Best Selling Books by Malcolm Margolin

A look at what Native American life was like in the Bay Area before the arrival of Europeans. Two hundred years ago, herds of elk and antelope dotted the hills of the San Francisco–Monterey Bay area. Grizzly bears lumbered down to the creeks to fish for silver salmon and steelhead trout. From vast marshlands geese, ducks, and other birds rose in thick clouds "with a sound like that of a hurricane." This land of "inexpressible fertility," as one early explorer described it, supported one of the densest Indian populations in all of North America. One of the most ground-breaking and highly-acclaimed titles that Heyday has published, The Ohlone Way describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans. Recently included in the San Francisco Chronicle''s Top 100 Western Non-Fiction list, The Ohlone Way has been described by critic Pat Holt as a "mini-classic." Praise for The Ohlone Way "[Margolin] has written thoroughly and sensitively of the Pre-Mission Indians in a North American land of plenty. Excellent, well-written." — American Anthropologist "One of three books that brought me the most joy over the past year." — Alice Walker "Margolin conveys the texture of daily life, birth, marriage, death, war, the arts, and rituals, and he also discusses the brief history of the Ohlones under the Spanish, Mexican, and American regimes . . . Margolin does not give way to romanticism or political harangues, and the illustrations have a gritty quality that is preferable to the dreamy, pretty pictures that too often accompany texts like this." — Choice "Remarkable insight in to the lives of the Ohlone Indians." — San Francisco Chronicle "A beautiful book, written and illustrated with a genuine sympathy . . . A serious and compelling re-creation." — The Pacific Sun

A guide for landowners, conservationists, and youth group leaders on how to work with (rather than against) the wildness of the land.

Fifty years of deep hanging out in California''s Indian country Writer and publisher Malcolm Margolin has been "deep hanging out"--or immersing himself in a social, informal way--in California''s Indian country since the 1970s. This volume collects thirty articles, introductions, and other pieces he wrote about California''s diverse Indian country (well over one hundred tribes), drawn mainly from the quarterly magazine he cofounded in 1987, News from Native California. He shares with his readers the experiences, knowledge, and cultural renewal that California Indians have generously shared with him, often after years of friendship, from the erection of a ceremonial enclosure in Northern California--built to fall apart within a generation so that the knowledge of how to construct one is always current--to a visit by aboriginal Hawaiians in diplomatic recognition of native Southern Californian tribes. He draws on both archives and interviews with elders in longer reports about leadership traditions, pedagogical techniques, and conservation practices in various parts of the state--fascinating glimpses into worldviews very different from those of contemporary America. Filled with insight and affection, as well as some of the most gorgeous writing, Deep Hanging Out will appeal both to newcomers and to those whose roots and hearts reside in the state''s Indian country.

Recognition of the 80th anniversary ofone of the great urban park systems in the country in a beautiful, illustrated small format gift edition

A celebration of the beauty of animals, the ingenuity of Native Californians, and the bonds that connect themThe first Europeans who came to California presumed they were setting foot on a land of untouched wilderness and untapped bounty. In fact, they had come to a place that had been carefully tended for thousands of years: by an inventive people who possessed an astonishing range of technological and zoological knowledge. Whether hunting sea lions along the jagged northwest coast, deer in the Sierra Foothills, or jack rabbits in the sage brush deserts of the Modoc Plateau, native hunters drew on a body of highly evolved religious beliefs and social customs that reflected a deep understanding of the ecologies in which they lived.With vivid black-and-white illustrations, photographs from the past and present, and first-hand accounts by Native Californians, Following the Game sweeps aside previous misconceptions about the simplicity of native hunting ways and provides instead a fresh perspective into a viable, complex, beautiful way of living, parts of which persist in California Indian culture today.