American Indian Culture

This invaluable resource provides a comprehensive historical and demographic overview of American Indians along with more than 100 cross-referenced entries on American Indian culture, exploring everything from arts, literature, music, and dance to food, family, housing, and spirituality.

American Indian Culture: From Counting Coup to Wampum is organized by cultural form (Arts; Family, Education, and Community; Food; Language and Literature; Media and Popular Culture; Music and Dance; Spirituality; and Transportation and Housing). Examples of topics covered include icons of Native culture, such as pow wows, Indian dancing, and tipi dwellings; Native art forms such as pottery, rock art, sandpainting, silverwork, tattooing, and totem poles; foods such as corn, frybread, and wild rice; and Native Americans in popular culture. The extensive introductory section, breadth of topics, accessibly written text, and range of perspectives from the many contributors make this work a must-have resource for high school and undergraduate audiences.

• Serves to document how many attributes of Native cultures derive from a rich tapestry of American Indian cultural forms, such as very well-known foods like corn, potatoes, turkey, peanuts, and chocolate

• Includes numerous spotlights that highlight interesting topics such as the Indigenous Language Institute, the kiva, counting coup, buffalo hunt customs and protocols, and Dakota language in rap music

• Offers further readings and additional sources with the entries to guide students or interested readers in their research