Indigenous Mexico

For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. 

From acclaimed and prizewinning historian Paul Gillingham, the rich and fascinating history of one of the world’s most diverse, politically groundbreaking, and influential of countries From its outset, “Mexico was more profoundly, globally hybrid than anywhere else in the prior history of...

An impossible city. A conqueror willing to risk everything. A woman caught between two worlds. In 1519, Hernán Cortés lands on the shores of an unknown territory. His ambition drives him to defy the gods, destiny, and the mighty Aztec Empire itself. Through jungles, volcanoes, and lakes, he will fight wars, endure betrayals, and witness human sacrifice. Amid the storm rises Doña Marina—La Malinche—his interpreter and ally, a woman capable of building a bridge between two civilizations. Across the seat of power, Moctezuma, the huey tlatoani, watches the arrival of the bearded men as a...

Most readers have been taught that philosophy began in Greece—and that everything else is myth, religion, or folklore. This book quietly overturns that assumption. An Introduction to Aztec Philosophy reveals a sophisticated tradition of thought developed by the Nahua people of ancient Mexico—one that grappled seriously with truth, ethics, uncertainty, beauty, and the sacred long before European contact. This is not a book about gods and legends alone. It is a book about how human beings learned to live wisely in a world they knew was fragile, unpredictable, and in constant motion. ...

This first complete account of the Lakota Indians traces their rich and often surprising history from the early 16th to the early 21st century. Pekka Hämäläinen explores the Lakotas' roots as marginal hunter-gatherers and reveals how they reinvented themselves twice: first as a river people who dominated the Missouri Valley, America's great commercial artery, and then - in what was America's first sweeping westward expansion - as a horse people who ruled supreme on the vast high plains.   

A forgotten legacy. A name erased from history. The voice of the first mestizo. A mysterious descendant of Hernán Cortés and La Malinche contacts the author to examine an ancient family manuscript. Within its pages lies the memory of Martín Cortés Malintzín —knight of the Order of Santiago and captain in the Spanish Tercios— who at last decides to tell his story in his own voice. Trained in the courts of King Charles I and his son Philip II, Martín rose to honor and glory before returning to New Spain, where his name would awaken suspicion and fear. Soldier, courtier, and heir to ...

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years.

With the end of the Civil War, the nation recommenced its expansion onto traditional Indian tribal lands, setting off a wide-ranging conflict that would last more than three decades. In an exploration of the wars and negotiations that destroyed tribal ways of life even as they made possible the emergence of the modern United States, Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail.

Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty—with...

Antes de que el país moderno naciera en 1821, el territorio que hoy comprende 32 estados y algunas islas pequeñas estaba habitado por antiguas dinastías y reinos de guerreros, astrónomos, sacerdotes, templos para sacrificios humanos y, sorprendentemente, algunas de las ciudades más grandes del mundo. Se estima que la sagrada ciudad de Chichén Itzá, en la península de Yucatán, en su máximo esplendor fue más grande que París.

It is time. It is time to increase the visibility, role, and responsibility of the emerging modern indigenous economy and the people involved. This is the foundation for economic reconciliation. This is indigenomics. Indigenomics lays out the tenets of the emerging indigenous economy, built around relationships, multigenerational stewardship of resources, and care for all.

Following Hernando Cortés's conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Aztec empire became the center of the largest European colony in the Americas. It has long been assumed that Indigenous people's personal experiences of this cataclysmic era are inaccessible. Spanish records do not reflect how...

An extensive update to the authoritative introduction to Mexico's ancient civilizations. Mexico arrives in its eighth edition with a new look and the most recent discoveries. This is the story of the pre-Spanish people of Mexico, who, with their neighbors the Maya, formed some of the most...

Indigenous oral narratives are an important source for, and component of, Coast Salish knowledge systems. Stories are not only to be recounted and passed down; they are also intended as tools for teaching. Jo-ann Archibald worked closely with Elders and storytellers, who shared both traditional and personal life-experience stories, in order to develop ways of bringing storytelling into educational contexts.

Caught in the crosshairs of gang violence, a teen girl and her mother set off on a perilous journey from Guatemala City to the US border in this “engrossing” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult novel from the author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From. For seventeen-year-old Maya, trashion is her...

Derrotados por la conquista, “evangelizados” y sometidos al vasallaje de la corona española durante tres siglos, declarados “inexistentes” por el liberalismo decimonónico y despojados de sus tierras comunales, por lo que se volvieron agraristas en la revolución de 1910, y oprimidos por el paternalismo indigenista contemproáneo, al despuntar el siglo XXI, ¿qué son hoy los pueblos indios de México?

Written in an accessible, conversational style that incorporates numerous stories and questions, this book exposes the weaknesses of a Western worldview through a personal engagement with Indigenous theology. Randy Woodley critiques the worldview that undergirds the North American church by dismantling assumptions regarding early North American histories and civilizations. Woodley explains that Western theology has settled for a particular view of God and has perpetuated that basic view for hundreds of years, but Indigenous theology originates from a completely different DNA.

This fascinating journey through Mexico’s history, from its amazing pre-Hispanic past to the end of the 20th century, will reveal more surprises than the listener can imagine. In the words of the self-proclaimed Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, “Mexico has magic. I looked for that magic, and I found it there.”

Dive into a tense military history of Mesoamerica, where indigenous resistance and colonial ambition violently collide. Perfect for an immersive commute, this epic narrative drops you onto the contested causeways of Tenochtitlan. Witness a complex drama of fragile alliances and psychological...

Hidden in the mountains, the indigenous peoples of Mexico have kept alive the spiritual path of the ancient Toltecs, one of the most powerful Mesoamerican spiritual traditions alive today. Tracing their lineage to a time before the Aztec, the Toltecs recognize Earth as a living being, share a profound communion with their land, and demonstrate unusual powers of perception.