Customer Reviews

Woodland Indians (Illustrated Living History Series)

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This is another of C. Keith Wilbur's illustrated history books, this one dealing with the Woodland Indian culture of North America. This book is filled with many wonderful illustrations and depictions of everything from spear and arrow points, to clothing, cookware, weapons, and religious rites. It follows the same general outline as his other book on the New England Indians, beginning with the appearance of the first Paleo Indians in North America about 30,000BC and chronicles the evolving cultures from the Archaic to later Woodland cutlures. Wilbur provides excellent introductions to the mysterious Adena and Hopewell people that dominated the Ohio Valley region over 2000 years ago, as well as the equally fascinating Mississippian Temple Mound culture that relected the grandeur and mystery of the Maya of Mexico.

This is an excellent book for someone with little or no prior knowledge of the early Woodland Indians and their culture, but is just as enjoyable for the initiated as well. It should lead the interested reader to more in-depth works on the subject

I was looking for a comprehensive book with many illustrations on Woodland Indians. This book is definitely comprehensive, and the illustrations carefully done. However, the text is written in cursive (hard on the eyes, and hard for a young reader to read), and there are too few illustrations for my purposes. Still, it is very clear the author is very much an expert on this topic, and he writes clearly.

The Woodland Indians is truly excellent. If you read only one book about Indians, this is the one I would recommend. Its probably the best book I've read describing Indian life, of the 10-20 books I've read about Indians. This is "Indian Life 101", brief descriptions of every facet of Indian life: pottery, agriculture, religion, projectile points, warfare, sex and marriage, village governance, etc. The illustrations are wonderful and span every facet of life. Condensing so much history and illustrations in 88 pages was an incredible accomplishment by the author. The author even finds a way to explain the non-Woodland historic cultures, from Paleo through Archaic. Perhaps the best thing is this book should be interesting to all ages, from age-12 to adults.