American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian. 4th ed. Edited by Barry T. Klein. New York: Todd Publications, 1986. Volume 1-642 pp, Volume 2-302 pp. $90.00 Cloth. Atlas of Ancient America. By Michael Coe, Dean Snow and Elizabeth Benson. New York: Facts on File, 1986. 240 pp. illus. (part col.). $35.00 Cloth. American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1925-1970. Edited by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. Parins. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986. 553 pp. $65.00 Cloth. American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1971-1985. Edited by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and James W. Parins. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986. 609 pp. $85.00 Cloth. A Guide to Cherokee Documents in the Northeastern United States. Compiled by Paul Kutsche. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986. 531 pp. $75.00 Cloth. A Guide to the Archives of Hampton Institute. Compiled by Fritz J, Malval. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986. 600 pp. $75.00 cloth. Native American Folklore in Nineteenth Century Periodicals. Edited by William M. Clements. Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 1986. 271 pp. $21.95 Cloth. During the 1980s there has been a decrease in the number of reference books published that deal with American Indians. An indication of the decline is seen in the number of titles reviewed in American Reference Books Annual, a major review source for reference books. Between 1975 and 1979 seventy-seven reference books about American Indians were reviewed, while the 1980 to 1984 period had only 61 such books. My impression is that the decline has continued. However, the quality of the books produced has generally improved. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a great many American Indian ”reference books” were little more than repackaged public domain material with a high price tag or, in at least one instance, a fraud. Perhaps the best known example of the problems that accompanied ethnic reference book production in the 1970s is the Encyclopedia of Indians of the Americas: Volume 1: Conspectus (St. Clair Shores, MI: Scholarly Press, Inc., 1974). Volume One was carefully done with many ”name” contributors and this caused many libraries to take advantage of the publisher’s “prepublication, prepayment’’ offer. Unfortunately, no other volumes were published and eventually a number of lawsuits were filed against the publisher naming one or more of the 27 different company names the publisher had used. All of the 27 nonexistent companies ”published” ethnic reference books. This is an extreme example and one that ended in the courts with a great deal of publicity; however, there were many other cases that never would or could have resulted in a lawsuit because it was a matter of ”buyer beware.’’ In the last five or six years there have been very few cases of grossly inaccurate poor quality publications.