The Book of the Indians of North America

The Book of the Indians of North America by Samuel Gardner Drake is a comprehensive nineteenth-century historical work documenting the lives, history, customs, conflicts, and leaders of the Indigenous peoples of North America. Drawing upon early historical records, frontier accounts, oral traditions, and colonial narratives, Drake assembled one of the earliest broad surveys of Native American history available to American readers. The work includes biographical sketches of prominent Native American chiefs and leaders, descriptions of tribal societies and customs, accounts of wars and negotiations with European settlers, and discussions of the cultural and political relationships between Indigenous nations and colonial governments. Drake also examines early theories concerning the origins and migration of the peoples of North America. Originally published in the nineteenth century, the book reflects both the historical scholarship and perspectives of its era while preserving a large body of source material valuable to historians, researchers, genealogists, collectors, and students of Native American and early American history. This Digital Scanning edition reproduces the historic text in a modern trade paperback format for contemporary readers and research libraries.