Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian

Edited by Barry T. Klein
Todd Publications (2023)
1343 pages

Review by Bradley Shreve

Now in its 30^th edition, the Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian is a comprehensive listing of Native nations, organizations, agencies, schools, facilities, companies, resources, and people in Indian Country. While it may not be completely exhaustive, it comes close. The book, available in both print and electronic formats, is an impressive achievement in information gathering and, more importantly, a relevant and useful resource.

Editor Barry Klein organizes the encyclopedia into four parts. The initial section begins with a listing of every federally and state recognized tribe, as well as Indian communities not recognized. It is organized alphabetically by state and includes contact information and lists the current tribal chair or president. Listings do not, however, distinguish between tribes that are state or federally recognized (or not recognized at all). This would be helpful information for a future edition.

After this index, are sub-sections listing government agencies that interface with Native nations followed by national associations and organizations that are involved in or in some way connected to Indian affairs. For example, there are intertribal, Native-controlled organizations such as the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and the National Indian Youth Council, as well as predominantly non-Native ones such as the Order of the Indian Wars, which is group of military historians and history buffs. These listings are followed by separate, alphabetically organized sub-sections for Bureau of Indian Education schools, American Indian higher education programs and tribal colleges, Indian Health Service offices and facilities, museums and tribal parks, libraries and research centers, radio and television outlets, law firms, casinos and resorts, and periodicals. This latter sub-section includes small, local publications such as the Anishinaabeg Mom-Weh newsletter, national popular magazines such as Native Peoples, academic journals like American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and online media platforms such as Indianz.com. As thorough as Klein is, sections on major powwows and intertribal gatherings, as well as annual conferences and symposiums, are missing.

The second part of the encyclopedia is devoted to First Nations in Canada. This section includes all of the same information listed for American Indian nations found in the first part, including a listing by province of each First Nation. The sub-section on college programs and higher education institutions includes listings for all of Canada’s First Nations-chartered colleges such as Red Crow Community College on the Blood Reserve in Alberta.

The encyclopedia’s third part is an extensive bibliography of some 11,000 books pertaining to or authored by Native peoples. The bibliography is broken into three sub-sections. The first is a listing of books by title. Here, one can find books published by Salish Kootenai College Press, Tribal College Press, and Cankdeska Cikana Community College Press such as Louis Garcia’s Grass Dance of the Spirit Lake Dakota. The second section is organized by subject, which at times is more confusing than helpful. For example, under activism one would expect to find Charles Wilkinson’s landmark book, Blood Struggle, but, alas, it is not listed. The third sub-section is a comprehensive directory of various presses that publish the aforementioned books.

The final part of the encyclopedia is a directory of prominent people, both Native and non-Native, in Indian Country. As can be discerned, this section would be excruciatingly difficult to keep up to date, especially for a single editor. For example, Pearl Brower is listed as the president of Ilisagvik College, a position she has not held for several years. Other times, the listings are incorrect, such as that for my colleague, Marvene Tom, whose tribal affiliation is listed as Paiute rather than Navajo.

Despite these shortcomings, this reference encyclopedia is informative and helpful. At times, I found myself completely immersed in mining the various sections. Moreover, the editor Barry Klein, who painstakingly compiled this on his own and without the aid of modern AI tools, deserves a medal. The Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian is an indispensable resource that everyone who interfaces with Native nations should have on their shelves (or as an e-book on their computer).

Bradley Shreve, PhD, is the editor of Tribal College Journal.