Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491
by
by
A great look at the Americas before and after Columbus, including the probable origins of the tribes that have lived there. Also, how those tribes shaped the land and how large a role European diseases played in the shaping of the tribes, and even the United States, 300+ years later. As the book points out, today we are still discovering just how much these tribes modified the land and how widespread they really were. Most were wiped out ahead of the waves of pioneers and Spanish conquistadors. In fact, many of the Spanish conquistadors and pioneers owe their very survival to mass die-offs in tribes. Despite being a relatively short read, it is packed with information probably not mentioned in your school history books.
