Historian Wallace Stegner characterized America's National Park system as "the best idea we ever had." One can quibble with that, but, indeed, it was a pretty good idea! This book specifically is a guide and a celebration of 30 of those national parks, national historical parks, and national monuments that, each in its own way, reveals the histories and cultures of America's first inhabitants, the Native Americans. Its pages will take you to: great mounds in Ohio where the dead were laid to rest in sumptuous splendor 2,000 years ago a place in Iowa where 1,000 years ago, Native Americans sculpted earth into the forms of giant bears and birds a quarry in Minnesota where Native People have, for hundreds of years, extracted blood-red stone for their ceremonial pipes the remains of a village in North Dakota visited by Lewis and Clark in the early 1800s and the home of their guide Sacagewea truly breathtaking, more than 700-year-old cliff dwellings in Arizona and Colorado, that will astonish you in their ethereal beauty and architectural ingenuity phantasmagorical images of 7-foot-tall, wide-eyed spirit beings in Utah painted more than 1,000 years ago And many more. All of these sites have in common the fact that, at the insistence of Native and non-Native people, men and women, the federal government of the United States set them aside as places to preserve, study, and revere as part of the American story no matter where your ancestors came from, how they got here, or how long ago. Read this book and visit the historically sacred sites enshrined in our national parks, national historical parks, and national monuments, places that reveal the creativity and genius of the Native People of North America. With 180 color photographs and complete visitor information, this is a wonderful guide to Native American archaeology in our national parks and monuments.
Kenneth L. Feder teaches at Central Connecticut State University and has directed numerous field research projects focusing on ancient settlements of the native people of southern New England. He has appeared on television documentaries on the National Geographic Channel, the BBC, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and the SyFy Channel. Additionally, he has been featured in a couple of episodes of William Shatner's the Canadian- based show Weird or What? He lives in Winchester, CT.
A full-color, celebratory guide to the historical and cultural legacy of America's First Peoples.
Feder's focus on the human aspects of famous places, and explicit centering of the histories and lives of Native Peoples in those places today, holds true to the spirit of modern archaeology and collaborative cultural heritage work. As such, this is a wonderful guidebook for anyone wanting to share the importance of that history with their friends and family, and to plan their next great road trip across America!--Holly Walters, Lecturer in Anthropology, Wellesley College, Department of Anthropology Ken Feder's guide to the U.S. National Parks most closely associated with our Indigenous heritage is wonderfully accessible and darn near essential. I've been to many of these sites, but after reading Feder's insightful descriptions of these magical places and their histories, I feel like I missed a lot and need to go back again. When I do, I'll have his book close at hand.--Brad Lepper, Senior Archaeologist, World Heritage Program, Ohio History Connection
