Native Peoples of the Southwest

3.8/5 ( ratings)

This comprehensive look at Native American groups in the southwestern United States is one of the first to provide both ethnographic research and Native American viewpoints. Included are chapters on the Pueblos, the Hopi, and the Zuni; the Pimans, the Yaqui, and the River Yumans; the Upland Yumans, the Apache, the Navajo, and the Southern Paiute. It explores each group's environmental adaptation, linguistic affiliation, social organization, history, world view, material culture, and ceremonial institutions. Native Americans speak about contemporary issues such as the repatriation of sacred objects, reservation gambling, preservation of native plants, and the philosophy behind tribal colleges.

The combination of a scholarly and lyrical style makes Native Peoples of the Southwest highly informative and a pleasure to read. Reminiscent in its historical truthfulness of Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this is a scholarly text that American Indians would want for their own children's higher education. And a must read for non-Indians who want to understand the true history of Southwestern American Indians. Native Peoples of the Southwest authoritatively answers why Indian people persistently and proudly are committed to preserving and maintaining their language, culture, and traditions within a society that nearly annihilated them, and provides hope that those who read it will join American Indians in cherishing and supporting the preservation of these living cultural treasures that bless this great land known for a short historical time as America.--Glenn Johnson, M. Ed.