This book manages to combine a general overview of the history and culture of the North American Indian people with specific detailed accounts of their individual civilisations. The more than 450 illustrations and photographs accompanying the text provide a tangible background to and insight into the lives, customs and artistic talents of these nations before and after the white man's usurpation of their land. There is no one agreed theory as to the origins of "the Indians", but historians can trace their ancestry back more than 12,000 years to Asian hunters who migrated across a then existent land bridge (today's Bering Strait) in hot pursuit of Ice Age big game such as the mastodon. They arrived in Alaska and gradually began to spread until eventually they inhabited the entire continent from Pacific to Atlantic coasts and from the Arctic to Central America. At one time they boasted a population of more than 40 million. The Indian names passed down Owl Woman, Driver Pheasant, Black Kettle, Tall Oak, Iron Teeth and, my favourite, Never Been Shot bare both descriptive and reflective of the lives they led. The sophisticated systems of government, unique artisan skills and structured way of life which they developed and enjoyed, flourished until the arrival of the white man in the late 15th century. The rest is, as they say, history. The account of just how horrific was the white man's conquering destruction of these Nations makes for painful reading. It's no exaggeration to say that European Jews in the 20th century were not the first to experience a holocaust at the hands of professed Christians. That anything at all remains to remind us of the existence of these ancient civilisation seems little short of miraculous. A measurement of this book's achievement is that it provides a stunning introduction to that almost lost world.