The Native American woman was the guardian of the hearth and, on occasion, ruler and warrior, managing the affairs of her people, sporting war paint as well as necklaces and earrings. Sometimes she was a visionary and a healer, sometimes mother and matriarch. She built houses and ground corn, wove blankets and painted pottery, played field hockey and rode racehorses. Frequently she enjoyed an open and joyous sexuality before marriage. The book surveys dozens of North American tribes to explore the chronology of the Native American woman's life from childhood through puberty, marriage, old age and death. The Native American woman emerges as a proud, sometimes stoic always human individual from whom those who came after can learn much. The stories of these early women are enhanced with the fables, songs and incantations that were part of their cultural and spiritual lives. 

An utterly compelling story of how the cultural, social, and political practices of Native americans transformed the way life is lived around the world. Now available with a new introduction by beloved author Jack Weatherford.

"Remarkable...Weatherford is certainly right in his central thesis: that we have underrated and ignored the contributions of American Indians to the world's economy and culture".—Los Angeles Times

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.

For many visitors to the American Southwest, one of the most exciting moments occurs when one comes face to face with a panel or rock art; executed by a people we know little of, for reasons we do not fully comprehend. Are these figures and patterns messages to be read? Are they supplications to the gods, clan symbols or prehistoric graffiti?  While answers to these questions may ultimately be found, for many visitors/observers it is the mystery of the unknown that is perhaps most appealing.  This book includes 14 different postcards.

Often spoken at the end of a prayer, a well-known Sioux phrase affirms that "we are all related." Similarly, the Sioux medicine man, Brave Buffalo, came to realize when he was still a boy that "the maker of all was Wakan Tanka (the Great Spirit), and . . . in order to honor him I must honor his works in nature." The interconnectedness of all things, and the respect all things are due, are among the most prominent--and most welcome--themes in this collection of Indian voices on nature. Within the book are carefully authenticated quotations from men and women of nearly fifty North American tribes. The illustrations include historical photographs of American Indians, as well as a wide selection of contemporary photographs showing the diversity of the North American natural world. Together, these quotations and photographs beautifully present something of nature's timeless message.

During World War II, as the Japanese were breaking American codes as quickly as they could be devised, a small group of Navajo Indian Marines provided their country with its only totally secure cryptogram.

Racruited from the vast reaches of the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico, from solitary and traditional lives, the young Navajo men who made up the code talkers were present at some of the Pacific Theatre's bloodiest battles.  They spoke to each other in the Navajo language, relaying vital information between the fron lines and headquarters.  their contribution was immeasurable, their bravery unquestionable.

Seventy-five of the surviving Navajo code talkers are included in this book, their faces testaments to long and valiant lives.