Reference Books

REFERENCE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, 7TH ED, Barry Kline. Paper 8 x 11 690 pp, $49.50

Listings, bibliography, biographies for U.S. and Canada The big Gale Almanac is preferable for a library reference, and so is the $19 paperback abridged version. The 7th edition has far fewer pages -- less content -- than the 5th (reviewed below) and is $15 more in price. This is basically a listing of contacts -- addresses and phones -- for Native organizations, and despite being updated every other year, is always badly out of date by the time it's printed and distributed. As a fact reference it is rather thin and incomplete.

Review of 5th ed (1990): This hefty book (over 1,000 pages) is handy if you need to get in contact with Indians or Indian organizations in the United States and Canada. It is more of a Native indeex than an encyclopedia, but the nice thing about this book is that it is reasonably up to date and accurate. It lists addresses and phone numbers for reservations, tribal councils, Indian organizations, museums, libraries, and periodicals; it even has a who's who and a short bibliography. Reviewed by Alexander Ewen, Native Nations Magazine, June/July 1991