Working With 500 Nations by Alvin M Josephy Jr
I picked up a copy of 500 Nations Alvin M Josephy Jr at a used bookstore in Albuquerque around 2004. It was falling apart at the spine, which turned out to be useful because the pages are thick glossy stock that want to stick together if you force the book open flat. A lot of people treat this book as a coffee table piece, but it is actually one of the more useful reference works on Native American history that exists in print. The original 1991 edition ran over 400 pages with substantial photo essays and mapped timelines. The later editions vary in content because different publishers cut or added material depending on the format. It is a comprehensive illustrated history covering Indigenous peoples of the Americas from pre-contact through the modern era. Josephy was a journalist and historian who spent decades researching this material. The book covers roughly 500 distinct nations and tribal groups, though the exact count shifts depending on whether you classify bands, clans, and confederacies separately. The narrative approach is chronological with heavy emphasis on visual documentation. Maps, photographs, timeline graphics, and genealogical tables make up a significant portion of the page count. This is not a text-heavy academic monograph. It is a visual reference organized for browsing and quick lookup. The book went through multiple printings and several publishers. Knopf released the first edition. Later printings came through Golden Books and other distributors, which is why you will see different ISBNs floating around. The paperback editions tend to have thinner paper and slightly smaller reproductions of the maps. If you are looking for the full photo essay quality, the hardcover editions from the original run are noticeably better. A used copy in decent condition usually runs between 15 and 40 dollars depending on the edition. Amazon, AbeBooks, and Powell's all carry them periodically. Direct PDF versions do not exist from any legitimate publisher, and any site offering a full digital download is distributing a pirated copy. I would not bother with those anyway because the resolution on scanned pages never matches the print quality, and the color separation gets muddy.
Start with the index if you have a specific nation or region in mind. The index entries are generally reliable, though they vary in depth depending on how much coverage a particular group received. I once spent an afternoon tracking down information on the Yakama Confederacy and found that the index listed it under both names with cross-references. The map section near the front is where most people skip, but the pre-contact distribution maps are worth studying before diving into the chronological chapters. They give you a baseline for understanding how territory shifted over time. The timeline graphics run throughout the book rather thaned in one section. This means you will encounter date clusters that help anchor events in context. I find it helpful to keep a notebook and note which pages cover which centuries so you can flip back and forth without losing your place. The visual layout works against you if you try to read straight through from cover to cover. Your eyes will glaze over the photo essays and you will miss the textual narrative.
Practical Issues and Workarounds
The binding on the hardcover editions is tight. When you open it to a two-page spread, the center gutter swallows about half an inch of each page. This is a problem if you are trying to read text that runs close to the spine. I solved this by placing a small rubber book cradle under the open pages, which holds the book at a comfortable angle and lets the pages lie flatter without damaging the spine. Another issue is the gloss on the pages reflecting light when you are reading under bright lamps. A matte reading light positioned at an angle from the left side eliminates most of the glare without washing out the color in the photographs. The later reprints sometimes drop certain photo essays that appeared in the original Knopf edition. If you are doing serious research and notice gaps, check the ISBN on your copy against the original 1991 listing. The 1991 first edition contains material that later printings omitted. I learned this the hard way when a colleague pointed out that my 1997 reprint was missing the entire section on the Seminole Wars that the earlier edition covered in detail.
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Limitations You Should Know About
This is not a scholarly source you should cite in an academic paper without cross-referencing. Josephy was a skilled popular historian, not a peer-reviewed academic. Some of the dates and tribal classifications in the book reflect the understanding available in the early 1990s, and archaeological and anthropological research has moved forward since then. The treatment of certain nations is brief while others receive disproportionate coverage simply because more source material existed at the time of writing. The Pacific Northwest and Southeastern tribes tend to have more extensive documentation in the book compared to Plains groups further west, which is a reflection of archival availability rather than historical significance. The visual emphasis means the narrative can feel thin in places. If you read a chapter and feel like you are missing context about political structures or economic systems, that is a known gap. Supplement with works like Richard White's The Middle Ground or the Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas for deeper analysis. The 500 Nations Alvin M Josephy Jr edition works best as a starting point and visual guide rather than a final authority.
What Makes It Worth Keeping
The photo essays are some of the best collection of historical imagery on Native American history available in a single volume. The genealogical tables for major confederacies like the Haudenosaunee and the Creek are genuinely useful. The maps showing territorial changes over centuries are better than most standalone atlas entries. I keep mine on a shelf in the living room because I reference it whenever someone asks me about a specific tribal nation and I need a quick factual anchor before sending them to more detailed sources. It is not perfect. No single volume covering this scope can be. But it remains one of the most accessible and visually informative books on the subject, and having a physical copy means you are not dependent on any particular website staying online or a digital format remaining compatible with future devices.
