The Columbia guide to American Indians of the Northeast / Kathleen J. Bragdon.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Descriptions of Indian peoples of the Northeast date to the Norse sagas, centuries before permanent European settlement, and the region has been the setting for a long history of contact, conflict, and accommodation between natives and newcomers. The focus of an extraordinarily vital field of scholarship, the Northeast is important both historically and theoretically: patterns of Indian-white relations that developed there would be replicated time and again over the course of American history. Today the Northeast remains the locus of cultural negotiation and controversy, with such subjects as federal recognition, gaming, land claims, and repatriation programs giving rise to debates directly informed by archeological and historical research of the region.

The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast is a concise and authoritative reference resource to the history and culture of the varied indigenous peoples of the region. Encompassing the very latest scholarship, this multifaceted volume is divided into four parts. Part I presents an overview of the cultures and histories of Northeastern Indian people and surveys the key scholarly questions and debates that shape this field. Part II serves as an encyclopedia, alphabetically listing important individuals and places of significant cultural or historic meaning. Part III is a chronology of the major events in the history of American Indians in the Northeast. The expertly selected resources in Part IV include annotated lists of tribes, bibliographies, museums and sites, published sources, Internet sites, and films that can be easily accessed by those wishing to learn more.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The northeastern US was and continues to be home to a variety of Native American groups, many of whom have been intensively and extensively studied by scholars in a variety of disciplines. Bragdon (anthropology, College of William and Mary) summarizes the histories and cultures of the Native peoples of the northeast woodlands. Part I, "Overview," synthesizes an enormous body of scholarship in only 85 pages. Its list of references constitutes a fine bibliography of significant literature. Chapter 1 includes an excellent ecological, linguistic, historical, prehistorical, economic, and cultural introduction to the region in general, and to its specific Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 cover European entry, frontier expansion, and 1850 to the present. The second part is an encyclopedia-like alphabetic listing of groups, nations, persons, places, and events in northeastern Native history. It is packed with interesting and important entries, but its brevity induces a certain arbitrariness. There is, for example, an entry on praying towns, but none on Moravian missions. Part III is a historical time line, and Part IV, "Resource Guide," points the reader to information and sources arranged by topic and format. Photos and maps round out this resource for all public and academic libraries. R. Berleant-Schiller emerita, University of Connecticut

Booklist Review

Like The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s [RBB Ja 1 & 15 02], these handbooks are hybrids that combine narrative with reference content. Approximately half the text in each is devoted to in-depth discussions of history and important themes. The remainder provides an A-Z list of people, places, and events; a chronology; and an extensive list of resources.