Books in American Indian Nations series

The Iroquois have lived in what is now upper New York State and Ontario, Canada, for more than 4,000 years. In the 12th century, a man of their tribe called the Peacemaker convinced the five other nearby tribes - the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca - to work together with the Iroquois in a peaceful confederacy. For centuries, the confederacy worked together to build villages, grow crops, and also to defend its members and defeat other tribes. Together, they expanded all the way from Canada to Kentucky. And then white settlers crossed the Atlantic Ocean and destroyed the confederacy and, with it, their way of life. Members of the confederacy took opposite sides during the Revolutionary War. Not long after the United States was formed, white people forced the Iroquois to give up their land. And yet they continued to survive and adapt to a new way of life. Iroquois live throughout the world, but there is one territory that remains home to the six-member confederacy. Read about the past and present of the Iroquois - their culture, government, and family life - in this informative volume.

A thin strip of land and islands makes up the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and Canada. This region has long been home to many groups of native peoples who spoke different languages and had distinct cultural practices. The native peoples of the Northwest thrived in this land of rocky beaches and cedar trees. • The Chinook developed a special language for trading with other nations. • The Kwakwaka'wakw created masks that could show two different faces. • The Bella Coola had a secret society that performed in a four-night winter ceremony. Many native peoples still live in the Northwest and continue to fish, carve totem poles, and work to preserve their land and cultures. Learn more about the unique history and cultures of the native peoples of the Northwest.

Long before the United States existed as a nation, the Northeast region was home to more than thirty independent American Indian groups. Each group had its own language, political system, and culture. Their ways of life depended on the climate, landscape, and natural resources of the areas where they lived. • The Lenape carved tulip tree trunks into canoes that held as many as fifty people. • The Huron used moose hair to stitch delicate patterns on clothing and on birch bark boxes. • The Menominee combined cornmeal, dried deer meat, maple sugar, and wild rice to make a traveling snack called pemmican. In the twenty-first century, many American Indians still call the Northeast home. Discover what the varied nations of the Northeast have in common and what makes each of them unique.