The American past - its people, battles, industries, and homes - can be found not only in libraries and museums, but in the hundreds of archaeological sites that scientists investigate with great care. These sites are not in distant lands, but nearby - almost every locale possesses such a site. "Archaeology in America" is the first resource to provide students, researchers, and patrons interested in local history with a survey of the most important archaeological discoveries in North America. Leading scholars have written in-depth essays on over 300 of these sites, explaining the importance of the site, the history of the people who left the artifacts, and the nature of the ongoing research.The Set divides its coverage into eight regions: Arctic and Subarctic - includes research at Klondike gold rush sites and the Bering land bridge between Asia and North America; Great Basin and Plateau - contains entries on sites in Death Valley, and on the controversial Kennewick Man site; Great Plains and Rocky Mountains - discusses Santa Fe trail sites and Indian Wars sites; Midwest - covers such sites as the copper mines in Isle Royale National Park, and the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois; Northeast - looks at the Civil Warship the Monitor, and at prehistoric life on Martha's Vineyard; Southeast - ranges from the earliest human inhabitants to the archaeology of Shiloh, Andersonville, and other Civil War sites; Southwest - offers articles on Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and the Sand Creek Massacre; and, West Coast - discusses underwater archaeology and native Hawaiian views of archaeology. Extensive coverage of Native American archaeological sites and the people who created them connects with social studies curricula that emphasizes the study of Native cultures. Numerous entries on historic sites support research in American History classes. Extensive effort was made to cover sites all over the country, especially sites that are accessible to the general public, thus there is a "local" angle to the encyclopedia no matter where a reader lives.