The British Museum Encyclopedia of Native North America, 1999, 224 p., 214 ill. coul., 63 n.b., br. -

This comprehensive and richly illustrated encyclopedia explains issues and events in Native American history and culture through the materials used and the objects made by the indigenous peoples of North America. It includes a wealth of stories, songs, and first-hand accounts of events from Native American people. The native cultures of North America flourished for many thousands of years before European contact. Indigenous North Americans developed a varied social, political, scientific, spiritual, and material universe. Although the arrival of Europeans some 500 years ago disrupted and changed their long-lived relationships with their lands and with other native peoples, Indian nations exist today throughout the Americas, continuing to create and redefine their history. With over 300 illustrations, the encyclopedia explores that history from a native perspective.