What's the standard of living like? I mean for each category of lifestyle, street, low, middle, etc. What would a standard middle lifestyle look like, and are there going to be any bare, grassy lawns that have clearcut all the trees?

It's going to vary a lot. That is pretty much the same as what does each lifestyle look like in the US west of the Rocky Mountains. High Lifestyle in Billings or Boise is going to be different than High Lifestyle in Phoenix or Vegas or SLC.

Yeah, some really HUGE cities are in the NAN.

I remember in Shadowplay that Cheyenne City was very bustling and fast, but not hurried or desperate like most UCAS cities. It also had a very planned, clean look to it; Falcon, the Sioux narrator, wondered if cities were supposed to look that way.

Do you think there will be many clean-cut lawns in the NAN? I'd assume most people there would get really super pissed about it.

What's the obsession with manicured lawns?

I would suspect that there are probably plenty of nicely landscaped manicured lawns in the luxury areas of many NAN Cities, particularly in the PCC which by and large seems to be a modern corporate state in many ways.

Especially considering that its two (three in SR4) largest cities are Los Angeles, Las Vegas (in SR4), and Phoenix. All of which are filled with people who are adamant about ignoring the fact that those cities are located in the desert.

They are what you say they are.

Most of the area I play sort of like the old west. Large areas of untamed lands with interspersed little towns serving whatever purpose. Tech is fairly low. Some tribes actually use "Western" architecture and tools (for lack of a better term), others have tried very hard to return to the "old ways" and live in wigwams or whatever. Most of this is for lack of my actually wanting to do research, however. Of course, the major metropolitan areas are different. In general though, they take a less invasive approach towards industry and agriculture, and as a result, they have fewer conveniences and luxuries.

Probably the biggest mistake to make with the NAN would be to homogenize it. It's made up of several individual nations, who in turn are probably made up of dozens of tribes if not hundreds. There is probably a good mix of urban and rural, modern and traditional, with the expected fringe groups. The NAN stretches from the Aztlan border in the southwest, which is mostly desert to the northern edge of the North American continents which is pretty much tundra and ice. Generally the Native American Nations are more ecologically sensitive in their development and industry, but there are exceptions (like the Tsimshan).

There are approximately 500 federally-recognized tribes in the United States and a very high number (hundreds, I am almost positive) in Canada. And those are just, like I said, the recognized ones. The Yaqui, for example (one of the tribes in the PCC chapter of SoNA), didn't become one until the early 1990s. So, yeah, there should be some variety, even if a bunch were wiped out (or virtually wiped out).

You also have large stretches of North America where populations of huge predatory animals (Behemoths, Juggernauts, packs of Aardwolves, Gila Demons) roam free for the first time in 30,000 years (or perhaps the previous age). There are sections that should be reclaimed by nature (By directed or random magic, NAN internal park policy, or simple neglect), and are reminicent of the african savanna.

Well, compared to the Himalayas they are.

I think the Scablands is still a much cooler-sounding name than the Badlands. Badlands doesn't live up to the hype once you realize there aren't any roving bands of evil monsters, fiends, criminals. Hell, it doesn't even have a Hellmouth. What makes it so "bad?"

I really wish you could get NAN1 and 2 on eBook.

Here are some observations when I lived in Norway House (A First-Nations community of about 6000 people located near the Northern tip of Lake Winnipeg. Pretty remote. Would be in the middle of the Algonkian-Manitou Council lands.):

I lived in a cabin on the lakeshore with my teammates. Some of the houses I visited were modern and very comfortable. Some were trashy holes. The streets were mostly paved, and everyone had electricity and running water. The community was accessed by a single dirt road. The next town was about 1.5 hours drive away (I think) and after that, it was several hours driving to get anywhere. Many people travelled to and from the nearest city by commuter plane. The airfield was bigger and more developed than one would expect for such a small community.
I shopped at a department store that had perhaps a little less variety than your average Wal-Mart, but was essentially like any other. It anchored a small mall that contained most of the rest of the retail in town. There were ATM's, an A&W and a few mall rats. A small, comfortable, modern hotel catered mostly to visiting fishermen.
The town was vastly spread around a lake or two, making population density very low. It was dotted here and there with gas-stations and other local businesses. Vehicles tended towards pickup trucks and large cars. No horses. All around was a vast forest of spruce and fir. Dogs were basically allowed to roam around and breed, and it was not unheard of for a child to be bitten by a wild dog. Bears were constantly present, and once or twice a week, I found myself chasing a bear out of someone's yard, or shooting one that had become too persistent.
It was an open secret that the local government (my employers) were corrupt and nepotistic. Money was unfairly spread, at the sole discretion of the Chief and Council. The result was a massive disparity between haves and have-nots. Lots of deals were done in cash. The C&C had an office complex on the main road with a serious security system.
The people living there were generally an easygoing bunch. Education may have been a little low on average, but there were plenty of university educated folks. Some folks were a little suspicious of outsiders (especially white guys like me), and a few were openly hostile. Most were welcoming, but unimpressed.
Kids passed the time riding around on their bikes, and attending organized events like dances. Many adults took small fishing boats out on the lake. There was a good-sized hockey arena and rec-center, a local radio station (playing mostly country music, with some traditional songs and some top-40 hip-hop for variety), and a decent school. Annually, the town hosts a pow-wow with events that include traditional dancing, York-boat races, drumming circles and softball. Other Native-folk from across the country were in attendance.
The town had more than its share of problems. Alcohol and solvent abuse being foremost, and this led to a lot of violence. The nightly clashes kept us all busy: Five Mounties, four local cops, four contractors and a well stocked hospital. Technically, the town was dry -no alcohol allowed. Everyone broke that rule. Crack and Meth were not unheard of. For some reason I don't get, arson is the crime of choice for stoned kids around there.
Obviously, almost everyone was Native. Other than myself, the Mounties and their families, and some staff of the mall, I can only think of one other caucasian that I dealt with there. The residents are re-learning their culture. There are a couple of really old guys who could make a real bear-claw necklace and remember having never met a person of European descent. At the same time, almost everyone had on display those dream-catchers that were probably massed produced in a city factory. What most of us think of as Native cultural stuff was pervasive and appreciated, but it was otherwise not too different from any other small town in Canada that I've seen.

Feel free to extrapolate into your game.

Thank you for sharing Dog. RL experience is always good for shaping things. My guess is the lands would not be much differnt than they are now. Vancouver is pretty much painted as being as modern as Seattle. There is much less popluation density so propbably just think about what you see now driving accross the western states, but full of indians instead of caucasians. Just to hark back to the original Sprawl Sites, one of the archtypes, remember those? was a NAN border guard who said 'we got cities, use to be your cities."