Customer Reviews

Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present (Native Peoples, Cultures, and Places of the Southeastern United States)

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Jerald T Milanich's "Florida's Indians from the Ancient Times to the Present" provides a comprehensive easy to read account of Florida's rich archaeological heritage. Milanich's style is entirely assessable to the general public without compromising the academic content. The book includes a temporal and geographic discussion of Florida's native peoples and key sites from the paleo period to the present. There is a 16 page section of full color photographs as well as several sections of sidebars that include information ranging from accounts of 19th century archaeologists to recipes for acorn cakes. The only signifigant problem with the content is that statements regarding agriculture in the area are not based on any direct evidence and, more importantly, the book lacks an index which makes its use as a reference source difficult. The book, however, relays a vast amount of information interestingly and efficiently. It would be a valuable entry to the library of both the amateur archaeologist and the academic.

This book is a synthesis of Milanich's previously published works on Florida's pre-columbian and colonial-era archaeology and history. Beginning with the Paleoindian period and ending with the modern Seminole Indians, Milanich does a fantastic job of giving good, detailed, interesting, and readable information about all of Florida's Native American cultures, from the ancient past through the present.

For those who have previously read Milanich's two-volume set, ARCHAEOLOGY OF PRECOLUMBIAN FLORIDA and FLORIDA INDIANS AND THE INVASION FROM EUROPE, this book combines and updates both, and is a very useful reference tool for the general reader interested in Florida's archaeology and history and for the specialist needing to refer to Florida's Native cultures. I highly recommend it.

This book is an excellent introduction to the history of the real Florida Indians - tribes other than the Seminoles and Miccosukee. The author weaves together an interesting history through a timeline approach, providing enough detail to satisfy an academic audience, but he is also a good storyteller to keep novices interested. Provides rich detail on lifestyles, culture and everyday life of the Florida Indian.