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Grades
seven & up
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 Alexie, Sherman (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 2007, b/w illustrations by Ellen Forney
What do you do when, every day, you leave your home reservation—“located approximately one million miles north of Important and two billion miles west of Happy”—to attend a high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot and you have to pretend not to be poor and your best friend becomes your worst enemy because you deserted him and you know your parents are sacrificing for you and doing the best they can but sometimes you have to hitchhike home? And, oh, yeah, you have a big head, huge hands and feet, you’re nearsighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other and you stutter and lisp. What do you do? You draw cartoons about your life and play basketball, that’s what. Called “Junior” by his friends and relatives on the Spokane reservation and “Arnold” by the white people in the other part of the world he inhabits part-time, he’s an Indian boy coming into adulthood, literally weaving and dodging and rolling with the punches. But Absolutely True Diary is not just a litany of pain; it’s also about strength and resilience and endurance and culture and community. And laughter, lots of it, at the joys, at the sorrows, even at the tragedies. And always and ever, it’s about the land. As Junior and Rowdy climb almost to the top of the biggest tree on the reservation, they see “from one end of the reservation to the other. We could see our entire world. And our entire world, at that moment, was green and golden and perfect.”
hc 17.00, pb 9.00 |
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Armstrong, Jeannette (Okanagan), Slash. (1985), 2007
Through the fictionalized memoir of young Okanagan activist-by-chance Tommy Kelasket—aka “Slash”—Amstrong puts a human face on the aboriginal struggle for land, culture and community. From British Columbia to Washington, DC, to Wounded Knee, Tommy/Slash, an average person from the Okanagan Reserve, moves in and out of the period of upheaval marking Canadian and U.S. Indian-federal relations from the 1960s through 1982, when Canada relented and half-heartedly recognized Aboriginal rights. “Our rights” Tommy says, “empty words on paper that had no compassion for what is human on the land.” Armstrong is a wonderful writer, and Slash is a very real person, on a journey that is at once heartbreaking and healing.
pb 22.00 |
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Awiakta, Marilou (Cherokee), Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet. (1986), 2006
Combining her Cherokee/Appalachian heritage with the experience of growing up on the atomic frontier in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Awiakta’s poetry follows the trail of Awi Usdi, Little Deer, through the saga of Tsali and the Trail of Tears, through her own childhood when the atom was split in secret, and into the heart of the atom itself.
pb 15.00
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Beardslee, Lois (Ojibwe), Lies to Live By. 2003, b/w illustrations by the author
The 44 stories in this collection are not “retold” myths-and-legends. They are stories here from Beardslee’s own life, seamlessly interwoven with the traditional stories of her people. They remain relevant because they have never been anything else. Like the great trickster-hero Manaboozhou, Beardslee’s stories ignore all boundaries of time and space, and celebrate real Indian lives. Delving into the sacred aspects of sweetgrass and a well-used pair of scissors, of flying pigs, fried eggs and WD-40, these are real stories about real people, Manaboozhou’s relatives.
pb 20.00
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Blue Cloud, Peter/Aroniawenrate (Mohawk), Clans of Many Nations: Selected Poems 1969-94. 1995
These poems, spanning 25 years in the life of one of the major literary voices of Native people, speak of New York City’s high steel construction and quiet mountains, of Yellowjacket and Richard Oakes, of Alcatraz Island and the Crazy Horse Monument and “this bit of Mohawk territory encircled/by cities, towns, freeway and seaway” that “cannot be what my ancestors dreamed,” of a girl child whose baby song to wildflowers and tiny bugs is accompanied by the far-away playing of an elderberry flute. Aroniawenrate’s poems are a treasure.
pb 14.00 |
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Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki), No Borders. 1999
There are no borders between humans and the land we share with all creation, between the razor wire of a prison and the flying geese overhead, between the sweet maple syrup and the hard work of processing it, between a trout’s smooth fins and the hands that touch them, between the shrill notes of spring peepers and a drumsong, between a departed elder and a handful of red earth, between the two worlds of a blue heron, between a song of thanksgiving and a deer who comes, between murdered forests and a bottle of booze. Although Bruchac is an accomplished storyteller he is, first of all, a poet. He dedicates this volume of new and selected poems “for all those who see this earth without maps.” No Borders is awesome. It will encourage youngsters to look around, to see their world with a new awareness—and maybe even write their own poems.
pb 13.00
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Campbell, Maria (Cree/Métis), Halfbreed. 1973
Halfbreed is one of the most important works of Indian literature in the 20th Century. It’s a hard book to read. Of it, Campbell says, “I write this for all of you, to tell you what it is like to be a Halfbreed woman in our country. I want to tell you about the joys and sorrows, the oppressing poverty, the frustration and the dreams.... I am not bitter. I have passed that stage. I only want to say: this is what it was like, this is what it is still like.” In little over a hundred pages, Campbell manages to cover the hatred, the social, political and economic inequities that led to the downward spiral of her own life. No one has spoken more precisely, more evocatively, of what mixed-blood people, and especially women, have faced, and do still. Halfbreed is an act of courage, if there ever was one.
pb 12.00 |
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Carlson, Lori Marie, ed., Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today. 2005
All of the narrators in these ten short stories are contemporary young Indian people, shakily standing on the precipice of adulthood, trying to figure out their place in the world, trying to figure out what truths the stories hold. Amid poor choices and alcohol in an Indian boarding school, a young woman dreams about getting to the planet Venus. A lonely young man comes to know the need that he and his absent father have for each other. A “real-live blond Cherokee” who works in a funky costume shop has to confront stereotypes at every turn. A young drug dealer who dreams of becoming a teacher tries to turn his life around. A determined grandma refuses to be shamed by a wealthy white woman. A high school student learns from an elderly uncle that “all we can do is just the best we can.” A young man, overtaken by anger, finds a way to make amends. A crazy old auntie’s stories about poison circling around come to fruition. An elder models for her grandson that there’s more than one way to learn. A child who feels unloved longs for “the moment of possible magic” when she will be reunited with her parents. The young lives portrayed in these stories—by Sherman Alexie, Joseph Bruchac, Louise Erdrich, Lee Francis, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Susan Power, Greg Sarris, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Richard Van Camp—will appeal to Indian readers in middle school and beyond, and just might teach non-Indian readers what they won’t find in textbooks.
hc 17.00 |
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Conley, Robert J. (Cherokee), Mountain Windsong: A Novel of the Trail of Tears. 1992
The story of the windsong unfolds slowly, as a tale told to a Cherokee child by his Grandpa, with whom he is spending the summer. The windsong—still sung today on the reservation in North Carolina by descendants of the Cherokee who escaped the death march known as the Trail of Tears—is the love song of Oconeechee and Waguli, the young man she loves. In weaving together song, legend, and historical documents, Conley tells the tragic story of two ordinary young people caught up in the removal from their traditional lands, and brings to life the suffering and endurance of the Cherokee people .
pb 17.00 |
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Dauenhauer, Nora Marks (Tlingit), Life Woven with Song. 2000, b/w photos
Dauenhauer is a mama, a grandma, a great-grandma, and a gifted writer, poet and storyteller who seamlessly weaves together memories of land, culture and community. Here are stories and poems of food and family, of ocean and rainforest, of beaches and boats, of courage, perseverance and trust, of the enduring relationship between the Tlingit people and the fish and animals, and the abundance that results from living in harmony with the land. And, of course, about this most sacred of fishes, salmon. They are “part of our identity,” Dauenhauer writes. “We need salmon to continue as physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy people.” From the teaching story of the boy who became a salmon, to childhood memories of trolling for salmon to some outrageous Raven stories and incredibly beautiful poetry, Dauenhauer invites the reader to savor her “slices of salmon.”
pb 18.00 |
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Deloria, Ella Cara (Yankton), Waterlily. 1990
Waterlily, finished in 1947 and not published during Deloria’s life, is a novel, a life story of the Dakota people, as their lives were beginning to be disrupted by the wasichu. Told from a woman’s viewpoint, it emphasizes the traditional network of obligations and relationships that formed cultural unity. It’s a good story, and woven into it are the solidly based facts of actual plains life: “ Teton children loved to give. As far back as they could remember they had been made to give or their elders gave in their name, honoring them, until they learned to feel a responsibility to do so. Furthermore, they found it pleasant to be thanked graciously and have their ceremonial names spoken aloud. For giving was basic to Dakota life. The idea behind it was this: if everyone gives, then everyone gets; it is inevitable. And so old men and women preached continuously: Be hospitable. Be generous. Nothing is too good for giving away. The children grew up hearing that, until it was a fixed notion.”
pb 13.00 |
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Dumont, Marilyn (Cree/Métis), A Really Good Brown Girl. 1996
A Really Good Brown Girl is a collection of poetry and memories about land, family, and the multiple boundaries imposed by the continuing colonization of the Métis people. From white people’s judgments and the internalized shame that results—“ You are not good enough, not good enough, obviously not good enough. The chorus is never loud or conspicuous, just there”—about family, “polishing the linoleum with our dancing,” about encounters with the white establishment and also with her own identity as a Native woman. Ultimately, Dumont’s direct and bold, powerful and poignant writing is all about survival: resisting the effects of colonization, challenging the white definitions of “Indian,” telling the realities of Native lives, and encouraging other Native women to find their voices.
pb 14.00 |
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Framst, Louise (Tahltan),
A Tahltan Cookbook, vol. 1: George & Grace Edzerza Family. 1994, b/w photos
A Tahltan Cookbook, vol. 2: More Than 88 Ways to Cook Salmon and other Favourite Recipes. 1996, b/w photos
A Tahltan Cookbook, vol. 3: Campfire Cooking. 1997, b/w photos
These are not “just” cookbooks; the stories and photos are as entertaining as the recipes. The Light Raspberry Bavarian and Broiled Salmon are delicious; we haven’t tried the Boiled Moose Nose or Sweet and Sour Bear yet. Although we arbitrarily placed these books in the grades 7-up category, many of the recipes may be used with younger children.
each volume, hc 15.00 |
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Heisey, Adriel and Kenji Kawano, In the Fifth World: Portrait of the Navajo Nation. 2001, color, b/w photos
Two gifted photographers working for the Navajo Nation team up here to produce an awesome collection of photographs that together tell a pictorial story of the land and the people. Heisey’s aerial color portraits of the land pair with Kawano’s black-and-white portraits of the people—often, one of each on a two-page spread—to show, in a sense, the Diné belief that the land and her people will never be separated. From the foreword by Peterson Zah: “ The Earth is our Mother. Our skin is the same as the soil from the Mother Earth, our blood flows as the rivers that flow from the mountains, and our voices are like thunder. The Great Spirit is inside each of us. We are all part of Creation.”
pb 22.00 |
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| From Linda Hogan (Chickasaw) |
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Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World. 1995
In this collection of meditations on the natural world, quiet musings on the nature of nature and life itself, Hogan looks at the circularity of life and death, how the elements eternally transform each other, the aliveness of a feather, the magic of mating bats, the murmuring heartbeat of caves, the sounds of growing corn plants, the implications of teaching sign language to chimpanzees, flowers blooming in Hiroshima. Sherman Alexie says of these 16 piercingly beautiful essays, “Linda Hogan has written a gutsy and tender book. She teaches us about the beauty of our world, but makes no guarantees. This is a book of stories filled with intimate and gentle revelations that can tear your head off. I mean it.”
pb 13.00 |
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Mean Spirit. 1990
In the 1920s, the discovery of oil in Oklahoma on land belonging to the Osage people spurred a series of violent events designed to transfer tribal lands into the hands of the oil barons; a vicious campaign of fraud, intimidation, and murder by white businessmen, officers of the law, and their henchmen. Focusing on two families—the Blankets and the Grayclouds— and rooted in a true episode of government corruption, greed, violence, and tragedy, Hogan’s compelling, spare prose carves out a story of a courageous people’s will to resist.
pb 8.00 |
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Red Clay: Poems and Stories. 1991
Hogan’s journey home begins with “dreaming the old turtle back,” and the poems and stories here are part of her return to her land, culture and community. “These poems,” Hogan says, “ grew out of the Oklahoma terrain resonant with the calls of frogs, my grandfather’s horse and wagon, my grandmother’s uncut braids wrapped about her head in the traditional Chickasaw manner, the firefly-lit nights we sat outside and heard stories, including the one of the gunstocks made from our stolen black walnut trees. In these poems live red land and light.”
pb 10.00 |
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Savings. 1988
Amidst the saved memories—of Victor Jara’s mutilated hands, children without food, Indian residential schools, women chained to prison beds, and the ravages of war and capitalism— Savings is about “all things saved and growing”: good clothes saved in the back of a closet where moths are growing, spirits leaving fingerprints on glass and saving memories, crescent moon growing full again, old women saving tradition with garlic in their pockets, mice drinking out of potholes and geraniums with stories to tell, lost lives of birds for a feathered pillow, rain carrying songs over state lines, and all things being lost and saved and dying and growing. Hogan’s early poems of extraordinary strength and grace lift off the page so easily that middle readers will contemplate their many layers and return to them often.
pb 11.00 |
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Solar Storms. 1995
A hurt and rebellious teenager, scarred in face and spirit, sets out to search for her birth family, her mother, and herself. As red-haired Angel grows to know her grandmother, her great-grandmother, and the woman who is not her mother but who was once her father’s wife, she learns her own mother’s tragic story and seeks the beginning of their tale. As the four women journey home and join the struggle against a hydroelectric dam that threatens the existence of two indigenous nations, the dam also becomes a symbol of the greater forces struggling against them. In many ways, Solar Storms is the story of coming home to a land, a people, a family, and ones’s self; to the ties between women through love and grief and anger and generations. It’s the healing of Angel’s interior scars, those that mirror the ones on her face. In Solar Storms, Hogan has created a story to be savored, read over and again, aloud even. Aloud and then contemplated.
pb 14.00 |
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Hungry Wolf, Beverly (Blackfoot), The Ways of My Grandmothers. 1980, b/w photos
As a transmitter of traditional culture, Beverly Hungry Wolf offers a tribute, an honoring, to her female elders and ancestors—from her grandmother and great-grandmother, to the oldest women of the tribe (with memories of treaty signings, enemy raids, child marriage, boarding school, traditional diet), to 19th Century accounts (including a story of two woman warriors) and going all the way back to women from the mythic past (the woman who married the morning star, for instance, and returned to earth with a turnip-digging stick). Readers will find something new each time they open the book. Here are individual life stories, personal and community narratives, recipes, hunting tales, and amazing photos (both contemporary and from the early reservation years). Stories are everywhere, even in the photo captions: “Me and my old ladies at Browning, Montana, ready to go inside for George and Molly Kicking Woman’s annual Medicine Pipe Ceremony.…Together we drove over two hundred miles.…Those old women kept me laughing all the way.”
pb 14.00 |
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