Like for a lot of other people, my interest to the Red Indians, the real American People, was evoked by the books of Karl May, the German author. The cracklin' of a campfire, the silent approaching, the famous knee shot, Old Shatterhand's guns Henrystutzen and Bear Killer, Winnetou's Silver Rifle - Karl May linked his picture of the noble wild one with exciting adventures, which I swallowed up. Who does not know the Winnetou books with all its different characters: the good ones like Old Shatterhand, Jim Hawkins, Old Surehand, all Apache; the bad ones like Santer, the Kiowas and all the other enemies of the good ones. A fantastic-real world rose in my fantasy.

 During the 70's the AIM (The American Indian Movement) was known in Europe by the occupation of Wounded Knee. My interest changed from the past to the present situation of the tribes.
Russell Means and Dennis Banks replaced Tecumseh, Cochise, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Dull Knife and the other Indian historic leader. A lot of them were named on a piece of paper on my desk "in memoriam".

I want to recommend three books:
Dee Brown: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
C.W. Ceram: "First American : A Story of North American Archaeology "
Alvin M. Josephy: "500 Nations : An Illustrated History of North American Indians "
This book is well known because of the TV version with anchorman Kevin Costner.

Since years I was looking for one book: Mari Sandoz: "Cheyenne". This book released large embarrassment with me. Unfortunately it is today no longer available on the market. But the German ebay helped me, and now this book enriches my library.

In my little archive I have a lot of newspaper articles from the 70's, but also all issues of different years of German publications "Kalumet" (no longer published), "amedian" (no longer published) and "Magacine of Americanistik".

I recommend the following links:
The Karl May-Museum in Radebeul has a good overview on the history of the Native American, in addition to all the other good informationen and links related to Karl May, THE German author of Indian literature.
No way to miss the Smithsonian Institution. Here I recommend especially the National Museum of the American Indian. Both links will lead you into a lot of other related sites. Enjoy the history of the original owner of America!
Additionally I want to recommend indians.org and hanksville.org