Customer Reviews

The People: Indians of the American Southwest

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Stephen Trimble's The People is an excellent account of Southwestern Native American history and culture. Trimble outlines the history of the several groups inhabiting these three divisions of the Southwest: the Pueblo people, the Upland people, and the Desert people. His ten years of ethnographic field research have given him personal relationships with many Native Americans, allowing him to share the words and emotions of the people he studies. Trimble's well-taken photographs also add to the understanding the reader gains of the cultures of the Southwestern groups. This ethnography does more than outline history and bring the reader up to date with the most recent accomplishments of the people, but also illustrates the strong traditions of the culture that are still practiced today.

The Southwest is an area with a diverse environment, and the groups of people living in the many areas practice different lifestyles to coexist in harmony with their surroundings. Trimble's photographs are helpful in giving examples of these varied environments, some so surprising that they could not be equaled in the reader's imagination. By seeing the places that these people call home, the reader has a greater understanding of lives that Trimble describes. Trimble approaches this extremely varied area by describing one group at a time...After fully describing their history up to present living conditions, he moves on to the next group. For example, when studying the Pueblo people, Trimble first describes the Anasazi, the people who first practiced the ancient Archaic tradition of adobe and masonry building. As time went on, the Anasazi became several groups of Pueblo people practicing the same traditions. As Trimble says, "The Anasazi grew corn, Pueblo people grow corn" (47).

American movement into the Southwest is the single force that most drastically changed the lives of these Native Americans. Trimble not only states the facts of the events involved in this history, but also gives accounts of the highly emotional attitudes of these people when recalling such events. Thus, the reader is presented with accounts given by the people whose lives were radically changed in our country's history. The Quechan are one of the Colorado River Tribes that used to thrive on the rich farmland around the river...Trimble describes decades of poverty suffered by these people. Harold Chaipos, a Quechan, is quoted by Trimble, saying, "I really miss that big river. Those were good old times" (410).

Personal accounts are also important in Trimble's description of the present status of the Southwestern groups. In his conclusion, called "We Are The Land," Trimble emphasizes the connectedness that these people have with the land. This is something that most Americans do not understand...The attachment that these people have to the land makes attempted relocations and constant environmental threats that have come along with the spread of American inhabitation all the more devastating. According to Trimble, many Southwestern Native Americans feel that they live a life in which they practice a balancing act. In order to survive and protect their land, the groups need to be able to interact with Americans while still upholding their traditional culture...[T]he Southwestern Native Americans continue to live rooted in their homeland, while taking what they know from their cultural traditions and applying it to modern American culture. They say, "We are the people. We are the land. We will persist" (457).

Trimble provides a wonderful source of information about the widely diverse groups of Southwestern Native groups...In The People, Trimble captures the attitudes of the native people of the American Southwest and presents them in a form that educates the rest of the world on aboriginal lifestyles and present Native American values.

Trimble gives careful, in-depth and complete descriptions of each tribe of the Southwest (here defined as New Mexico, Arizona, southern Utah and Colorado and southeastern California). Each tribe is studied on its own grounds except to develop linguistic and other inter-tribal connections.

Even if you are familiar with major tribes such as the Navajo, Apache and the best-known Puebloan peoples, Trimble still has a wealth of information for you.

A decade of research and a number of photographs by Trimble himself underscore the interest, depth and care he brings to this book and the tribes of his study.

An invaluable bonus at the end is Trimble's calendar of major religious ceremonies of the various tribes, a helpful vacation planning assistant.

This one of my favorite books. It is an excellent resourse for information on Native American peoples of the Southwest conveniently divided into three parts and includes personal as well as scholarly information on the Pueblo, Navajo, Pai, Yavapai, Apache, Ute, Southern Paiute, O'odham, Maricopa, Mojave, Chemehaevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and the Yaqui people. The writing of such a book by one author must have been a huge undertaking but the author pulled it off exceptionally well and as other noted authors have declared, "it will probably become a classic in Native American studies." If you have an interest in Native American culture - past/present/and future - this book belongs in your library!

I was required to read this book for my Anthropology class.
The book itself is not written by an Anthropologist.

I found so many grammatical errors in the book; it became difficult for me to take it seriously.

The author seems to feel some kind of hatred for white people. He writes about how all the bad things that were done to the Native Americans was done by "the white man". The book tries to make Americans feel guilty for something that modern Americans had nothing to do with. The book feels preachy and at times strays from the facts.

I'm very disappointed with the book. I think my class could have been taught much better with a different book.

This book has too many emotions and not enough facts; I could let that slide if it wasn't so poorly written and with so many punctuation and grammar errors.