Adams, Richard E.W. and Murdo J. MacLeod, eds. The Cambridge History of the Native
Peoples of the Americas. Vol. 2. Mesoamerica. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

A comprehensive study of all indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere.  Employs archeology, history, and anthropology.  Volume I covers North American peoples from arrival to present, focusing on adaptation to diverse physical environments, European colonial regimes, and national governments.  Volume II examines Mesoamerican Paleo, Archaic, and Preclassic societies through today.  Volume II covers South America.

Cahill, David and Blanca Tovias, eds.  New World, First Nations : Native Peoples of
Mesoamerica and the Andes Under Colonial Rule. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2006.

Interdisciplinary (history, archaeology, anthropology) essays that compare the experiences formerly within Native peoples within the Aztec, Maya, and Inca civilizations from the sixteenth century through the early nineteenth century.  Emphasis is placed on challenges and responses to colonial rule, specifically focusing on institutions, religion, legal and economic systems. 

Carmack, Robert M., Gary H. Gossen, and Janine Gasco, eds. The Legacy of Mesoamerica:
History and Culture of a Native American Civilization. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 1995.

Traces the origins and history of Mesoamerican cultures and emphasizes their contributions to present-day societies in Mexico and Central America.  The authors explain, “we attempt to present the Mesoamerican cultures in terms of both the symbols and meanings by which they are constituted, and the material and behavioral contexts within which these ideas are created and transformed. We are interested as much in how the Mesoamerican cultures have been created as in what they are like” (p. 35-36).

Dickason, Olive Patricia. Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest
Times. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.

Comprehensive history of over 50 First Nations in present-day Canada.  Dickason “concentrates on their antiquity in the Americas, their active participation in European enterprises (such as the fur trade), their spirit of residence to outside control in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, [and] their refusal to disappear as cultural entities in the twentieth.”  -- Donald B. Smith, American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2. (Spring, 1994), pp. 256-258.

Driver, Harold. Indians of North America. 2nd rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1973.

Covers the following: origin and prehistory; culture areas; language; substance patterns; narcotics and stimulants; architecture; clothing; crafts; art; music and dance; economics; kinship; property; government and social controls; violence; social classes; sodalities and ceremonies; life cycle; education; religion, magic, and medicine; personality; history and culture in Mexico; Indian-White Relations in the United States; culture in the United States; history and culture in Canada, Alaska, and Greenland; achievements and contributions.

Fleras, Augie and Jean Leonard Elliot. The "Nations Within": Aboriginal-State Relations in
Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

According to the preface, this political history “is not about aboriginal peoples per se; it does not delve into aboriginal language, culture, history, or personalities,” but rather “on relationships and intergroup dynamics within a framework of government policy and administration.” 

Goehring, Brian. Indigenous Peoples of the World: An Introduction to Their Past, Present, and
Future. Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 1993.

Explores the impact of European territorial and economic expansion upon indigenous peoples throughout the world.  Discusses disease, dispossession, political marginalization, and socio-cultural disruption, and compares indigenous struggles throughout the world.

Horna, Hernán. LA Indianidad: The Indigenous World Before Latin Americans. Princeton, NJ:
Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001.

The “purpose in the text is to provide a counternarrative to a tradition within Western scholarship that denigrated indigenous peoples as culturally and racially inferior, ignored the accomplishment of pre-Columbian civilizations, and, even worse, suggested that the European conquest rescued indigenous cultures from their own savagery.... [He] provides a catalog of the accomplishments of the Mayan, Mexican, and Incan civilizations…. and laments the loss of cultures and practices that dominated the region prior to the sixteenth century.” --Alexander S. Dawson, Journal of World History 14.4 (2003) 559-561.

Jaimes, M. Annette. State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance. Boston:
South End Press, 1992.

Fifteen essays address contemporary issues including treaty rights and international status, self-governance, U.S. repression, spiritual hucksterism, resource development, and religious freedom.  Much of the text is presented through the lens of conquest, colonization, and liberation.

Josephy, Alvin, ed. America In 1492: The World of the Indian Peoples Before the Arrival of
Columbus. New York: Knopf (Distributed by Random House), 1992.

“America in 1492 is designed to present a generalized and comprehensive view of the peoples of pre-Columbia America.  Using an expanded culture-area model, four scholars describe North America, one covers Central America, and two discuss South America.... Six additional chapters describe ‘American civilization’ topically, taking up language, religion, social organization, science, art, and intertribal contact and trade.”--Michael D. Green, The Journal of American History, Vol. 79, No. 4. (Mar., 1993), pp. 1572.

Kicza, John, ed. The Indian in Latin American History: Resistance, Resilience, and
Acculturation. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1993.

Ten previously published articles on South American Indians (excluding those in Brazil) from pre-European contact through the present.  “The overarching objective of this book is to lay to rest the image of the passive, defeated Indian.  These essays celebrate the ability of Indian societies to resist and alter colonial and national projects.  Indian societies emerge as dynamic cultures that selectively accommodated new European systems.”—Michael T. Ducey, The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 4. (Nov., 1995), pp. 665.

Lyon, Patricia, ed. Native South Americans: Ethnology of the Least Known Continent. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1974.

Lyons, Mary E. and William Leonard Fash, eds. The Ancient American World. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005.

This children’s book includes a variety of primary sources to explore the indigenous American cultures over thousands of  years.  The publisher explains, “the wonders of Mesoamerica and the Andes are explored through engaging narratives based on documents and artifacts ranging from classic Mayan inscriptions to the Aztec Great Temple.”

Miller, J.R. Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada. Rev.
ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

According to the publisher, this comprehensive history of Indian-white relations in Canada traces “charts the deterioration of the relationship from the initial, mutually beneficial contact in the fur trade to the current impasse in which Indians are resisting displacement and marginalization.... [It] includes new material on the North, and reflects changes brought about by the Oka crisis, the sovereignty issue, and the various court decisions of the 1990s. It also includes new material on residential schools, treaty making, and land claims.”

Nichols, Roger. Indians in the U.S. and Canada: A Comparative. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1998.

“Nichols manages to cover a five-century span with attention to general and specific issues.  He examines the period between the 1500s and the 1860s as a series of frontier encounters or zones of interethnic competition and conflict, and interprets the 1860s to the 1990s as an example of emerging and modern states (xv).  Throughout both periods, Nichols compares and contrasts the interactions between Indians and Europeans in Canada and the United States.”—Rob Nestor, American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 2. (Spring, 1999), pp. 72.

Steward, Julian, ed. Handbook of South American Indians. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1946-1959.

The first four volumes address Marginal, Andean, Tropical Forest, and Circum-Caribbean Tribes, respectively.  Entries for tribe follow a common pattern: introduction, geographic sketch, tribal account, enumeration of tribal division, and post-conquest history.  Volume five is devoted to comparative anthropology and volume six explores physical anthropology, linguistics, and cultural geography.  Volume seven is the index.

Van Cott, Donna Lee, ed. Indigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America. New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1994.

“Despite a table of contents structed by geography (‘The Andean Region,’ ‘Mesoamerica,’ ‘The Southern Cone’), there are three meaningful sections to this book: a well-articulated overview by editor Van Cott in which she also raises some key points for both scholars and policy makers; and indispensable chapter by Alison Brysk on the rights of indigenous peoples and international politics; and the eight nicely drawn, largely descriptive essays on the region’s most important concentrations of indigenous peoples.” –Eric Selbin, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 90, No. 3. (Sep., 1996), pp. 686.

Wearne, Phillip. Return of the Indian: Conquest and Revival in the Americas. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1996.

Traces indigenous resistance of Europeans from Spanish Conquest through the present, emphasizing identity by contrasting Indian and European views of self and community, land, and language.  Six chapters address: definitions and diversity; pre-Columbus culture; human rights; assimilation and development; and organization and revival.  Two appendixes examine indigenous population figures and contact organizations working on indigenous issues.

Wright, Ronald. Stolen Continents: The Americas Through Indian Eyes Since 1492. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1992. 

“Stolen Continents is both valuable and accessible.  By amassing the colonialist experience of five different Native American civilizations as expressed in their texts, Wright provides a unique forum for their distinct discourses of resistance.  He achieves this in a style that is neither pedantic nor romantic; it simply contextualizes a compelling self-portrait of yet-unavanquished Native American peoples and their indictment of the Europeans who violated their sovereignty.”  -- Robert V. H. Dover, The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 74, No. 4. (Nov., 1994), pp. 703.