas.
Languages, lineage, inter-tribal conflict, cultural practices are all held up for view, starting with the great migration across the hundred-mile wide land bridge from Asia to North America.
Though I am a fan of native-American cultures, I was surprised to learn that the fierce warriors of the plains - the Sioux and the Cheyenne, came out of the forests of Minnesota where they were sedentary, and took up the life of horse-mounted nomads within only a couple of centuries before they were chased from the plains by the U.S. Cavalry. The tall-grass plains were essentially empty before then.
Migration pressure was underway before the pressure of whites from the east coast was felt, so it is wrong to think that native-Americans were all stable societies in place and undisturbed before the white man appeared. Quite the opposite, there were preexisting hatreds between tribes that whites were able to exploit to their own advantage when they arrived on the scene.
The re-introduction of the horse to the New World was the key factor in putting populations in motion, as mounted tribes found their range greatly expanded. Page even mentions the psychological high of suddenly being up on a horse racing over the land at speeds never thought possible by those limited to foot travel. It couldn't help but put ideas of power into the heads of the riders, just as the gun did with Europeans interacting with the Indians. Interestingly, it also degraded the status of women, who were reduced from relatively equal partners in tribal activities,to stay-at-home workers who accomplished the necessary drudge work, kept fires burning and clothing being made as male warriors competed for glory on horseback.
The reader is in for a journey through the mound sprinkled areas of the eastern part of North America in the time of their glory (check out Cahokia!), to the canal building culture of the Hohokam in what is now southern Arizona, to the pueblos of northern New Mexico and the maritime tribes of the Pacific Coast. The New World was far from an empty and untouched land.
You'll find an examination of the Spanish missionary movement and the efforts of the Conquistadors. The impact of disease is carefully assessed, that could easily kill 90 percent of a tribe even before white people were sighted. For full detail on this see Jared Diamond's excellent Guns, Germs and Steel.
Never boring, In the Hands of the Great Spirit is full of action and interesting information that any reader, whether a newcomer to native-American history or a devotee of it, will appreciate.
PS - for those interested in extra-terrestrial intelligence, consider the fact that of all the area of the earth, humanity appears to have originated at a specific place in Africa and the Americas remained empty of humans or pre-humans until only 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
My point is that conditions on Earth were obviously ripe for the rise of life (billions of years ago) and the rise of humanity (millions of years ago), yet the latter (and possibly the former) only happened in one place on this huge globe. So finding other planets that may approach conditions on Earth is hardly assurance that life, far less something like human life, would be found there.
August 2, 2015
I've never before read a history book whose author had such a wry and self-deprecating sense of humor:
"not being witless, they . . . "
Regarding the inadvertent aspects of the invention of agriculture: "People living in more permanent sites would tend to disturb the ground underfoot, leading to colonization by opportunistic weedy plants (as every lawn tender knows)" (56).
"By 700 BC, whatever was going on at Poverty Point . . . "
Pre-maize horticulture: "Other plants that became widely cultivated, even domesticated, were goosefoot, a kin of lamb's-quarter, which provides edible seeds but also edible leaves; knotweed, with long stems that are rather like asparagus; and maygrass, a long-leaved inhabitant of marshy areas that was soon propagated by deliberate planting of seeds" (57).
around 1700 BC, Poverty Point, LA2-5000 people on 500 acres, built series of earthworks "more than 1 million cubic feet of earth were heaped up into six concentric semicircular rings, each about eighty feet wide and ten feet high -- the total configuration consuming almost one square mile" (57) -- not burial sites, purpose unclear, though may have been astronomical; cultivating gourds, trade center. 1000 years older than that Watson Brake where people came seasonally to fish and hunt, "they had no pottery but did bake clay into little cubes, for what purpose no one can even imagine . . . . thus large mounds, one of which was twenty-five feet high, were being built into a large circular arrangement probably a thousand years before" (58).
"not being witless, they . . . "
Regarding the inadvertent aspects of the invention of agriculture: "People living in more permanent sites would tend to disturb the ground underfoot, leading to colonization by opportunistic weedy plants (as every lawn tender knows)" (56).
"By 700 BC, whatever was going on at Poverty Point . . . "
Pre-maize horticulture: "Other plants that became widely cultivated, even domesticated, were goosefoot, a kin of lamb's-quarter, which provides edible seeds but also edible leaves; knotweed, with long stems that are rather like asparagus; and maygrass, a long-leaved inhabitant of marshy areas that was soon propagated by deliberate planting of seeds" (57).
around 1700 BC, Poverty Point, LA2-5000 people on 500 acres, built series of earthworks "more than 1 million cubic feet of earth were heaped up into six concentric semicircular rings, each about eighty feet wide and ten feet high -- the total configuration consuming almost one square mile" (57) -- not burial sites, purpose unclear, though may have been astronomical; cultivating gourds, trade center. 1000 years older than that Watson Brake where people came seasonally to fish and hunt, "they had no pottery but did bake clay into little cubes, for what purpose no one can even imagine . . . . thus large mounds, one of which was twenty-five feet high, were being built into a large circular arrangement probably a thousand years before" (58).
April 7, 2010
Broad to a fault, the scope of this one-volume history dabbles in everything you need to know about Native American history without telling you anything you probably already didn't. There are no stylistic merits to speak of, beyond a generic readability that slips by unnoticed and un-relished. It isn't that Page doesn't respect his subject; it's that his respect lends an air of detachment, as if he were afraid to engage with it and bring something new to the discussion. If you have somehow managed to skip over the more well-known books on the field, or are looking for a completely disinterested and unvarnished record of facts, give it a try. Otherwise, start elsewhere, and definitely in any case, do not stop here.
April 16, 2022
Twenty thousand years generally is hard to cram into a 450-page book. And yet Jake Page does a good job of it. Likewise, hundreds of different nationalities is hard to squeeze into one short volume, but again he made it happen. All of this for a broad if rudimentary look at the people of the upper Western continent who were there long before it became known as North America.
Page admits the limits that time, migration, progress, and sacrament have placed on the anthropological record going back to man’s origins in America, meaning the first 18,600 years or so of this comprehensive history, up to the arrival of Europeans, are covered in roughly the first third of the book, and much guesswork is necessarily included. The remainder takes a hard look at the many ways the white man, his diseases, his treaties, and his courts have decimated the American Indian tribes.
It’s not all negativity. The reader can get a feel for the simpler, more nature-oriented life of days long gone. Any violence mentioned is not detailed or distracting. The book ends on some positive notes, including how some tribes have begun to thrive in the last 50 years.
Published in 2003, but not at all dated in the grand scheme of things, In the Hands of the Great Spirit is an impressive project. Migration paths—both voluntary and forced—are revealed. Relevant policies and interactions between Indians and many US presidents are examined. International influences are highlighted. But as usual in my reviews of historical books, I have to add that I wish there were more maps.
No study of American history can be complete without an understanding of the country’s first residents. I had been having a hard time finding a book to do exactly what I wanted—to read a solid pre-“discovery” account of life in America, and its peoples, without dedicating a whole lot of time to the task--but this one finally did so. I recommend to anyone who wants the same.
Page admits the limits that time, migration, progress, and sacrament have placed on the anthropological record going back to man’s origins in America, meaning the first 18,600 years or so of this comprehensive history, up to the arrival of Europeans, are covered in roughly the first third of the book, and much guesswork is necessarily included. The remainder takes a hard look at the many ways the white man, his diseases, his treaties, and his courts have decimated the American Indian tribes.
It’s not all negativity. The reader can get a feel for the simpler, more nature-oriented life of days long gone. Any violence mentioned is not detailed or distracting. The book ends on some positive notes, including how some tribes have begun to thrive in the last 50 years.
Published in 2003, but not at all dated in the grand scheme of things, In the Hands of the Great Spirit is an impressive project. Migration paths—both voluntary and forced—are revealed. Relevant policies and interactions between Indians and many US presidents are examined. International influences are highlighted. But as usual in my reviews of historical books, I have to add that I wish there were more maps.
No study of American history can be complete without an understanding of the country’s first residents. I had been having a hard time finding a book to do exactly what I wanted—to read a solid pre-“discovery” account of life in America, and its peoples, without dedicating a whole lot of time to the task--but this one finally did so. I recommend to anyone who wants the same.
November 6, 2021
This was very readable, interesting, and compelling, especially for a one-volume history of something that really can't be contained in anywhere near one volume. I'm knocking off a star because I am always a bit wary of popular histories that don't have endnotes with their sources (which maybe isn't fair of me, but I can't help it) and I noticed a few things in this that weren't quite accurate (from the fact that Sherman Alexie is not Flathead/Salish to the reductive view of the Ghost Dance). I still recommend it though!
November 24, 2014
An excellent and well-balanced history of native Americans. The book is readable and the author writes with a dry humor. The book can plod a little, but perhaps this is inevitable given the book’s scope. Page’s writing is lively, sympathetic and clear.
Page’s judgment is particularly good. Much of the writing in this field can be emotional or of an ax-grinding nature. Page does a good job describing the diversity and complexity of American Indians. Page presents Indians as a people struggling to maintain their way of life in the face of conflict with the white man and among each other, and more natural calamities such as disease and famine.
The illustrations are of poor quality and seemingly unrelated to the relevant portion of text.
Page’s judgment is particularly good. Much of the writing in this field can be emotional or of an ax-grinding nature. Page does a good job describing the diversity and complexity of American Indians. Page presents Indians as a people struggling to maintain their way of life in the face of conflict with the white man and among each other, and more natural calamities such as disease and famine.
The illustrations are of poor quality and seemingly unrelated to the relevant portion of text.
May 6, 2025
This is a fairly concise account of the '20,000-year history of American Indians', going right from the very first inhabitants of the continent all the way up to the present day. It's very thorough and broad-ranging but, as is inevitable, it lacks depth in a lot of places, if only because there's just so much material and history to get through. It's well-written and engaging, if a little too colloquial at times. It's not quite as heart-wrenching as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which I'd heartily recommend, but it's good nevertheless.
January 24, 2022
“[V]irtually every working anthropologist in the nation who had any familiarity with one of another Indian tribe was called in to testify about such matters such as the extent of aboriginal hunting grounds. Their information was valued, even it was almost in all cased derived from the same old men who the commission did not find reliable” (396).
This quote reflects both the reality of legal red tape Native peoples faced in securing rights to traditional land, as well as the approach of scholarship in Jake Page’s book on the history written on them. In the aim to recount the history of the people, Page relies mostly on academic scholarship, as indicated in his suggested reading and bibliography, some of which he coauthors. The scholarship is lazy as he cites works he collaborates on and its focalized only through a mostly academic lens; telling the history of a people without using primary sources by those from these groups. This presents an incredibly problematic issue, a flawed one, in that the history is told through a very specific lens, one that is reliant on outside(r) perspectives legitimized through University Presses and major publishing houses. Under normal historiography this wouldn’t be an issue, however, it highlights a major missing component: the voice of the Native peoples that this book exemplifies and capitalizes on. Very little in the book comes from a Native voice, aside from the occasional quote or anecdote, but Page relies more on accounts presented through non-Native avenues, thus denying much of the exploration of Indian/Native/Indigenous peoples to present their views of the events Page chooses to focus on. (Conversely, Ken Burns’ documentary series on the American West includes members of tribes to tell their story, so it can be and has been done).
Furthermore, the lens of Native history is only relegated on periods of contact and interaction between Post-Columbian colonial (Spanish, French, and English) and American and the various tribes and peoples they’ve encountered. While these are reflective of crucial periods and events, the “history” is only addressed when this clash presides, and little is discussed of history of the peoples themselves. In fact, there is little discussion of who these various people were, but only how they interacted between region and oncoming waves of Europeans and later Americans. It details what happened to the groups upon contact, exchange, interaction with Western outsiders, but for the most part they remain faceless and more about these groups would have been an enriching aspect of this book. At one point, Page’s bland discussion is squarely on colonial events from British, French, and American perspectives albeit with an attempt to focalize the narrative toward a Native perspective, without much nuance. In other areas, major events seemed to be glossed over or completely ignored/omitted. The nuance does comes in toward discussion of twentieth century issues and events perhaps because it's closer to periods he would have witnessed and reported on.
Without the significant presence of clear Native voices to tell their (his)story, Page’s book reads blandly with cursory looks at major events that only involve a Caucasian presence, veering between colonial atrocities to legalized betrayal by the Federal government. This is not to say that these events weren’t important, that they didn’t happen, nor the effects are not at detrimental--they are--however, Wikipedia’s entry on Native American history does the same thing, and with more dynamic comprehensive research, which doesn’t require purchasing or borrowing this book.
This quote reflects both the reality of legal red tape Native peoples faced in securing rights to traditional land, as well as the approach of scholarship in Jake Page’s book on the history written on them. In the aim to recount the history of the people, Page relies mostly on academic scholarship, as indicated in his suggested reading and bibliography, some of which he coauthors. The scholarship is lazy as he cites works he collaborates on and its focalized only through a mostly academic lens; telling the history of a people without using primary sources by those from these groups. This presents an incredibly problematic issue, a flawed one, in that the history is told through a very specific lens, one that is reliant on outside(r) perspectives legitimized through University Presses and major publishing houses. Under normal historiography this wouldn’t be an issue, however, it highlights a major missing component: the voice of the Native peoples that this book exemplifies and capitalizes on. Very little in the book comes from a Native voice, aside from the occasional quote or anecdote, but Page relies more on accounts presented through non-Native avenues, thus denying much of the exploration of Indian/Native/Indigenous peoples to present their views of the events Page chooses to focus on. (Conversely, Ken Burns’ documentary series on the American West includes members of tribes to tell their story, so it can be and has been done).
Furthermore, the lens of Native history is only relegated on periods of contact and interaction between Post-Columbian colonial (Spanish, French, and English) and American and the various tribes and peoples they’ve encountered. While these are reflective of crucial periods and events, the “history” is only addressed when this clash presides, and little is discussed of history of the peoples themselves. In fact, there is little discussion of who these various people were, but only how they interacted between region and oncoming waves of Europeans and later Americans. It details what happened to the groups upon contact, exchange, interaction with Western outsiders, but for the most part they remain faceless and more about these groups would have been an enriching aspect of this book. At one point, Page’s bland discussion is squarely on colonial events from British, French, and American perspectives albeit with an attempt to focalize the narrative toward a Native perspective, without much nuance. In other areas, major events seemed to be glossed over or completely ignored/omitted. The nuance does comes in toward discussion of twentieth century issues and events perhaps because it's closer to periods he would have witnessed and reported on.
Without the significant presence of clear Native voices to tell their (his)story, Page’s book reads blandly with cursory looks at major events that only involve a Caucasian presence, veering between colonial atrocities to legalized betrayal by the Federal government. This is not to say that these events weren’t important, that they didn’t happen, nor the effects are not at detrimental--they are--however, Wikipedia’s entry on Native American history does the same thing, and with more dynamic comprehensive research, which doesn’t require purchasing or borrowing this book.
January 2, 2022
In the Hands of the Great Spirit was my first comprehensive introduction to the Native American peoples. It was love at first sight.
Page traces the history of the early humans who settled the American continent in Prehistory; their cultural, religious and societal development and their proliferation across North America. The latter forms the backbone of his narrative as he charts the tragic interaction of these indigenous peoples with the Occident and what subsequently transpired.
One can easily see that compressing the most essential of historical points in a 480 page compendium is bound to have its own recurring challenges. While Page treads already broken ground-Geronimo, Sitting Bull etc-he also explores lesser known figures such as Joseph Medicine Crow and the Pueblo Pope.
The most conspicuous element of In the Hands of the Great Spirit besides its scope is the fluidity of its prose. It is comprehensible for expert and lay alike owing to its avoidance of heavy jargon and this makes it a page turner given that Page narrates rather than relates; something which involves the reader in a mental learning process rather than constantly depending on the author's own perceptions (we forget that Page is the narrator here after all given the value of what he narrates).
Overall, in the grand scheme of things, Page makes no secret of the fact that the history of any society can only be effectively explored through the history of its great men and women. He is a Carlylean in this sense, selecting to focus on the leaders of various Native American peoples and their achievements/failures to chart the fate of subsequent generations rather than kowtowing to the post-structuralist line of contemporary factors and contemporary factors alone influencing a people and history being the study of these factors .
This is an invaluable piece of literature and should grace the bookshelves of all amateur and expert historians alike.
Page traces the history of the early humans who settled the American continent in Prehistory; their cultural, religious and societal development and their proliferation across North America. The latter forms the backbone of his narrative as he charts the tragic interaction of these indigenous peoples with the Occident and what subsequently transpired.
One can easily see that compressing the most essential of historical points in a 480 page compendium is bound to have its own recurring challenges. While Page treads already broken ground-Geronimo, Sitting Bull etc-he also explores lesser known figures such as Joseph Medicine Crow and the Pueblo Pope.
The most conspicuous element of In the Hands of the Great Spirit besides its scope is the fluidity of its prose. It is comprehensible for expert and lay alike owing to its avoidance of heavy jargon and this makes it a page turner given that Page narrates rather than relates; something which involves the reader in a mental learning process rather than constantly depending on the author's own perceptions (we forget that Page is the narrator here after all given the value of what he narrates).
Overall, in the grand scheme of things, Page makes no secret of the fact that the history of any society can only be effectively explored through the history of its great men and women. He is a Carlylean in this sense, selecting to focus on the leaders of various Native American peoples and their achievements/failures to chart the fate of subsequent generations rather than kowtowing to the post-structuralist line of contemporary factors and contemporary factors alone influencing a people and history being the study of these factors .
This is an invaluable piece of literature and should grace the bookshelves of all amateur and expert historians alike.
September 18, 2021
From 2003, "In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians" by Jake Page is an interesting read that covers the history of the Native peoples of North America and particularly the US. Page's book reveals the struggles of these native peoples from the first contact with the eastern world through the struggles they face in the modern world. This story is one that at times will surprise a reader & also cause you to shake your head simply because of how governments continued to fail them up through the modern day. As a reader I appreciated seeing this book start with the arrival of the earliest tribes via the Bering Land Bridge as well as for taking the time to go into the archaeological account of things as well. Overall this is a fascinating book that is a good read for anyone with an interest in the history of the American Indians in the US.
May 16, 2023
I wanted a primer on Native American history. I wanted something to introduce me to the wealth of native culture and wisdom I never appreciated...and this book gave me exactly that. Some critics of the book say it doesn't offer history you didn't already know...but I didn't know ANY of the history. If you're like me, chances are good you will enjoy the book like I did.
Just don't expect to dive too deep into any one topic. 20,000 years is simply too long to adequately encompass in one novel, but Jake musters a hearty attempt. I respect him and am sincerely grateful to him for the attempt.
Just don't expect to dive too deep into any one topic. 20,000 years is simply too long to adequately encompass in one novel, but Jake musters a hearty attempt. I respect him and am sincerely grateful to him for the attempt.
March 31, 2022
Let me preface this review with the fact that I know very little about Native American history, and I knew even less before reading this book.
As far as the writing goes, it could have been better, I think. The way the author wrote sometimes felt very unintuitive and more complex than it needed to be. That being said, after I got used to the author's writing style (which took about a third of the way through the book) I was able to truly enjoy the narrative.
As far as the history goes, wow. I knew very vaguely how terribly Europeans and then Americans treated Native Americans, but I did not know how much Native Americans still struggle in this nation. Policies up to the 1950s and beyond worked to dismantle the culture and beliefs held by Native Americans, hoping they would assimilate into Anglo American culture without retaining their own cultural identity. Some American policies still retain remnants of this today.
This book talked extensively about the rich history and highly complex cultures and societies that Native Americans had long before Europeans arrived. While the book is very general and does not really focus on any specific culture of Native Americans, it was a great introduction to the history for someone who previously knew very little about the subject. So glad I got the chance to read this, and I will be reading more books about the true First Americans in the future.
As far as the writing goes, it could have been better, I think. The way the author wrote sometimes felt very unintuitive and more complex than it needed to be. That being said, after I got used to the author's writing style (which took about a third of the way through the book) I was able to truly enjoy the narrative.
As far as the history goes, wow. I knew very vaguely how terribly Europeans and then Americans treated Native Americans, but I did not know how much Native Americans still struggle in this nation. Policies up to the 1950s and beyond worked to dismantle the culture and beliefs held by Native Americans, hoping they would assimilate into Anglo American culture without retaining their own cultural identity. Some American policies still retain remnants of this today.
This book talked extensively about the rich history and highly complex cultures and societies that Native Americans had long before Europeans arrived. While the book is very general and does not really focus on any specific culture of Native Americans, it was a great introduction to the history for someone who previously knew very little about the subject. So glad I got the chance to read this, and I will be reading more books about the true First Americans in the future.
March 30, 2022
A good survey of the history of American Indians (and yes that is what the author recommends that they be called). There was less on Indian relations among themselves, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries than I would have hoped. It is more of a history of American Indians interface with Europeans/Americans. Some perplexing questions with seemingly no good answers then or now.
January 2, 2025
If you are looking for a full history of the original peoples of what became America, both before and after the arrival of Europeans, this is it. I struggled through much of the book due to my own inefficiencies when it comes to reading many nonfiction texts. I learned a lot about Indian peoples histories before the guns and germs arrived and the devastation they caused after.
January 15, 2022
In general, I enjoyed the book. The first 1/3 of the book was a little difficult to wade through. The author tended to flip back and forth through timelines, so at times hard to follow. The remainder of the book dealt with information which had more historical documentation. I learned a lot.
July 20, 2023
This book gives the prospective point of view of the indigenous people who were moved all around as invading settlers & explorers took their land. It was a brutal time for all involved, indians & settlers alike.
May 15, 2017
Really informative interesting, well-written with a good, personable style.
December 13, 2017
Lots of good information, but this should be 4 books instead of 1.
August 29, 2024
Good information
Read
November 20, 2024Made it past 100 pages and never felt compelled to pick it up again.
August 27, 2025
Great read. Very informative and gives a great introductory look at Native American history. Loved the first section the most, especially the Native folk tales described in that section.
December 23, 2025
Excellent book for those who appreciate Native American history.
February 9, 2024
Book 54 of 2023, found in one of my favourite bookshops I visited, ever. It's this tiny, overflowing shop in Glasgow, one of those places where you just have to go with it, weaving your way around the piles of books. You can find anything and everything there, but nothing you specifically came in for.
At the time of visiting, I was in my 'Native American history/culture' phase, reading everything I could find about the topic (personal histories, archaeology books, anthropology books, 19th century eyewitness accounts, mythology, and more), but lacking a book with a comprehensive overview ranging from prehistory to 'now'. Lo and behold, from the tops of one of the piles I salvaged this pretty hardcover. Sadly, immediately after, I moved on to a different obsessive topic, and forgot about 'In the Hands of the Great Spirit' completely, until I once again retrieved it, this time from my 'childhood' bookshelf. (Not entirely sure how it ended up there.)
What did I think?
It is definitely the overview I was looking for, and served its purpose well. Especially for those who do not know much about Native American history, I'd say this is a good starting point. Page's writing style is easy to follow and dotted with wry humour, although it's somewhat messy here and there.
As is often the case with history books, prehistory and pre-modern history take up an unevenly small part. I found it was presented in a slightly illogical way, randomly moving from area to area depending on interesting finds, not following a consistent structure per se. The sections were adequate enough, but could definitely have been padded out a bit more. I'm always hoping for a bit more insight into, and detail of, native people's lives before the arrival of the Europeans - the bigger part of their existence, after all. Archaeology as well as oral history are such amazing tools for that. So much potential! Page does use the tools a bit, but as an archaeologist and mythology-nerd I'm doomed to be unable to overlook the lacunae when it comes to these topics. (I recommend 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, but am also eager to get my hands on The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History.)
Much attention is given to the last 200 years or so, with a narrow(er) focus on North America. I see many here have pointed out that the interaction between Europeans and Native Americans seem to have caught the interest of Page most of all, and it is definitely the stronger, more detailed part of the book. There are added insights and additions of native people themselves, which I liked a lot, although I'd argue the focus remains predominantly 'immigrant American and their descendants'.
The last few chapters become more spirited, and Page's indignance towards what happened during recent history is palpable (I can follow him in that - this part of history never fails to spike my ire). Still, he never loses the 'nuanced' view - by which I simply mean that he shows that not everything is strictly black and white. He also, laudably, doesn't follow the earlier predominant narrative of Native American cultures having 'disappeared': many are still alive and kicking despite all. (More recommendations: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, as well as all personal accounts by Native American people, e.g. Geronimo's Story of His Life or Lakota Woman).
Rating
3.5 stars, rounded up - 7+ out of 10
Non-fiction ranking 2023: Soundly mid-section, 17/31
At the time of visiting, I was in my 'Native American history/culture' phase, reading everything I could find about the topic (personal histories, archaeology books, anthropology books, 19th century eyewitness accounts, mythology, and more), but lacking a book with a comprehensive overview ranging from prehistory to 'now'. Lo and behold, from the tops of one of the piles I salvaged this pretty hardcover. Sadly, immediately after, I moved on to a different obsessive topic, and forgot about 'In the Hands of the Great Spirit' completely, until I once again retrieved it, this time from my 'childhood' bookshelf. (Not entirely sure how it ended up there.)
What did I think?
It is definitely the overview I was looking for, and served its purpose well. Especially for those who do not know much about Native American history, I'd say this is a good starting point. Page's writing style is easy to follow and dotted with wry humour, although it's somewhat messy here and there.
As is often the case with history books, prehistory and pre-modern history take up an unevenly small part. I found it was presented in a slightly illogical way, randomly moving from area to area depending on interesting finds, not following a consistent structure per se. The sections were adequate enough, but could definitely have been padded out a bit more. I'm always hoping for a bit more insight into, and detail of, native people's lives before the arrival of the Europeans - the bigger part of their existence, after all. Archaeology as well as oral history are such amazing tools for that. So much potential! Page does use the tools a bit, but as an archaeologist and mythology-nerd I'm doomed to be unable to overlook the lacunae when it comes to these topics. (I recommend 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, but am also eager to get my hands on The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History.)
Much attention is given to the last 200 years or so, with a narrow(er) focus on North America. I see many here have pointed out that the interaction between Europeans and Native Americans seem to have caught the interest of Page most of all, and it is definitely the stronger, more detailed part of the book. There are added insights and additions of native people themselves, which I liked a lot, although I'd argue the focus remains predominantly 'immigrant American and their descendants'.
The last few chapters become more spirited, and Page's indignance towards what happened during recent history is palpable (I can follow him in that - this part of history never fails to spike my ire). Still, he never loses the 'nuanced' view - by which I simply mean that he shows that not everything is strictly black and white. He also, laudably, doesn't follow the earlier predominant narrative of Native American cultures having 'disappeared': many are still alive and kicking despite all. (More recommendations: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, as well as all personal accounts by Native American people, e.g. Geronimo's Story of His Life or Lakota Woman).
Rating
3.5 stars, rounded up - 7+ out of 10
Non-fiction ranking 2023: Soundly mid-section, 17/31
September 20, 2022
Notes/Quotes:
+ Oldest known settlements
- NA: Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Pittsburgh PA
- SA: Monte Verde, Chili
Linguists have identified about three hundred different spoken North American Indian languages in use at the time of European contact, these deriving from six or eight different root, or basic language stocks, called phyla… Fifteen thousand years seems too short to account for such remarkable linguistic diversity.
Standing on the mound [at Poverty Point in Louisiana] and sighting directly across the semicircle to the east, one can sight the rising of the sun at precisely the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
Acoma now vies with two others (the Hopi village of Oraibi and Taos Pueblo) for the right to call itself the oldest continuously inhabited spot in North America.
The Indian Claims Commission was (during its time) the only organized and full-scale attempt by any nation that had colonized another people to make financial or other amends.
September 20, 2014
I picked up this one at the gift shop of Monument Valley, the kind of thing you buy at these places, right? But then I not only actually started reading it on the plane home to Germany, I also finished the whole 20.000 Year History of the Amercan Indian three weeks later. There's a natural limit to how much you can convey on a little over 400 pages, so the sheer amount of facts and stories is a little overwhelming. But the book gave me an inkling of an understanding of the big picture, apart from helping me get rid of some misconceptions I had. I liked the style and the particular point of view of the author who makes no secret of his personal relationship with his subject matter and yet at the same time zooms off into a more neutral point of view. On the whole, very readable, highly interesting and a great achievement.
May 12, 2012
Excellent book, well researched, written to help one to know the American Indians and get a complete picture of who they are. The story is tragic. The Indians were treated inhumanely even into the 20th century. It is estimated there were 18 million Indians in what is now the 48 United States. One hundred years ago there were only a quarter million alive. Today there are several million, a difficult number to determine because many whites and blacks claim to be Indians, for profit. For 500 years the white man tried to destroy the Indian culture and religion but they failed. It thrives. Edifying book.
May 15, 2015
This was a remarkably well researched history of the people that eventually became known as American Indians. While the history of the various nations in the times since the Europeans are important, there is a lot more to their story, and this helps fill in some of those blanks.
Archeology plays a major part of this book, since there's not much else left from thousands of years ago. Page does a great job of assembling information from what remains, and telling a long, complicated story.
Recommended to fans of ancient history and those interested in more about Indians than the same, repeated stories of what happened from the 1500s or so forward.
Archeology plays a major part of this book, since there's not much else left from thousands of years ago. Page does a great job of assembling information from what remains, and telling a long, complicated story.
Recommended to fans of ancient history and those interested in more about Indians than the same, repeated stories of what happened from the 1500s or so forward.
June 15, 2012
An amazing insight into the long history of the 'first Americans'. A great balance between detailed recounts of events, yet a broad enough stroke through the history to explain the major parts of the history for the last 20,000 years.
A wonderful book, concise yet still detailed, full of emotion and accuracy in the telling of the the tragic events, but not being too romantic over the good times either.
A must read for anyone interested in developing their knowledge of this remarkable group of people, true survivors and determined to control their own destiny.
A wonderful book, concise yet still detailed, full of emotion and accuracy in the telling of the the tragic events, but not being too romantic over the good times either.
A must read for anyone interested in developing their knowledge of this remarkable group of people, true survivors and determined to control their own destiny.
July 15, 2024
A great introduction to Native American history. As is typical of books covering large geographical areas and historical periods it is difficult to address everything and avoid some level of bias/misinformation. This book, despite minor faults and its 20 year age, is impressive. Starting with this book as an introduction to Native American history would create a great foundation for most readers so long as they follow up with more specific volumes on regions, nations, periods, etc.
February 12, 2014
This book gives an incredible overview, bringing history and values of native peoples of North America through centuries up to present day struggles for justice including issues around water, land rights, gambling, and community health.
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