Our planet is home to more than 5,000 indigenous peoples, according to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). Some 450 tribal groups live in India (622), while Papua New Guinea is home to speakers of 800 mutually unintelligible languages (656). To begin to sort out this cultural complexity, there is Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures, and Contemporary Issues, which profiles 394 native groups, seventy-nine countries, and forty-nine contemporary issues affecting indigenous groups worldwide. The 150 contributors to this work include an international roster of academic and independent scholars.

Brief synoptic essays on native groups, “their cultures, their histories, and their current status” (xix) comprise the first two volumes of this three-volume set. Essays are alphabetical, within six alphabetically arranged regions. Thus, “Central and South America” and “North America” are in different volumes. Signed introductory essays of five to seven pages in length preface each regional section. The signed articles average one to two pages in length, with an occasional longer essay, such as the four-page entry on the “Han” (Chinese). Articles conclude with brief bibliographies of books, journal articles, and an occasional web site. There is inconsistency in the currency of some articles and in the currency and depth of some of the bibliographies.

The third volume contains “Countries,” “Contemporary Issues,” and “Documents” sections. The “Countries” section includes seventy-seven alphabetically arranged articles on seventy-nine countries. In contrast, the United Nations has 193 member states. Terse essays range from a single page article on “Philippines” to seven pages on “China.” These articles include “an evaluation of the historical and current importance of the nations profiled in terms of their relationships with their native populations” (xx). Other than Russia, Eastern Europe is unrepresented in the “Countries” section, although “Bosniaks,” “Slovaks,” and other Eastern European indigenous groups are profiled in the “Groups” section. The third volume also includes forty-nine essays on contemporary issues affecting native peoples. Longer than the articles on individual peoples and countries, these essays address global issues such as “Colonialism,” “Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations,” and “Water Rights.” Inexplicably, the article on the contemporary issue of “Women’s Rights” devotes half of its four pages to a discussion of women in traditional Iroquois society.

Text is interspersed with stock photographs and fifty-eight sidebars, the latter on subjects ranging from “Dracula” to “Darfur Genocide.” Conveniently, there is a separate “List of Sidebars” in the “Contents.”

The work concludes with a “Documents” section, which consists of three documents, including the text of the “Declaration of Indigenous Peoples of the World.” There is a nineteen-page bibliography of books with a single column of relevant web sites. The detailed index spans 107 pages.

A two-page grayscale world map adds little to the work; the Balkan Peninsula is crowded with abbreviations such as “B.H.” and “KO.” As for the unnamed pinpoints in Oceania, it is impossible to locate the individual islands referred to in the essays on “Melanesians” or “Micronesians.” Regional maps would have been more useful.

There is overlap with the five-volume ABC-CLIO series, Ethnic Groups of the World, of which four volumes have been published: Jeffrey Cole’s Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2011); John A. Shoup’s Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2011); James Minahan’s Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2012); and James Minahan’s Ethnic Groups of the Americas: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2013). The final volume, covering ethnic groups in north, east, and central Asia, is due out at the end of 2013.

The four published volumes, priced at $89 each, contain alphabetically arranged, signed essays on more than 530 ethnic groups. The fifth volume will add another 100-150 peoples. While lacking features such as articles on countries and issues, the ABC-CLIO series contains lengthier articles on more ethnic groups than are included in Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures, and Contemporary Issues.

While leaving nearly 4,400 ethnic groups unexplored, either Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures, and Contemporary Issues or the ABC-CLIO Ethnic Groups of the World series are recommended as starting points for ethnic studies research in high school, community college, and undergraduate libraries.