Despite the 2013 release date, the author mentions multiple migrations from Asia once, but the graphic map on page 11 shows only 1 overland migration route from Asia. It doesn't mention coastal faring sailors as others have, even in the subsections on California or the Pacific Northwest.
The tribe by tribe breakdown is too little to be useful. Most are just 4 or 5 paragraphs. The 1st paragraph details language family and general region, the second relations with other Native groups and a sentence on some aspect and the last 2 or 3 whatever tragedies at the hands of Europeans. 12000 + years of history can be defined by the last 200.
There will be brief mentions of "unique clan structure" or "marvelous basket weaving" but there will be NOTHING else describing that clan structure or the basket techniques and materials. Was it women, men, or both who wove those baskets? Some tribes had a class structure or aristocracy. Very little will be learned except that it was present. You can read the whole California chapter and not encounter the words "chert" or "tule", or the concept of shell currency and only 1 (minor, passing) mention of "acorn" despite it being a foundation food.

His accounting of the Spanish Mission system is the most biased I have ever read. In this account, the missions existed solely to control and enslave the Natives despite volumes of documents showing concern for their well being from the Padres and the crown. It fails to mention how the Padres often stood up to secular authorities and fails to account how the secularization under the ranchos more than the missions enslaved and deprived Natives of their land and livelihoods. It also passes over the Indians' transition to cattle ranching and their contributions to American Western culture, folklore, and mythology.

I just finished 2 other books on California Indians and was "wowed" by what I read; both far more balanced in their narratives. I picked this up at a library sale and will probably donate it to another.

This whole book is informed by Marxist conflict theory sociology. Natives are always victims and whites always oppressors. Natives never violated a treaty unless they had a valid justification; whites never kept an agreement. Every white acted from evil moral impulses, every Native was noble.

This book is only useful as a reference for tribal locations and language families and a broad listing of the tribes by region. As a history, you'll learn only bits from the time of European colonization on. ( )