Includes index.

Bibliography: p. 237-270.

Background. The region and its resources ; The first Europeans -- The people. The tribes and their distribution ; Personal characteristics ; Health and illness ; Religion and philosophy -- The household. A place to live ; Household and personal equipment ; The family meals (The cooking pot ; Maize ; Beans, squashes, and pumpkins ; Roots and nuts ; Fruits ; Sugar and salt ; Game, fish, and seafood ; A diet for superb health) ; The roles of the sexes ; The day's round ; Beyond the round -- The bountiful earth. The soil ; The provision of nature ; Preparing for cultivation (Farming tools ; The fields) ; Cultivated crops (Corn, beans, squashes, and watermelons ; Roots ; Tobacco) ; The season's round (Storing the yield ; Fall hunting) -- Interrelations. Trade and conflict ; Travel and communications -- Afterword: A promising society -- Appendix: Uses of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.

This is an extremely useful book which one returns to again and again as a reference work. Its scope is the broadest, taking in every aspect of Indian life as the early explorers and colonists found it, from personal appearance and characteristics to diet and agriculture, social organization, and intertribal relations...