Native American Resource Books

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

November is flying by!! It is hard to believe the month ends this week. I wanted to share two amazing resource books with you before Native American Heritage Month ends. These books are perfect additions to any Native American study. One just came out in October and the other has been around for several years. The two books are very different from one another but both contain so much information and interesting facts. Let's start with the older book. It is Tipi: Home of the Nomadic Buffalo Hunters by Paul Goble. 

What is a tipi? What do you know about them? I know we all have an image of the cone shaped tents that Native Americans lived in on the plains, but what do we really know about them. I was surprised at how little I actually knew and that some of what I "knew" was incorrect. This book tells everything you ever wanted to know about a tipi and more. It starts with the beginning and how the legends tell that the tipi is shaped after the cottonwood leaf. Then there are the many names and of course the names are different because of the different languages spoken by different nations of Native Americans. 

As you can see the illustrations are hand drawn and yet very informative. The colors and pictures help give more about the tipis. Did you know there are specific tipis in different tribes?

I am fascinated by the art. It was not painted there to just decorate the tipis. It actually has spiritual meaning and a lot of thought and work goes into it before it is on a tipi. (Yes, this is one of the misconceptions I had about tipis.) I found this book to be so interesting and informative. It made me realize even with my love of Native American culture I do not know much about it. If you are studying the Plains Native American tribes, I highly recommend this book or if you just want to know more about the culture and about tipis it is all in here. This book is recommended for ages 8 and up.

Our next amazing resource is from National Geographic. It is Encyclopedia of American Indian History & Culture by Cynthia O'Brien. This is a comprehensive book of Native American tribes in the United States and Canada. It is divided by regions: the Arctic & Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin and Plateau, the Northwest Coast and California. Each region starts with the story of the people and a timeline of Native life in that region. 

Then it goes through the tribes of that region giving information about the language, location (precontact and today), as well as their culture. The pages are filled with beautiful photographs (it is National Geographic after all) as well as fact boxes and interesting fact boxes.

Each chapter also ends with a story from that region. It can be a creation legend or other story They all tend to involve animals of course. There are also pages of fun facts.

The information on each tribe is minimal as it needs to fit into the book. It shares with us over 100 tribes. It is full of such interesting facts and information. There is information about the boarding schools as well as the trail of tears and so much more. This book is an amazing addition to any library or classroom that studies Native Americans. It is recommended for ages 8 to 12. It will give an overview of the different tribes and people we call Native Americans. 

I hope you will check out both of these amazing resource books. Over the years I have shared many resources as well as information about Native Americans. I hope you will check out some of my past posts on them as well.