In the Hands of the Great Spirit
The 20,000- Year History of American Indians

A few years ago I took a college level course dealing with history. I got into a dispute with the teacher about time lines. She refused to draw one for the class while I vehemently defended time lines, stating that they put things into perspective and helped students find their way through a confusi......more

I've never before read a history book whose author had such a wry and self-deprecating sense of humor: "not being witless, they . . . " Regarding the inadvertent aspects of the invention of agriculture: "People living in more permanent sites would tend to disturb the ground underfoot, leading to colo......more

Twenty thousand years generally is hard to cram into a 450-page book. And yet Jake Page does a good job of it. Likewise, hundreds of different nationalities is hard to squeeze into one short volume, but again he made it happen. All of this for a broad if rudimentary look at the people of the upper W......more

This is a fairly concise account of the '20,000-year history of American Indians', going right from the very first inhabitants of the continent all the way up to the present day. It's very thorough and broad-ranging but, as is inevitable, it lacks depth in a lot of places, if only because there's ju......more

In the Hands of the Great Spirit was my first comprehensive introduction to the Native American peoples. It was love at first sight. Page traces the history of the early humans who settled the American continent in Prehistory; their cultural, religious and societal development and their proliferation......more