The Native Americans: An Illustrated History

Blending engaging essays by historians and anthropologists with 449 color and duotone illustrations, this compelling history re-creates life as it was experienced by North America's original inhabitants. Though written for the general reader, the book is informed by the latest scholarship, providing new insights, for instance, into the Chaco Canyon people of New Mexico and Arizona, whose turquoise-based economy had by the early 11th century spawned large planned towns, a complex road network and pueblos incorporating passive solar engineering principles. Along with photographs and engravings, scores of modern Native American paintings of tribal myths, daily activities, historic events and self-portraits are especially valuable. Led by Thomas, a curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, the contributors assess the devastating impact of the white European settlers' invasion and Native Americans' attempts to rebuild fragmented cultures. A remarkable kaleidoscopic sourcebook. (Dec.)