Encyclopedia of North American Indians - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395669219 ISBN 13: 9780395669211

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996

Synopsis

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS - NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY CULTURE AND LIFE FROM PAALEO - INDIANS TO THE PRESENT - FREDERICK E HOXIE - EDITOR - HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY - COPYRIGHT 1996 - BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY - ISBN 0395669219 - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - CONTENTS - MAPS - INTRODUCTION - ENTRIES - CONTRIBUTORS - CREDITS - INDEX OF CONTRIBUTORS - GENERAL INDEX - 756 PAGES - ISBN 0395669219 - UPC 9780395669211 90000 - 6-88286

About this title

About the Author

Frederick E. Hoxie is vice president of education and research at the Newberry Library in Chicago and former director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian. His most recent book is Parading Through History: The Making of the Crow Nations.

From Booklist

This ambitious undertaking is edited by Frederick Hoxie, the vice-president of education and research at the Newberry Library in Chicago and the former director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian. His advisory board included such luminary scholars and authors as Peter Nabokov, Joy Harjo, Vine Deloria Jr., Nancy Lurie, Alvin Josephy, and JoAllyn Archambault. Hoxie says that the volume "strives to introduce, to teach, and to invite further inquiry."

The encyclopedia contains signed entries by 260 authors and numerous unsigned entries by about two dozen other authors. There are four types of entries. First, there are descriptions of 100 tribes--the editor tried to provide coverage of all major contemporary groups. These entries are supplemented with "regional entries" that discuss smaller native communities. There are five entries on the major languages (Lakota, Navajo, Cherokee, Cree, Ojibwa) and four on the major language groups (Algonquian, Iroquoian, Pueblo, and Salishan). Secondly, there are biographies of 100 prominent deceased Native Americans. The biographees are political figures, athletes, artists, and scholars. Next, there are 100 interpretive articles on topics such as beadwork, dreams, and treaties. Finally, brief entries provide definitions of topics such as peyote, cradle boards, or the Battle of Little Big Horn. Many of the longer entries include a two-to three-item bibliography. The entry Bibliographies by Velma Salabiye (Navajo) gives a broad overview of scholarship in the field. Black-and-white maps and photographs (most of them historical) add interest to the text. A detailed index aids access.

The articles are well written and easy to read. There is no entry on the Lewis and Clark expedition, but the one on Sacagawea discusses it. The entry on the Blackfoot does not note that the only Indian killed during the Lewis and Clark expedition was a Blackfoot. There is no entry for trickster or New Age.

This book is similar to The Native North American Almanac [RBB My 1 94] in its popular approach, though its contributors are scholars. It is appropriate for the high-school or public library where the user needs a definition or overview. A better work on contemporary Native Americans is Davis' Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia [RBB D 1 94].

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0395669219
• ISBN 13: 9780395669211
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 756
• Editor: Hoxie Frederick E.