Native Peoples of North America - Introductory Anthropological Text - Overview

Aug 25, 2026

Native Peoples of North America is an introductory anthology-style textbook on Indigenous peoples of North America, primarily the United States and Canada, organized around key anthropological concepts. The book covers language, kinship, marriage and family life, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts, presenting prehistoric, historic, and contemporary perspectives. Each chapter opens with an oral tradition example aligned to the chapter theme and includes suggested readings, videos, and classroom activities. Additional sections provide author background and notes on using the text in undergraduate Native American and cultural anthropology courses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages219

Reading Time5 h 37 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

About this Textbook

About the Author

Reviewer’s Notes

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - IN 1491

Chapter 2 - ALL OUR RELATIONS

Chapter 3 - RESOURCES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION

Chapter 4 - STATUS, RANK AND POWER

Chapter 5 - RELIGION AND SPIRITUAL BELIEFS

Chapter 6 - IS THERE A WORD FOR ART?

Conclusions

References

Videos

Native Peoples of North America Dr. Susan Stebbins SUNY Potsdam Native Peoples of North America Dr. Susan Stebbins 2013 Open SUNY Textbooks 2013 Susan Stebbins This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Published by Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Library (IITG PI) State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454 Cover design by William Jones About this Textbook Native Peoples of North America is intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective. As such, the text is organized around anthropological concepts such as language, kinship, marriage and family life, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts. Prehistoric, historic and contemporary information is presented. Each chapter begins with an example from the oral tradition that reflects the theme of the chapter. The text includes suggested readings, videos and classroom activities. About the Author Susan Stebbins, D.A., Professor of Anthropology and Director of Global Studies, SUNY Potsdam Dr. Susan Stebbins (Doctor of Arts in Humanities from the University at Albany) has been a member of the SUNY Potsdam Anthropology department since 1992. At Potsdam she has taught Cultural Anthropology, Introduction to Anthropology, Theory of Anthropology, Religion, Magic and Witchcraft, and many classes focusing on Native Americans,includingThe Native Americans,Indian Images and Women in Native America. Her research has been both historical (Traditional Roles of Iroquois Women) and contemporary, including research about a political protest at the bridge connecting New York, the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation and Ontario, Canada, and Native American Education, particularly that concerning the Native peoples of New York. She currently is the Special Assistant to the President for Diversity at SUNY Potsdam, where she continues to teach Native American Studies. Reviewer’s Notes Native Peoples of North America is a groundbreaking new text for undergraduate introductory courses in Native American Studies. Dr. Susan Stebbins, the author, is a Native American scholar whois trained as a cultural anthropologist and specializes in Native American and Indigenous Studies. As such, she writes this accessible text from an anthropological perspective, carefully presenting basic concepts of cultural anthropology such as ethnography, kinship, fieldwork, demography, society, modes of subsistence, type of political organization, and assimilation, while using Native North American examples to illustrate and explain each point.This book could,therefore, be successfully used to teach Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at tribal colleges, as well as courses in Native American Studies at other colleges and universities. Clearly covering topics as the devastating influences of Europeanintroduced diseases, the varying perspectives held by the colonial nations about Native people, indigenous religions, revitalization movements, federal Indian policies, and expressive culture, Stebbins draws on a wealth of examples from prehistoric sites to contemporary events to effectively tell the story of the hundreds of different societies making up what is known today as Native North America. While doing this, Stebbins does not treat Native North America or its peoples as isolates as has been done for generations in hegemonic discourse. Rather, she systematically places them within the context of world cultures in both time and space in order to dispel stereotypes and build multicultural understandings. Dr. Maureen Trudelle Schwarz, Professor, Anthropology, Syracuse University Open SUNY Textbook Peer Reviewer About Open SUNY Textbooks Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libra

FAQs

What is the textbook’s main purpose and perspective?

It is an introductory text on Native peoples of North America presented from an anthropological perspective.

Which topics does the book organize its chapters around?

Chapters focus on concepts such as language, kinship, political and economic organization, food getting, spiritual and religious practices, and the arts.

How is each chapter structured to support learning?

Each chapter begins with an oral tradition example related to the chapter’s theme and includes suggested readings, videos, and classroom activities.

Aug 25, 2026

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