Author Description

"Exploring the relationship between Native Americans and the natural world. Biodiversity and Native America questions the widespread view that indigenous peoples and minimal ecological impact in North America. Introducing a variety of perspectives - ethnopharmacological, ethnographic, archaeological, and biological - the expert contributors show that Native Americans were active managers of natural ecological systems. The book covers groups from the sophisticated agriculturalists of the Mississippi River drainage region to the low-density hunter-gatherers of arid western North America."--BOOK JACKET.