Handbook of North American Indians

The Handbook of North American Indians is a series of edited scholarly and reference volumes in Native American studies, published by the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1978. Planning for the handbook series began in the late 1960s and work was initiated following a special congressional appropriation in fiscal year 1971.^[1] To date, 16 volumes have been published. Each volume addresses a subtopic of Americanist research and contains a number of articles or chapters by individual specialists in the field coordinated and edited by a volume editor. The overall series of 20 volumes is planned and coordinated by a general or series editor. Until the series was suspended, mainly due to lack of funds, the series editor was William C. Sturtevant, who died in 2007.^[2]

This work documents information about all Indigenous peoples of the Americas north of Mexico, including cultural and physical aspects of the people, language family, history, and worldviews. This series is a reference work for historians, anthropologists, other scholars, and the general reader. The series utilized noted authorities for each topic. The set is illustrated, indexed, and has extensive bibliographies. Volumes may be purchased individually.