tribe

The mola is a famous Panamanian handicraft created with intricate reverse-applique handwork made by the Guna, and represent important symbols of their culture. The layers of brightly-colored fabric form animals or geometric shapes, and are used to decorate the blouses of Guna women. The most outstanding designs take hours of complex sewing to complete and can be a source of status, and a display of artistic expression and ethnic identity.

This is a thick tabletop book with large print and 100 breathtaking color illustrations and photos of gold miners throughout. The lure of achieving instant wealth with the relatively low equipment cost of prospecting was called "gold fever." The author covers almost four decades, from 1849—just after the first discovery of gold in California—to 1884, when the hydraulic mining companies ceased operations. It also discusses a horrific side effect of the gold rush—the massacre and extermination of Native Americans in California.

Arctic Memories is an overview of Inuit life written for young people. The stories and illustrations are full of beauty and relay so much about life and culture in the Arctic. Author and illustrator Normee Ekoomiak was one of the the most prolific Inuit artists of the 20th century whose life, as a victim of the residential school system and homelessness, shows both the injustices suffered by Canada’s indigenous peoples and their remarkable resilience against that injustice.

These stunningly ornamental canoe prows glide through the coastal waterways of the Cameroon, where the Duala people live. German anthropologist Leo Frobenius traveled to this bucolic West African setting and documented his findings in this 1897 book. To make this piece even more special, it is one of only nine copies that exist in the United States.