The essays cover a wide range of Indian experiences and practices, including contacts with non-Indians, religion, family, economy, law, education, gender, and culture. They reflect new approaches to Native America drawn from environmental, comparative, and gender history in their exploration of compelling questions regarding performance, identity, cultural brokerage, race and blood, captivity, adoption, and slavery. Each chapter also encourages further reading by including a carefully selected bibliography.

Intended for students, scholars, and general readers of American Indian history, this timely book is the ideal guide to current and future research.