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Home / Periods / History of the Americas / Native American History

Period

Native American History

c. 15,000 BCE–present

Native American History encompasses the histories of the many Indigenous nations and communities of North America. It begins with the earliest settlement of the continent and includes changing languages, political systems, trade networks, farming traditions, hunting societies, towns, cities and religious worlds developed over thousands of years.

This history is not a single period or culture. Peoples living in the Arctic, the Pacific coast, the Great Plains, the Southwest, the Eastern Woodlands and the Mississippi Valley created distinct societies and responded differently to climate change, migration, warfare, diplomacy and European colonisation.

It provides a responsible general category for books about early migration, mound-building cities, Pueblo communities, Haudenosaunee history, Great Plains societies and later Native experiences without treating all of these peoples as one culture.

Series

Series about Native American History (4 series)

The Earliest Americans in Order

by W. Michael Gear 7 books 4.6(1,805)

The Earliest Americans presents newly divided and revised editions of several major stories from North America’s Forgotten Past. Its linked arcs move from the political struggle surrounding Salamander in an early Mississippi Valley town, through conflict among Ice Age peoples of the Pacific Northwest and upper Midwest, to…

The Peacemaker’s Tale in Order

by W. Michael Gear 8 books 4.5(4,172)

The Peacemaker’s Tale follows families and captives living through prolonged warfare among the Iroquoian nations before the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The first four volumes centre on Koracoo and Gonda’s pursuit of the child trader Gannajero, while the later books return to the surviving children as adults…

The Moundville Duology in Order

by W. Michael Gear 2 books 4.4(2,851)

The Moundville Duology is set around Split Sky City on the Black Warrior River during the height of the Mississippian chiefdoms. Old White, Trader and the Contrary Two Petals travel into a political world shaped by conquest, slavery, tribute and rivalry between the dominant Sky Hand people and…

North America’s Forgotten Past in Order

by W. Michael Gear 19 books 4.1(41,416)

North America’s Forgotten Past is a sequence of historical novels set among Indigenous peoples across North America, from Ice Age migration and environmental change to mound-building cities, Pueblo centres, Great Lakes trade, Atlantic communities and the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Most volumes use a new location, period…

Books

24 Best Novels About Native American History

Non-Fiction

7 Best Non-Fiction Books About Native American History

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.