A narrative history about the various Indian people of North America and their way of life before contact with Europeans. Brimming with quotes from original source documents, this young adult series explores the complex relations between Native Americans and non-Indians from the arrival of Columbus to the present day. All titles make clear the importance of Native Americans to this country's past and its present. By weaving passages from original documents into dramatic narratives, each title in the series creates a remarkably vivid portrait of specific aspects of American Indian heritage and history. The series provides the kind of valuable information too frequently left out of textbooks and general histories. Each practical reference is enhanced by carefully chosen historical drawings, photographs, and maps; an up-to-date bibliography and further reading list; and a complete index. On the day Columbus sighted land, an estimated six million people lived throughout North, Central, and South America. Most of the information recorded about their flourishing civilizations derives from archaeological and ethnographic evidence. Before the Storm completes the record by focusing primarily on the material culture of these early North American people.