The World of Native Americans

by Marion Wood

Celebrate and explore the diversity of Native American cultures in this superbly illustrated gift book. The North America ‘discovered’ by Christopher Columbus in 1492 was actually home to millions of people across the continent. Through lively, informative text and detailed reconstructions, find out how these different peoples adapted to their individual surroundings – how the Plains Indians depended on the great buffalo for food and raw materials, which tribes lived in dome-shaped wigwams and which tribes wore snowshoes in the winter. Complete with detailed maps, glossary, index, and a suggested reading section, this book is the perfect introduction to the fascinating and diverse cultures of the native Americans.

Genres: Native American, History

48 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 1997

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a lot of good information and I learned some new things. Most of the material wasn’t new because I read a lot of these Native American nonfiction books. It’s very thorough and I like how she broke it down into the regions and their basic customs and dress, etc. I would like to read this book again and own it so I could keep coming back to the information as I need it.


It was such a good point that painted warriors on horseback doesn’t fit all Native Americans and it only fits one group at a late point in their history after white people arrived and brought horses. Little is known about the early Native Americans. The Hopewell people are named after the farmer whose land their burials were found on. Many whites didn’t appreciate the lifestyle of Native Americans and thought they were occupying valuable land which they didn’t use properly. That explains a lot.

A lot of the material I had learned already from reading many other books in this topic.
The loved the new facts I did learn, like:
The Northeastern Indians moved their villages when the fields became exhausted. Then that village was abandoned and they built a new one several miles away. The woods were burned and new fields prepared and planted.

The Northwest Coast tribes had winter dances where masked dancers imitated animals and monsters. Speaking tubes hidden in the walls created ghostly voices. The dancers swung on ropes to fly and vanished through concealed trapdoors.

Tribes in the Southwest were not removed because the desert and mountain land did not appeal to white settlers. Many continue to occupy the same land they did when Spanish explorers first arrived almost 500 years ago.

The Sequoyah tree was named to honor Sequoyah after his death.

I liked the line on the further reading page that said no single book can tell the complete story of the Native Americans. This is a staring point to learning more about them.