Native American History and Genealogy Books

Click the links for more information and current discount prices. Orders are fulfilled by Amazon.com, the most trusted name in e-commerce. A portion of the proceeds from any book sales made through this page will be donated to the National Genealogical Society Library.
     
cover A Student's Guide to Native American Genealogy (Oryx American Family Tree Series) $24.95 - This handsome book reveals the fascination & fun of doing your own family research to find American Indian/Native American ancestry. Excellent resources given in clear, interesting text. Includes color photographs and a map of tribes in the US and southern Canada.
How to Research a Little Bit of Indian $25.50 - This book describes how to document Native American ancestry before official BIA records are created. Although mainly geared to the Five Civilized Tribes, this work stands as a helpful guide for researching " A Little Bit of Indian" in all other circumstances. The saying, "I've got a Little Indian in my background" is a familiar one to many researchers. To those with that little bit being Cherokee this work gives hope and sources: 160 of them.
Big Chief Elizabeth : The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America $19.20 - This is a book for all of us for whom names like Roanoke, Jamestown, Francis Drake, Sir Walter Ralegh, Powhatan, Pocohontas, and John Smith are merely dim memories from grade school Colonial History studies. Giles Milton has taken a marvelously colorful cast of characters and a set of intrinsically dramatic events and made of them a wonderfully readable, genuinely exciting history of the earliest English efforts to colonize North America.
A Spirited Resistance : The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science) $17.95 - In his book, A Spirited Resistance, Gregory Evans Dowd sheds new light on a familiar subject, the Native American plight during Colonial and early American history. Through reinterpretation of historical events and a close examination of native spirituality, Dowd argues that Native Americans struggled for and nearly achieved intertribal unity in their fight against Anglo domination from 1745-1815.
The Cherokee Removal : A Brief History With Documents (Bedford Book in History and Culture) $13.50 - Cherokee testimony and petitions, personal letters, government documents, speeches, and newspaper articles provide a range of perspectives on the 1838 expulsion of the Cherokee nation from the southeastern US to what is now Oklahoma. An introduction outlines the racial attitudes, economic issues, and expansionism of the US in the early 19th century. Includes a chronology beginning in 1700.
cover Cherokee Proud NEW 2nd Edition $29.95 - Hardcover - If you're looking for your Cherokee roots, this concise and clear prose on how and where to do it is a vital tool. The search for your Native American genealogy will no longer be filled with road-blocks because of the information contained in this extremely well researched and easy to use book. With the tips, etc., contained within these pages, you now know where to turn when you thought it was hopeless. Also, you can also learn more about your Cherokee heritage as you continue your search. This book is invaluable.
Cherokee Proud, NEW, 2nd Edition $22.95 - Paperback edition.
Cherokee Connections : An Introduction to Genealogical Sources Pertaining to Cherokee Ancestors $10.80 - Cherokee Connections is an introduction to genealogical sources pertaining to the Cherokee nation, and it is designed specifically for researchers who are trying to prove their heritage for tribal membership as well as for those who are simply interested in investigating family legends about Cherokee ancestry. It includes a thumbnail history of the tribe that is both fascinating and informative. In addition, the book elaborates on such famous topics as the "Trail of Tears," the seven clans, and tribal divisions.
Cherokee Women : Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (Indians of the Southeast Series) $11.96 - Perdue's work looks at gender roles in Cherokee society during the dramatic cultural upheaval of the 18th Century. It is a fascinating work which adds flesh to the historical skeletons that have centered on the Cherokee and European men's actions. One cannot truly understand the history and culture of a matrilineal people without a work of this type. This book is required reading for all scholars of the Cherokee.
The Cherokee Sacred Calendar: A Handbook of the Ancient Native American Tradition $10.36 - Raven Hail, an elder of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, divulges the secret Cherokee system of astrology in The Cherokee Sacred Calendar. The first book to explain the ancient astrological system of the Cherokees and how to use it in the modern world. Written by a tribal elder, The Cherokee Sacred Calendar makes this native wisdom available for the first time to those outside the Cherokee tradition. Provides an easy-to-use format for determining what signs and numbers rule the day of your birth and what influence they have on your destiny.
Walking on the Wind : Cherokee Teachings for Healing Through Harmony and Balance $11.20 - Traditional Cherokee teachings passed down by author Michael Garrett's great-grandfather instruct us that all things are connected, have purpose, and are worthy of respect and reverence. Through stories of the Sacred Fire, the Talking Circle, the Giveaway, and Community, these stories counsel us to keep our feet on Mother Earth, our eyes and minds above the tree tops, and our spirit with the Great Universal Spirit.
Cherokee Roots, Volume 1: Eastern Cherokee Rolls $15.00 - by Bob Blankenship
Dawes Roll Plus of the Cherokee Nation $30.00 - by Bob Blankenship
The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1914 $23.96 - by Kent Carter
Indian Removal : The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians $15.96 - by Grant Foreman, Angie Debo (Designer)
Living Stories of the Cherokee $12.76 - This book is full of wonderful stories told by various Cherokees. It teaches why these stories are important and why they are passed down from generation to generation. There are so many lessons to be learned in life and the Cherokee have a gift when it comes to bringing those lessons to their young ones. We, as a public in general, stand to gain a wealth of knowledge by reading the stories held within the binding of this book.
The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes : As Described by Nicolas Perrot, French Commandant in the Northwest $25.00 - This book is an excellent source for understanding North American Indian customs and life style prior to the appearance of European settlers. It is very well documented with good authenticity. The journals by Nicholas Perrot are vivid and interesting.
Into the American Woods : Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier $11.96 - Into the American Woods examines how semiprofessional negotiators defined a "middle ground" in frontier Pennsylvania where schisms between Anglos and native Americans were temporarily appeased for mutual economic and political gain. English colonial administrators, seeking to purchase land, establish trade, and avert conflict, became dependent on opportunists at the colony's edge, such as German entrepreneur Conrad Weiser, or trader George Groghan, to negotiate with the Delaware, Shawnee, Iroquois, and other regional tribes and bands.
French & Indian War, Pontiac's War, Lord Dunmore's War, the Revolutionary War and the Indian Uprisings from 1789 to 1795 $54.50 - The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania is a comprehensive overview of Indian warfare in that state, offering "a thoroughly accurate picture of the thrillingly romantic period of Pennsylvania history from 1755 to 1795, during which the mountains and the valleys were literally drenched in blood.",., appendices, illus., original fullname + subject index.
The Six Nations of New York : The 1892 United States Extra Census Bulletin (Documents in American Social History) $52.50 - In 1892 the U.S. Census Printing Office published a report on the Six Nations in New York State which collected evidence still used today by the Six Nations to defend their legal rights. This facsimile edition, printed on heavy clay stock, with hand-folded maps, and in the original large trim size, belongs in the collection of all enthusiasts of American, New York, and American Indian history.
The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire : The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes With English Colonies from Its Beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty $14.36 - Francis Jennings, long associated with the Newbury Library American Indian collections has brought his vast knowledge to bear on the subject of the Iriquois as the fearsome 5 or 6 nations who independently cowed both their fellow tribes and the English and French colonists. In the beginning, the Dutch, Swedes, English and French, all found it necessary to deal with the various tribes quite diplomatically in order to survive, and use them in their wars of empire with one another.
The Ordeal of the Longhouse : The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization $19.95 - Daniel Richter, in this astonishing book, does an excellent job explaining social, political and economical aspects of the Iroquois people with strong evidence. For anyone who is interested in learning about the Iroquoi's life and their impacts on the French, the England, and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors (With Map) $29.95 - First published in 1922, copies of this respected classic have been coveted, hoarded, and worn ragged ever since by archaeologists, anthropologists and historians across the Southeast and beyond. Also appealing to a general audience, the book documents the coalescense of the Creek Indians out of the remnants of the many separate societies that dominated Alabama and Georgia in the early colonial period (pre-1700).
Creek Indian History : A Historical Narrative of the Genealogy, Traditions, and Downfall of the Ispocoga or Creek Indian Tribe of Indians $xx.xx - Paperback edition - by George Stiggins, William Stokes Wyman, Virginia Pounds Brown. To be published December, 2000 - Price not yet available. You can still order this item, and Amazon.com will request approval of the price via e-mail prior to shipment. You may order it now and Amazon.com will ship it to you when it arrives.
cover A New Order of Things : Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 $17.95 - Claudio Saunt vividly depicts a dramatic transformation in the eighteenth century that overturned the world of the powerful and numerous Creek Indians and forever changed the Deep South. As the Creeks amassed a fortune in cattle and slaves, new property fostered a new possessiveness, and government by coercion bred confrontation. A New Order of Things is the first book to chronicle this decisive transformation in America's early history, a transformation that left deep divisions between the wealthy and poor, powerful and powerless.
cover Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland $13.56 - by Helen C. Rountree, Thomas E. Davidson. Paperback - 352 pages.
cover A Sioux Chronicle $17.95 - Hyde's chronicle begins with the surrender of the Sioux to the U. S. government, and the beginning of the "noble experiment" of transforming Native Americans into Neo-Europeans (by making them farmers, for example). The book ends with the tragedy of the Wounded
Knee massacre, and can be read as an analysis of all the factors leading up to that incident, which revealed the failure of said experiment. Recommended for anyone interested in frontier history or in the fraught relationship between whites and Native Americans.
People of the Peyote : Huichol Indian History, Religion, & Survival $26.36 - People of the Peyote explores the Huichol Indians of Mexico, who are best known for their worship of the peyote cactus. Ritually harvested each year, the peyote flower plays a central role in most Huichol observances of the annual ceremonial round. The Huichols have been the most culturally persistent indigenous group in Mexico and have maintained their pre-Christian religion with only minimal accommodation to Catholicism. Eighteen essays explore Huichol ethnography
Peyote Religion : A History $14.36 - Reprint of a fine study originally published in 1987
The Third Arrow, A Story of Moshulatubbee, Choctaw Chief $18.00 - by Maxine W. Barker. Mass Market Paperback - 166 pages (1997)
The Apaches : Eagles of the Southwest $14.36 - by Donald Emmet Worcester
A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma $12.76 - by Muriel H. Wright. Paperback - 300 pages Reprint edition (September 1987)
History of the Early Settlement and Indian Wars of Western Virginia : Embracing an Account of the Various Expeditions in the West, Previous to 1795 $37.50 - by Wills De Hass
American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 $32.95 - Over the past generation, historians, anthropologists and other scholars have transformed our understanding of the history of North America's native peoples between first contact with Europeans in 1492 and the era of Indian Removal in the 1840s. Once relegated to the sidelines of historical scholarship, studies of Native Americans and of their relations with Europeans are now basic components of any serious effort to understand the early American experience. This timely anthology brings together much of the best work available on early Native American history, offering comprehensive yet focused coverage on a wide array of topics from contact, exchange and diplomacy to religion, disease and warfare.
Scottish Highlanders, Indian Peoples : Thirty Generations of a Montana Family $29.95 - Members of Montana's McDonald family trace their roots to the chiefs of the Nez Perce tribe and to the chiefs of Scotland's most formidable clan. On two continents, first as Highlanders, and then as Indians, the family suffered massacre and dispossession. Today the McDonalds, Indian people committed to nurturing their Indian culture, continue to honor their Scottish ancestry. The McDonald's story is told in Scottish Higlanders, Indian Peoples. This epic tale traces the McDonald family over a thousand years: starting with a ninth-century migration from Ireland to Scotland; taking in medieval warriors who battled for Scotland's independence from England; ending with these warriors' descendants on Montana's Flathead Reservation. This real-life family saga spans two continents, eleven centuries, and more than thirty generations to link the clans of Scotland and the native peoples of the American West.
The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes : As Described by Nicolas Perrot, French Commandant in the Northwest $25.00 - This book is an excellent source for understanding North American Indian customs and life style prior to the appearance of European settlers. It is very well documented with good authenticity. The journals by Nicholas Perrot are vivid and interesting.
Genealogy of Benjamin Cleveland, Great-Grandson of Moses Cleveland of Woburn, Mass. Native of Canterbury Windham County, Connecticut $38.00 - by H.G. Cleveland (also available in paperback)