Native American Almanac: More Than 5,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, and Shannon Rothenberger Flynnby (review)

In this reference work, the authors “have tried to present a historical overview of Native communities in what is now the United States” (ix). The book is intended for a lay audience, and to that end Dennis, Hirschfelder, and Flynn have broken their subject into regional chapters with many concise sections. For example, the Northern Plains chapter has information on “From the Woodlands to the Plains,” “Traditional Life” (Cultural Expressions, Drama, Literature, Technology, Games and Sports), “Colonial History,” “Selling Energy,” “Contemporary Concerns” (in which the Black Hills, Cobell Settlement, and Keystone XL Pipeline garner abstracts), and summaries of many tribes in the region. Each regional chapter includes a valuable series of short biographies of important people, arranged chronologically. These describe both a long past and a vibrant present, incorporating recent figures such as Gyasi Ross and Shoni Schimmel.

As a single volume designed for the uninitiated, the book is well illustrated and has a bounty of biographical information. Additionally, it introduces a broad array of current Indian Country issues. Unfortunately, it also has too many errors of fact. Despite the authors’ assertion, the French did develop “permanent settlements in the interior” of Canada (4). The 1795 Treaty of Greenville did not relinquish “all of present-day Ohio” (10). The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma was not terminated in 1897, nor did they have a “longhouse culture” that was revitalized by oil revenues (242–43). While the community that became the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma was forcibly removed from Ohio to Oklahoma in 1832, it was a fraction of the 50,000 the authors claim (245). Matters of emphasis compound these missteps. For example, the authors narrate the Mexican-American War (1846–48) without discussing the many Native people vying for power in the Southern Plains. This is a lost opportunity because recent historical work has illuminated the ways in which Indian polities—Comanches, Apaches, and others—were central to the causes and course of that conflict. The short section on colonial history of the Northern Plains is essentially a description of nineteenth-century epidemics among the Mandan. What of Lakota expansion? The authors argue that most modern Northern Plains nations were pushed from the east by European expansion and Native forces. Yet whether Algonquian and Sioux communities were pushed or pulled to the Northern Plains is disputed.

Native American Almanac is surefooted in its goal of providing an overview of modern topics of interest for those without prior knowledge. Readers familiar with Native American scholarship may prefer the encyclopedic Handbook of North American Indians series, including its two-volume “Plains” edition edited by Raymond DeMallie. The authors of Native American Almanac likewise employ a regional approach and, also like the Handbook, include a history of Indian-white relations. For those interested in specific events, communities, or historical processes, I recommend looking elsewhere.