King, Edna (Ojibwe), and Jordan Wheeler (Cree/Ojibwe), Adventure on Thunder Island. 1991.

Jessica takes a ride on a raft and is washed ashore on Thunder Island; Jack Waboose meets a troll and trades a golden walnut for a Frisbee; Troy accepts a dare to catch birds on Pidgeon Bridge and gets trapped; and Milton Whitehawk takes a walk in Ebony Forest and meets a mysterious girl who says she’s his sister. In these contemporary stories, the supernatural is everywhere.
pb 9.00

King, Sandra (Ojibwe), Shannon: An Ojibway Dancer. 1993, color photos.

Shannon, who is 13 years old, invites readers to accompany her and her friends as they hang out at the mall, play video games, fix each other’s hair, and work on their outfits for the powwow.
pb 7.00

King, Thomas (Cherokee), A Coyote Columbus Story. 1992, color illustrations by Kent Monkman (Cree).

“It was Coyote who fixed up the world, you know. She was the one who did it. She made rainbows and flowers and clouds and rivers. And she made prune juice and afternoon naps and toe-nail polish and television commercials. Some of these things were pretty good, and some of these things were foolish.” And some of these things were pretty awful. Like those Columbus people. Because Coyote was thinking about playing ball, you see, instead of concentrating on what she was creating. The illustrations, by Cree artist Kent Monkman, are, well, indescribable.
pb 7.00

Loyie, Larry (Cree), with Constance Brissenden, As Long as the Rivers Flow. 2002, color illustrations by Heather D. Holmlund.

In 1944, Cree youngster Lawrence Loyie was taken against his parents wishes to an Indian residential school in northern Alberta. As Long as the Rivers Flow is the story of Lawrence’s last summer before entering this alien world from which he would emerge a differenct person. This brief and important time in his life held memories that would have to last him for years. Lawrence helped care for an abandoned baby owl and traveled with his extended family to their summer camp in the bush. While the men hunted, the women and children picked and dried sacks of saskatoon berries, smoked meat for the winter, gathered wild mint and medicine plants, fished; and “for the last time, Lawrence and his cousins swam in the cool, clear river.” After Lawrence and his grandma face off a huge grizzly and Grandma plugs it with one shot, Grandpa gives him a new name, Oskiniko, Young Man. Holmlund's detailed water colors are perfect. The land is there, you see the sunlight coming through the trees, the boys jumping into the river, Grandma shooting the bear; you see what the parents are feeling, you feel the children’s terror. At the end of the story, the day the children had been dreading finally arrives. Dressed in their best clothes and with their worried parents, helpless, looking on, they are lifted onto the truck. Here they sit, huddled together, scared to death, not knowing what’s going to happen to them. This was the real lived experiences for countless Indian kids. Larry Loyie, now an elder, is to be honored for his courage in telling his story. Constance Brissenden and Heather D. Holmlund are to be thanked for their understanding and compassion. May all children grow up knowing what happened then, and may this never happen again.
pb 9.00

Marra, Ben, ed; Powwow: Images along the Red Road. 1996, color photos by the editor.

These portraits and words of powwow dancers, says Richard Hill in his foreword, “are a testimony to those individuals who make the powwow magic... They may be construction workers, computer operators, students, or blackjack dealers during the week. On weekends, however, the ageless drum calls again, not to help them relive their cultural past but to celebrate their real existence in the world.” This is a very beautiful book.
pb 18.00

Marshall, Joseph M. (Lakota), How Not to Catch Fish and Other Adventures of Iktomi. 2005, color illustrations by Joseph Chamberlain (Nakota).

“As usual, Iktomi was having an Iktomi sort of a day—doing as little as possible.” In these hilarious stories, Iktomi—ever hungry and/or sleepy—is swallowed by the largest catfish he has ever seen, is forced to return a Grade A premium piece of meat he had stolen, is trapped between two ash trees (because he annoyed Wind once too often), forgets to believe he can fly (with the expected results), apologizes to Old Bear (who is not exactly the forgiving type). Et cetera. Along with a CD of Marshall telling the stories, How Not to Catch Fish is way better than anything cultural outsiders—like Paul Goble—who don’t know Iktomi have ever written.
hc 20.00

McMillan, Bruce, Salmon Summer. 1996, color photos by the author.

Each summer, the salmon return to spawn in the streams of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Here, nine-year-old Alex Shugak, Jr. and his father work together at subsistence fishing, the salmon harvest. Salmon Summer is a photographic journal of their time together, and the full-color photographs of the land and the people—and this most sacred of fishes—are stunning. Unlike a lot of photo-essayists, McMillan has scrupulously avoided the temptation to “teach” about the Aleut—he puts down what he sees, and he is very good at it.
hc 17.00

Medicine Crow, Joseph (Absarokee), with Herman J. Viola, Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond. 2006, color and b/w photos.

As tribal historian of the Absarokee (Crow) Nation, Joseph Medicine Crow would have to be a very good storyteller and have a very long memory. He is and does. Here, in short stories with an ironic humor that seems to be the forte of elders, Medicine Crow tells of a childhood lived mainly outdoors: bathing in icy rivers, mud fights, racing horses, stealing a cow from a white rancher, listening to stories about family and community, and counting coup.

In the old days, in order for someone to become an Absarokee war chief it was necessary to accomplish four life-threatening coups—capture an enemy’s horse, touch the first enemy to fall in battle, steal an enemy’s weapons, and lead a war party. Counting Coup is about confronting fears. Such as Medicine Crow’s experiences at a Baptist mission school and later at public school, where he encounters racism and learns to fear whites. Such as his first hospital visit to have his adenoids removed, in which he encounters whites, a Sioux and a ghost (who turns out to be an elderly white guy). Such as his exploits while serving in World War II, in which he completes his four acts of bravery. Counting Coup is an excellent read that will resonate with middle readers, and might encourage them to interview their own elders.
hc 16.00

The Bird Who Cleans the World and other Mayan Fables. 1991, color illustrations.

These Jakaltek Mayan folk tales were first told to the author by his mother and the elders of his Guatemalan village. Firmly rooted in the world of nature, they demonstrate the values of honesty, understanding and respect; and the Mayan way of life and learning.
hc 23.00, pb 14.00

Sculpted Stones. 1995.

“If our ancestors came to life/they’d surely give us, their descendants/thirteen lashes for being/sleepwalkers and conformists.” In Spanish and English, Montejo’s poems express the beauty of the Mayan people, expose the Guatemalan army’s attempt to destroy the indigenous population, and give lie to textbook anthrobabble about “history” and “culture.”
pb 12.00

Mourning Dove/Humishuma (Okanagan), Coyote Stories. 1933, 1990, b/w illustrations.

Here is Coyote, the trickster, the selfish individualist, the imitator, fixing up a world soon to receive human beings, teaching us how not to behave. Humishuma’s stories, handed down from her people, tell why Skunk’s tail is black and white, why Spider has such long legs, why Badger is so humble, why Mosquito bites people.
pb 13.00

Parker, Arthur C. (Seneca), Skunny Wundy: Seneca Indian Tales. (1926), 1994, b/w illustrations.

“Good stories,” as Joe Bruchac says in the introduction, “have the power of drawing the listener in and teaching their lessons so effectively, so unobtrusively, that they insinuate themselves into the hearer’s heart.” These stories, of animals whose behaviors are sometimes suspiciously like our own, are indeed “good stories.”
pb 20.00

Peters, Russell M. (Wampanoag), Clambake: A Wampanoag Tradition. 1992, color photos.

This photoessay captures an important time in young Steven Peters’ life as he participates, with his grandfather, Fast Turtle, in the hosting of an appanaug, or clambake ceremony.
pb 7.00

Regguinti, Gordon (Ojibwe), The Sacred Harvest: Ojibway Wild Rice Gathering. 1992, color photos by Dale Kakkak (Menominee).

For 11-year-old Glen Jackson, this warm late summer day was one he had waited for all year. It was the first time his father would take him out to gather mahnomin, the sacred food of the Ojibwe people. This was the day he would become a wild ricer.
pb 7.00

Kinaaldá: A Navajo Girl Grows Up. 1993, color photos.

This is the story of 13-year-old Celinda McKelvey’s puberty ceremony as she takes on the honor and responsibilties of womanhood.
hc 20.00, pb 7.00

Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave. 1995, color photos.

A grandmother teaches her granddaughter the songs and stories she must know while they shear sheep, gather plants to dye wool, and begin to weave.
pb 7.00