The Native Races (Vol. 1-5)

Book excerpt: The Native Races of the Pacific States is the magnum opus American historian and ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft who took upon himself the task of researching the exotic civilizations of the entire Pacific coast region. This region, from Alaska to Darien, including the whole of Mexico and Central America, he named the Pacific States. Before the arrival of Europeans, these territories were populated by aborigines, from the reptile-eating cave-dwellers of the Great Basin, to the Aztec and Maya civilization of the southern table-land. Volume 1 – Wild Tribes Volume 2 – Civilized Nations Volume 3 – Myths and Languages Volume 4 – Antiquities Volume 5 – Primitive History