The Complete Idiot's Guide to Native American History

Table Of Contents

The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Native American HistoryPart 1: America B.C. (Before Columbus)
1. Who (and What) Is an Indian?
Look beyond the myths and stereotypes to discover who Indians really are.

2. We Were Here First: Populating Turtle Island
The First people to step foot on the “New World” beat Christopher Columbus by hundreds of years. How did they get there? Several theories abound.

3. The Most Ancient Ones
The oldest cultures in the Americas, from the Paleoindians to the mound builders.

4. Where and How They Lived
From the Arctic to the Southwest, the Plains to the East Coast, learn about the different environments and cultures of the first Americans.

Part 2: There Goes the Neighborhood
5. First Contacts: The Spanish and the French
The early explorers of the Americas forever changed the lives of Native people.

6. Colonization and Conflict
How much land could the pilgrims and pioneers possibly want? All of it.

7. Caught in the Power Struggle
As European nations vie for control over the resources and peoples of the “New World,” Native Americans get caught in the middle.

8. Native Americans and the Upstart States United
No longer content to stand on equal terms with the Indians, the federal government becomes their Great White Father.

9. Bossing Indians Around: A History of the BIA
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has the longest history of bossing Indians around.

10. Exploring the Interior
merriwether Lewis and William Clark meet their Native neighbors.

11. Expansion and Removal
There is more than one trail of tears as Indians lose the fight to retains their homelands and are relocated to Indian Territory.

Part 3: Reservations and Resistance
12. The War Our West
The Indian people get dragged into the white man’s civil war.

13. More Gold and Blood
Native Americans pay a high price–their lives and their land–for America’s gold fever.

14. The Road to the Little Bighorn
Custer’s Last Stand leads to the end of a way of life for the Plains Indians.

15. The Last Little Wars
The Nez Perce, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Apache make last stands and lose.

16. Getting “Civilized”
Making the red man white isn’t as easy as the government thinks it will be.

17. The Indian New Deal
The government finally gives the Indians a fair shake–for a little while, anyway.

18. Back to the Bad Old Days
The United States tries to wash its hands of the “Indian Problem” once and for all.

Part 4: Modern Indians, Modern Challenges
19. Indians Take the Reins: Tribal Self-Determination
Yet another new era of federal Indian policy… will this one last?

20. When Rights Collide: hunting, Fishing, and Gathering
What happens when today’s Indian tries to live according to yesterday’s traditions.

21. Indian Education: Unto the Seventh Generation
Indian education from pre-contact times to today.

22. Bitter Medicine: Indian Health and Well-Being
It’s going to take more than a medicine man to solve the health problems to Native America community faces.

23. Gambling on the Future: Tribal Economies
Economic development–including gambling, mineral resources, and offshore banking–is the single most important factor for the future of reservation Indians.

24. Protecting Traditional Beliefs and Practices
Traditional Native religious ceremonies and controversies surrounding peyote, grave desecration, and New Age exploitation of traditional ways.

Appendixes
Appendix A: Stand Up and Be Counted: American Indian Population Facts

Appendix B: Glossary

Appendix C: Bibliography

Index