With abundant photographs, more than 160 in color, Native North America illustrates tribal life, sacred arenas, spiritual traditions, and artifacts of the indigenous people of North America, from the Inuit of the Canadian north to the Navajo of the American southwest. Beginning with a brief history of Native Americans, Larry Zimmerman and Brian Molyneaux explore individual culture areas, region by region. They discuss Native American spiritual observances, including personal and communal rituals, initiation rites, and curing ceremonies. Through descriptions of the powwow, rites of passage, plant rituals, oral storytelling, dreams, the ghost dance, and the drum, the authors provide a sensitive introduction to Native American spiritual traditions and examine issues that face Native Americans today. Zimmerman, chair of the American Indian and Native Studies Program at the University of Iowa and author of Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota, and Molyneaux, director of the University of South Dakota Archaeology Laboratory and author of The Sacred Earth, have written a thorough introduction to the Indians of North America. Similar to Sherman's The First Americans (Smithmark, 1996. o.p.), this title covers the history of the Native Americans and their spiritual traditions and rituals, but it doesn't overlook the importance of current issues. Heavily illustrated with 165 color plates and containing high-quality maps and a glossary, this inexpensive volume provides an excellent overview of a topic that is covered in much greater detail in the Smithsonian Institution's multivolume Handbook of North American Indians. Highly recommended for public libraries.DJohn McCormick, New Hampshire State Lib., Concord Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Larry J. Zimmerman is Chair of the American Indian and Native Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He is author of Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota and coeditor of Indians and Anthropologists: Vine Deloria, Jr. and the Critique of Anthropology and South Dakota Leaders. Used Book in Good Condition