Crafty Moms Share: Native American Heritage Month Series & Giveaway -- Review of Some of the Prizes

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Have you seen the amazing prizes we have put together for Multicultural Kid Blogs' Native American Heritage Month Series & Giveaway? If not, scroll down!! I helped find some of them and have some copies of them to review for you. I am going to do it by publisher but also go in order of the prizes. We will start with the Grand Prize and Quarto Knows.

We will start with the three volume set, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, by Thomas McKenney and James Hall and illustrated by Charles King.

https://www.quartoknows.com/books/9780785820215/History-Of-Indian-Tribes-Of-North-America-3-Volume-Set.html

This set gives the stories of 120 Native Americans and includes biographies, colorful portraits and history. These volumes were originally published between 1836 and 1844. They are complete but the language of them are bit of older English which may be hard for children to read and understand.

This set provides a unique and complete look at the early history of famous Native Americans and their history with the white man.

https://www.quartoknows.com/books/9781595662453/Native-Americans.html

Our second book (well fourth if you count all three volumes) from Quarto Knows is Native North Americans by Joe Fullman. This book gives information about Native Americans and breaks them into regions. There are also projects to go >with each section. We had fun with a couple of these.

We made noodle wamp>um bracelets. Well we made one and died some noodles to make more. I made the one with a box of tricolor noodles since the ones we died were still drying. I wish I had bought smaller noodles for this project, but didn't see them at the store. We tried to dye the noodles a purple even though the book suggested red. Ok, it is now here near as nice as the real thing.

Wampum Wrist Ornament circa 18th Century Photo By Daderot (Daderot)
[CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

We also made a game of chance. Hazel made one herself and I did a computer version. If you would like to download it you can. You throw the pieces in the air and score depending on how they land. We had fun playing it. This book brings some Native American culture to life for kids in fun ways.

Next we look at books in the First Prize donated by Firefly Books. Let's start with Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America by Michael G. Johnson and color plates by Richard Hook.

http://www.fireflybooks.com/index.php/catalogue/adult-books/history/product/11008-encyclopedia-of-native-tribes-of-north-america&search=encyclopedia

I used this book as a reference in my post on Native Americans of Cape Cod and Massachusetts. This book is very complete and has references to some of the smaller and lesser known tribes. It describes the classification of languages and then breaks up the tribes and cultures by region from the Northeastern Woodlands to the Arctic and includes maps detailing the First Nations of Canada and Native Americans of Alaska.

This book is full of information and is written for kids to be able to understand. The book also includes a section titled The Indian Today. This book is invaluable to anyone studying Native American cultures.

http://www.fireflybooks.com/index.php/catalogue/adult-books/history/product/10865-iroquois-people-of-the-longhouse&search=Iroq

Next we look at Iroquois: People of the Longhouse by Michael G. Johnson. Do you know about the Iroquois? I grew up hearing about them, but never realized they were formed by five tribes: Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca and then eventually the Tuscarora joined. This book goes through the history as well as the culture of these united nations.

The book is full of information as well as photographs and illustrations that help the reader see the life and culture. It is written in simple enough language for a child to be able to read and use for research. Overall this is a great book and I know I love learning more about the Iroquois. Our final book is Ojibwa: People of Forests and Prairies also by Michael G. Johnson.

http://www.fireflybooks.com/index.php/catalogue/adult-books/history/product/11387-ojibwa-people-of-forests-and-prairies&search=oji

The Ojibwa is among the largest group of Native Americans north of Mexico both in the past and present. This book gives you the history, culture, and more. There are beautiful photographs of their clothing, bags and quillwork and more. It also has the demographics of the group. One of the things I find fascinating is the various names that are used to describe the group and its subgroups over time and in different places. This group like the Iroquois live across the country's border and go into Canada. The two countries' government has different names for this group.

This book like the other two mentioned above are wonderful resource books for schools and libraries. It is full of lots of information that is easy to read and understand.

I hope you will check out all of these amazing books as well as the other prizes. Be sure to check out my review of Indian Boyhood. Good luck in the giveaway!!