It says much for the human spirit that after being subjugated by European invaders, who had vastly superior technology, and insidiously penetrative diseases, as potent weapons, the Native Americans contrived to keep their culture and pride intact, to win back control of their natural resources, to claw back control rights granted them by solemn treaties, which in reality were only partially respected by their military conquerors, and eventually to obtain just compensation for their wrongs. All this in the face of enormous cultural and material pressures to concede their land and to abandon their heritage. It is against this infinitely confused and disturbing background that Pritzker’s authoritative new two‐volume reference work, which presents historical and current data on over 200 Native American groups, is published.
Researching into primary records ‐ the reports of the European explorers, traders, missionaries, and scientists, to say nothing of the vast bulk of anthropological studies ‐ Pritzker lists 200 groups A‐Z in ten geo‐cultural areas: the Southwest, California, the Northwest Coast, the Great Basin, and the Plateau in volume 1, and the Great Plains, the Southeast, the Northeast Woodlands, the sub‐Arctic and the Arctic in volume 2. Each band, group, tribe or nation (he is meticulous to put these designations in the right context), is placed under standard sub‐headings. For instance, in the case of the Mescalero Apaches, familiar to us from countless Hollywood screenplays, he first recounts where the name comes from (“mescal”, a food derived from the agave plant), locates their tribal homeland and current reservation, estimates their population, and informs us their dialect descends from Southern Athapaskan or Apachean. Their history is summarised at page length from the time of the migration from Asia across the landbridge to North America around 1000bc, and thence down to New Mexico, contact with Spanish explorers, wars against the Comanches, the US‐Mexican War of 1848, their betrayal by the whites, their degradation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and their subsequent revival. There follow sections on Apache religion, tribal government (or rather the lack of it), customs, diet, technology (basket weaving, pitch‐covered water jars, cradles, storage containers, and musical instruments), trading partners, arts, transport, dress, and wars and weapons. Contemporary Information focuses on government and reservations, the economy, the tribe’s legal status, and on daily life.
What is largely missing is any biographical information on leading historical figures apart from passing references but, given the publication of such works as Hoxie’s (1996) Encyclopedia of North American Indians and Waldman’s (1990) Who Was Who in Native American History (inexplicably missing from Pritzker’s bibliography), this is of no great consequence. More pertinent is the absence of any really useful maps, all that are included are negligible and skimpy 50cm × 45cm location maps showing the ten regional areas. A few full‐page maps illustrating approximate boundaries for the major tribes would have been welcome. Otherwise, the support apparatus is good: a thoughtful and illuminating introduction; a three‐page bibliography arranged by chapter; a four‐page glossary, a 16‐page table of Canadian Reserves and Bands (name, affiliation to a tribal council, election regulations,population, number and area of reservations, and key economic activities); a five‐page list of Alaskan native villages (by language); credits for the plentiful and well‐chosen illustrations; and an analytical index. United States public, high school, and undergraduate libraries appear to have an insatiable appetite for reference works about the first inhabitants of the North American continent. This encyclopedia is a worthy addition to their number.
