The Cayuga are one of the original five nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a powerful alliance of Native American tribes in the Northeast, inhabiting much of the land in what is now central New York State. When their nation was destroyed in the Sullivan–Clinton campaign of 1779, the Cayuga endured 200 years of displacement. As a result, relatively little is known about the location, organization, or ambience of their ancestral villages. Perched on a triangular finger of land against...

Levanna was a famous and well-visited archaeological site in central New York, along the eastern side of Cayuga Lake, during the Great Depression. It was primarily known for its spectacular animal effigies. But were they real or forgeries? Jack Rossen takes us on a journey through the 1920s and 1930s, the era of an outdoor museum, and professional attempts by the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) to suppress it.Larger than life characters include Arthur C. Parker, future Presi...

**Winner of the 2023 Rachel Carson Environment Book AwardWinner of the 2023 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History LiteratureShortlisted for the 2023 Phi Beta Kappa Society Ralph Waldo Emerson AwardA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2022A deep-time history of animals and humans in North America, by the best-selling and award-winning author of Coyote America.**In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the rem...

A comprehensive history of the continent, "full of engaging and attention-catching information about North America's geology, climate, and paleontology" ( The Washington Post Book World).Here, "the rock star of modern science" tells the unforgettable story of the geological and biological evolution of the North American continent, from the time of the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the present day (Jared Diamond, Pulit...

J. M. Adovasio has spent the last thirty years at the center of one of our most fiery scientific debates: Who were the first humans in the Americas, and how and when did they get there?At its heart, The First Americans is the story of the revolution in thinking that Adovasio and his fellow archaeologists have brought about, and the firestorm it has ignited. As he writes, “The work of lifetimes has been put at risk, reputations have been damaged, an astounding amount of sil...

Before Ontario there was ice. As the last ice age came to an end, land began to emerge from the melting glaciers. With time, plants and animals moved into the new landscape and people followed. For almost 15,000 years, the land that is now Ontario has provided a home for their descendants: hundreds of generations of First Peoples. With contributions from the province's leading archaeologists, Before Ontario provides both an outline of Ontario's ancient past and an easy to understand explan...

The 1996 discovery, near Kennewick, Washington, of a 9,000-year-old Caucasoid skeleton brought more to the surface than bones. The explosive controversy and resulting lawsuit also raised a far more fundamental question: Who owns history? Many Indians see archeologists as desecrators of tribal rites and traditions; archeologists see their livelihoods and science threatened by the 1990 Federal reparation law, which gives tribes control over remains in their traditional territories. In this n...

An award-winning science and nature writer "presents a lively, confident, and free-flowing history of archaeology in America" ( Booklist).Digging up the relics of the past is not without controversy. With insight and eloquence, Sharman Apt Russell reveals here that when it comes to archaeological study, there is more than one way to examine history.Raising provocative questions anew about subjects such as the role of humans in the extinction of the l...

This pioneering work focuses on excavations and discoveries at Little Rapids, a 19th-century Eastern Dakota planting village near present-day Minneapolis.

Brought up to date with the latest research, The Moundbuilders is the definitive visual guide to North America’s eastern region and the societies that forever changed its landscape.Hailed by Bruce D. Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, as “without question the best available book on the pre-Columbian . . . societies of eastern North America,” this wide-ranging and richly illustrated volume covers the entire prehisto...

Beginning with the immigrants from Asia, through inventions of agriculture, cities and kingdoms, American First Nations are integral to the history of the United States. They explored the continent, pioneered its waterways and mountain passes, cleared forests, irrigated deserts, and ranched its great plains.Invading Europeans justifies their conquests by denying the evidence of American Indian civilisations. Using her familiarity with the archaeological remains and remnants, Alice ...

An epic deep history of the Indigenous peoples of North America, covering more than 20,000 years of astonishing diversity, adaptation, resilience, and continuityNative America presents an infinitely surprising and fascinating deep history of the continent’s Indigenous peoples. Kenneth Feder, a leading expert on Native American history and archaeology, draws on archaeological, historical, and cultural evidence to tell the ongoing story, mor...