Atlas of Native American History

The authors have undertaken a monumental task in attempting to tell the history of various Native American peoples through a geographic prizm. That said, Compton does a reasonably accurate job.The difficulty lies in the fact that many Native People were semi-nomadic in habit. For example, the Dghelia Sioux people (The Omaha, Ponca, etc) migrated onto the eastern Great Plains from the Ohio River Valley in recent pre-historical times. And the Shawnee, a well-known nation, only settled into their Ohio "homeland" when the original inhabitants--the Miamiwek--felt pressure from across the Appalachians from the whites and Iroquois, and invited the SHawnee to settle in.Compton has presented recent theories on these and other migrations and eventual settlements with clarity and accuracy, and has done about a good a job as anyone could expect. His coverage of the sedentary peoples (eg-Hopi) is also first-class.His history has more breadth than depth, but given the scope of the work, that is understandable.All in all, a very useful resource book.