The 2010 census identified 5.2 million people in the United States as American Indian or Alaskan Natives--less than 2% of the overall population of nearly 309 million. In Canada, the percentage is 4%--1.1 million of a total population of around 34 million. Most of these people live on reservations or in areas set aside for them in the nineteenth century. The numbers are very different to those in the sixteenth century when European colonists brought disease and a rapacious desire for land and wealth with them from the Old World. While estimates vary considerably it seems safe to estimate the native population as being at least ten million. Ravaged by smallpox, chicken pox, measles, and what effectively amounted to genocide, this number had fallen to 600,000 in 1800 and 250,000 in the 1890s.

Those that were left had often been moved many miles away from their original tribal lands. Native Americans State by State is a superb reference work that covers the history of the tribes from earliest times till today, examining the early pre-Columbian civilizations, the movements of the tribes after the arrival of European colonists and their expansion westwards, and the reanimation of Indian culture and political power in recent years. It covers the area from the Canadian Arctic to the Rio Grande--and the wide range of cultural differences and diverse lifestyles that exist. Illustrated with regional maps and a dazzling portfolio of paintings, photographs, and artwork, it provides a dramatic introduction not only to the history of the 400 main tribes but to the huge range of American Indian material culture. As its title suggests, Native Americans State by State covers the subject in every state of the Union and the provinces of Canada. Each state has its own maps and timeline, detailing the history of the tribes associated with the area in the past and today.