If You Lived with the Indians of the Northwest Coast

As a teacher I use some of the books in the series to read to my 8th grade History classes. I utilize the books around the units in American History to expand student knowledge of the people or situations we are discussing. I read 4-5 pages everyday and we discuss the information contained in the books. The students gain a much better perspective of what it was like.

As a fifth grade teacher in Michigan, my first Social Studies unit covers the ways American Indians in different regions of America adapted to their environment. This book, along with its companion books about the Souix, Iroquois, and Hopi Indians, are excellent supplements to the textbook. Each one presents a wealth of information in a question and answer format easily understandable by elementary students.

This is a very nice book aimed at the 3-6th grade audience. It is written in plain simple language, but not simplistic or condescending "little kid talk." Using a Question/Answer format (one question per page), it is a very good, reasonably thorough telling of what life was like. It goes beyond "they ate berries and salmon," and asks (and answers) such human-interest questions as "Did they have parties? What was most valuable to them? Were grown-ups strict?" Not only are these questions good at revealing what life was like for these people, they are the sort of questions kids ask, and thus it draws them into the answers. It might be a bit too much for the K-2 grades, but 3rd through 6th graders who read this on their own will mostly enjoy it and learn from it. Indeed, I've been doing in-depth reading in this area for years, and I not only enjoyed reading it myself, I actually got a better perspective on some things.If you have a kid in this age range, and you want them to learn about this generally under-publicized yet fascinating native culture, this is an excellent book.