According to its dust jacket, Blood and Land promises to deliver a “dazzling, panoramic account of the history and achievements of Native North Americans, and why they matter today.” In terms of its chronological and topical breadth, J. C. H. King's book succeeds magnificently. It is, indeed, breathtaking in terms of the number of tribal communities it addresses, the variety of themes it explores, and the vastness of the time period it covers. The author clearly evidences the rich returns of extensive travels through Native North America, as he surveys the history of federal Indian policy; topics including land, religion, language and literature, and art and materiality; and particular regions, including the East, West, North, and Pacific northwest coast.

Blood and Land, however, is not without its challenges. The organizational structure of the book, which the author explains in “A Note on the Text,” is well intended but not altogether successful. The first two chapters are to be historical, with the first focussed on “the exceptional context of the survival of First and Native Nations through the twentieth century” and the second detailing “how this happened” (vii). The chapters do not do that. Chapter 1 leads readers through the late nineteenth century, ending with a brief discussion of assimilationist boarding schools, such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Chapter 2 essentially picks up in the 1920s and ends with an exploration of contemporary controversies over the enrollment of tribal citizens. The remaining eight chapters shift from a chronological orientation to topical and regional ones, introducing considerable redundancy along the way.

The feeling of being presented with a scattershot perspective that sacrifices depth in the name of breadth, while also lacking analytical coherence, is further reinforced by the absence of a conclusion. Rather than addressing what all of this impressive coverage over the course of more than five hundred pages of text adds up to, the author leaves us with this narrow observation about Native communities in northern California: “In all of these things the changing balances and checks in this very diverse area bring unexpected developments” (549).

Readers will learn a little about a great many things. But this comes at the expense of sustained analysis and a tendency not to drill deeper down into the complexities of various individuals, themes, and regions. The source citations reflect as much. While they are adequate for general readers, scholars will find themselves wanting more expansive notes that evidence engagement with a broader base of secondary sources.

These criticisms aside, Blood and Land really is dazzling and panoramic, and it deserves to gain wide readership – in the general public especially. Individuals new to Native North America will learn much about the ideological underpinnings of federal–Indian relations, as well as the policies to which these ideas gave rise – from removal and reservation making to allotment, assimilation, reorganization, termination, and self-determination. More important still, King introduces readers to a tremendous array of American Indian activists, intellectuals, writers, and artists. We gain through the middle sections of the book, in particular, an appreciation for critical figures such as Ada Deer, LaDonna Harris, and Vine Deloria Jr., as well as James Luna, N. Scott Momaday, Hank Adams, and Gerald Vizenor. King also paints interesting and engaging portraits of how tribal communities in the East, West, North, and Pacific northwest coast confronted extraordinary challenges and navigated them with surprising degrees of success. And finally, the author writes compellingly on pressing contemporary issues, especially race, gaming, acknowledgment, appropriation, repatriation, representation, and authenticity.

Perhaps better subtitled “Stories of Native North America” rather than “The Story of Native North America,” Blood and Land is expansive and attentive to the diversity and distinctiveness of Indigenous peoples’ encounters with colonialism. A thought-provoking and challenging work, it serves as an effective entrée to Native North America. It would have been made that much better with a different organizational approach and a final concluding chapter to weave its many threads into a coherent whole.