How Marten Got His Spots and other Kootenai Indian Stories. 2002, b/w illustrations by Debbie Joseph Finley and Howard Kallowat, Jr.

Here, Marten learns a tough lesson about obedience during a run-in with a bear that leaves his fur spotted, Coyote gets his comeuppance after wrestling with a woman who turns into a trout, and a little boy learns a lesson from his dreams.
pb 9.00

 

Ktunaxa Legends. (1984), 1997, b/w illustrations.

The People's self-name is pronounced “tun-a-HA.” Coyote, who inhabits about half of the stories in this large volume, has unusual (to say the least) ways of solving his problems. Through these stories, told by Ktunaxa elders, Ktunaxa children have learned respect for all of creation and a personal regard for all life; the proper way to be in this world. Excellent for telling and read-aloud, as well as for independent reading.
pb 28.00

Owl’s Eyes & Seeking a Spirit. 1999, b/w illustrations by Debbie Joseph Finley and Howard Kallowat, Jr.

In the first story, Owl (who used to have small eyes) does not pay attention to the cries of his luckless friend, Mouse, and as a result he gains big eyes and loses a dear friend. In the second story, a young Kootenai boy goes to the mountaintop to seek a spirit guide. After he sacrifices a piece of his finger, the boy is visited by a buffalo spirit, who promises him that he will become a great hunter. 
pb 6.00

Kreipe de Montaño, Marty (Potawatomi), Coyote in Love with a Star. 1998, color illustrations by Tom Coffin (Potawatomi/Creek).

This is a well-done modern adaptation of a traditional Potawatomi tale, this time with Coyote leaving the reservation and heading for New York City, where he secures a job as rodent control officer at the World Trade Center. Lonely for home and looking for escape from the noise of the city, he goes up to the observation deck for some solitude, and there is smitten by a star in the night sky. (Note: This story was published before the World Trade Center ceased to be. It can have value for children in a number of ways.)
hc 15.00

Arctic Stories. 1998.

It's 1958, and 10-year-old Agatha does not expect to become a hero. But that's exactly what happens. In these three stories, Agatha saves her community from a monstrous “ugly black thing,” a flying object that somehow never returns; makes friends with an odd assortment (to her) of birds; and, with her friends, figures out how to rescue a skating priest who has ventured onto thin ice.
hc 20.00, pb 7.00

Baseball Bats for Christmas. 1990.

It is 1955, Christmas, “a glorious time.” In the Arctic Circle community of Repulse Bay, “the land is as bald as the belly of a dog with puppies.” Of course, there are no standing-ups, the things commonly known elsewhere as trees. So when an aeroplane lands in front of the Hudson’s Bay Company and dumps a bunch of standing-ups—“green with spindly branches all over”— on the ice, Arvaarluk and his friends figure out just what they’re for: baseball bats. The children had been given baseball bats for Christmas.
hc 19.00, pb 7.00

Hide and Sneak. 1992.

When Allashua goes out to play hide and seek, her mother warns her: “Don't go too far away. An Ijiraq might hide you, and if an Ijiraq hides you, no one will ever find you again.” Of course, the child wanders off, comes upon a pond of tiny prickly fish, is enthralled by a nest of baby birds, and rocks, and ducks on the lake, and—she forgets to hide. And meets the Ijiraq, who wants to play “hide-and-sneak” with her. But Allashua is no wimp, and finds a way to outwit the Ijiraq; with the help of an inuksugaq, finds her way home.
hc 16.00, pb 6.00

My Arctic 1, 2, 3. 1996.

“I grew up in the Arctic Circle,” writes Kusugak. “When I was a little boy we hunted seals, caribou and whales. But we did not hunt animals all the time. Mostly, we watched them.” My Arctic 1, 2, 3 is clearly more than a counting book—it shows the relationships between the humans and the animals and between the different animals in an environment that demands that this relationship be understood. Each two-page spread shows a certain number of animals on the left, and the animals they hunt on the right. The story comes full circle at the last page that show, at the left, Kusugak’s extended family picking “millions of berries (that) ripen in the fall,” and, on the right, “One lone polar bear walks along the shore, thinking of seals. It sees the berry pickers and says, ‘Never mind. They do not look like a very good meal.’”
hc 17.00, pb 8.00

Northern Lights: The Soccer Trails. 1993.

Kautajaq really loved her mother. In the spring they went fishing together; in summer they went for walks. They did everything together. But that was a long time ago: “One day a big sickness came. So many people were sick. Kataujaq’s mother coughed and coughed and they sent her away, way down south in an aeroplane.” And she never came back. Kautajaq is “almost a big girl now,” but she hasn’t stopped missing her mother, and sometimes she cries. The Soccer Trails is the story her grandmother tells her, to help her understand where her mother is now, and perhaps to feel the pain less keenly. The Soccer Trails is an honor to Inuit belief; it would also be a beautiful way to help a child who has suffered a similar loss.
hc 17.00, pb 8.00

Kwulasulwut/Ellen White (Coast Salish), Kwulasulwut II: More Stories from the Coast Salish. 1997, color illustrations by Bill Cohen (Okanagan).

This second volume of traditional stories by the Salish elder and storyteller features introspection and peer teaching. The little Deer, with the guidance of his grandfather, embraces the spiritual development of his spirit quest. The Mink and Raccoon families discover that they live in the same territory, but have very different habits and preferences for food and consequently must learn to respect one another. In an intricate ruse and counter-ruse, Raven steals salmon from Deer, Deer steals it back, and then boldly offers it to Raven when the farce has been played out. Finally, a young man journeys to the moon, where, with the assistance of Spider Lady and a little mouse, he tries to retrieve his love whose out-of-body experience has taken her there. These four stories touch on cosmic themes with clarity and humanity.
pb 14.00

Lacapa, Kathleen (Mohawk), and Michael Lacapa (Apache/ Hopi/Tewa), Less than Half, More than Whole. 1994, color illustrations by Michael Lacapa.

This gentle, loving story deals with a child’s questions about who he is. When one of Tony’s friends says that Tony is not “all Indian,” he’s “less than half,” Tony seeks answers that have meaning for him. These answers come, from his grandfather and from an ear of Indian corn: “Tony looked into his grandfather’s eyes in the mirror framed by all of the different sizes, shapes and colors of his family. Finally, he understood: He was not less than half; he—like the corn—was more than whole.” This beautiful story and luminous illustrations are for all children, especially for children of mixed parentage who are called “half”-something or “part”-something, and struggle with the question, “where do I belong?”
hc 15.00
Audiotape to accompany this book, 5.00

Taken Alive, Delores (Lakota), Pispíza wan Wayáwa Iyáye/Prairie Dog Goes to School. 2004, color illustrations.

As a prairie dog goes to school, he encounters a skunk, a turtle, a beaver, a grasshopper, an owl, a porcupine, a deer, a chipmunk and finally, a bear (the teacher), who counts and names all the students.
pb 10.00

 

Loewen, Iris, My Kokum Called Today. 1993, color drawings by Gloria Miller.

When her grandma, her Kokum, calls from the Cree reserve, a 12-year-old living in the city looks forward to going home to the round dance and all things that tie her to the land: making bannock, hanging laundry, learning to speak Cree, walking in the bush, gathering medicine plants, and, of course, participating in the round dance. All of this is, as the young narrator says, “Neeto Squeeto!” Miller’s soft colored pencil illustrations complement this very real little story.
pb 11.00

Maher, Ramona, Alice Yazzie’s Year. (1977), 2003, color illustrations by Shonto Begay (Dinè).

In January, Yas Nilt’ees, “snow slowed the world,” and young Alice Yazzie takes the smallest lamb into the hogan “just for the night.” In May, T’aatsoh, Alice rides her horse in the barrel race and reminds a caged buffalo that he can “stare down the wind.” In November, Alice makes up a song called “We’d be glad to see Columbus sail away,” and sings it to the principal. And in December, Nilch‘itsoh, “Grandfather’s tobacco is under the tree…He’s made her a bracelet, she’s almost sure. Blue and silver, the way the world is. Silver snow lies on Black Mountain, hiding the gorges.” This is a truly beautiful book.
hc 16.00

Manabozho and the Bullrushes. 1976, b/w illustrations by John Peyton (Ojibwe).

Manabozho loves to play tricks. If someone loses a moccasin, she says, “Manabozho took it.” If the kettle boils dry, they say, “Manabozho ate the stew.” Here, the great trickster-hero of the Ojibwe people gets the tables turned. This is an exemplary story for very young children about the consequences of pride, anger, competitiveness, and excess.
pb 4.50

Real Wild Rice. 1975, by Vince Cody (Ojibwe).

In a short story poem, a boy talks about going for rice. “I run with the rabbit/I jump and play/Today isn't Monday/It's wild rice day.” Young readers will feel the teller's delight in the “Real wild/wild rice” that “grows tall and free/and tastes real nice,” and in the pleasure of the day. Illustrated with line drawings embellished with designs from the Great Lakes tradition, this is a light-hearted and deeply satisfying little book.
pb 4.50

Shemay: The Bird in the Sugarbush. 1975, color illustrations by Carl Gawboy.

During sugaring season with her family, Liza loves to listen to the birds, but she hears one who sounds unhappy. So her grandmother tells her the story of how this little bird got its sad song. The warmth between child and grandmother are conveyed by both text and illustrations in this excellent beginning reader.
pb 4.50

The Birth of Nanabosho. 1989, color illustrations by Jim Kirby.

When Nonie and Billy go to visit their grandparents, Mishomis tells them a story about how Nanabosho, the son of West Wind and grandson of Nokomis, is born into this world, and how he grows and learns of the world around him. There is much cultural information here, and this is an excellent starting place for understanding the great and beloved hero and trickster. In this multilayered story, Kirby draws Nonie and Billy and their family in black and white, and the story Mishomis tells them in full color.
pb 11.00

Nanabosho Dances. 1991, color illustrations by Rhian Brynjolson.

While Nonnie and Nokomis work on Nonnie’s new dance regalia and Mishomis and Billy make willow hoops, Mishomis tells them the story about the origin of the hoop dance in which Nanabosho is both a student and teacher. When Kitchi Manitou presents Nanabozho with a gift of tobacco and instructs him in its use, Nanabosho, in his hurry to appease his hunger, carelessly leaves his tobacco pouch on the ground and it disappears. Knowing that it’s not proper to shoot a bear without leaving an offering, Nanaboso sits down to think, and in the process, starts making hoops from red willow branches that are lying around. As he dances, Nanabosho begins to see the signifigance of what Kitchi Manitou is teaching him.
pb 11.00

Nanabosho: How the Turtle Got Its Shell. 1994, color illustrations by Rhian Brynjolson.

When Nonie and Billy and their grandparents go to the city to visit Aunt Matrine, they stop at a pet store in the mall and are saddened by the sight of turtles for sale: “Turtles belong in lakes and rivers,” says Mishomis, “not in stores. Kitchie Manitou did not create turtles to be owned.” In the story that follows, Nanabosho is a gift-giver, as he thanks turtle for helping him—with the gift of a shell. Brynjolson’s illustrations of Turtle as a sad little defenseless creature, here, hiding in a cave or under a rock, there, pulling quills out of his bottom, are perfect.
pb 11.00

Nanabosho, Soaring Eagle, and the Great Sturgeon. 1993, color illustrations by Rhian Brynjolson.

While Billy stays home learning to do laundry, Winona (Nonnie) and her cousin Bonnie head off with Mishomis for a day of fishing. Here, Mishomis tells them the story of Nanabosho, this time the trickster. When Nanabosho and his friend Soaring Eagle finish their fall fishing to prepare for winter, Nanabosho runs off with all the fish, leaving Soaring Eagle and his family to starve. Trout, taking pity on Soaring Eagle, helps him, but then Soaring Eagle gets greedy and has to visit the Great Sturgeon to learn the lessons of moderation. And, of course, Nanabosho gets his comeuppance… Though the backstory focuses on Winona and Bonnie, Brynjolson’s illustrations keep the reader informed of Billy’s progress, including a hilarious illustration of a distraught young man with soapsuds flowing from the washer machine onto the floor.
pb 11.00

Nanabosho Steals Fire. 1990, color illustrations by Don Monkman (Cree).

Winona and Billy are warming themselves by the fire while Mishomis shows them how to skin the rabbits they caught. This is the perfect opportunity for Nokomis to tell the children the story about a time when there was fire in only one place; so Nanabosho, feeling the bite of the cold, changes himself into an cute, cuddly baby rabbit in order to steal the fire and bring it to the people.
pb 11.00

Nanabosho and Kitchie Odjig. 1997, color illustrations by Lloyd Swampy (Ojibwe) and Jeff Burling.

One night, while the stars light their way to their grandparents’ house, Winona and Billy think about the constellations. While they help Mishomis feed the dogs, he tells them about Kitchie Odjig, the Great Fisher (known by some as the Big Dipper). When Kitchie Odjig teaches Nanabosho the song for bringing the shores of the lake together, he also warns him not to sing the song that will push the shores of the lake apart. So Nanabosho, being ever curious, of course tries it out... The lessons, of course, are that it’s not wise to push the shores of a lake apart, and it’s a good thing to listen to your elders.
pb 11.00

Nanabosho and the Cranberries. 1998, color illustrations by Lloyd Swampy (Ojibwe).

When Nokomis comes to Winona’s class, she notices that the students are learning about reflections. So she tells the story about how the hungry Nanabosho, unable to reach the cranberries growing pretty high up, tries and tries and tries to get the ones in the water. Of course, Nanabosho, as a naïve child who teaches good behavior by behaving badly, learns the hard way that it probably isn't wise to try to get cranberries off a bush by grabbing at their reflection in a lake.
pb 11.00

Medicine Crow, Joe (Crow), Brave Wolf and the Thunderbird. 1998, color illustrations by Linda R. Martin (Diné).

Each spring, a water monster comes out of the lake to steal Thunderbird’s chicks. Determined not to let this continue, Thunderbird snatches up a human hunter to help her foil the monster. With Brave Wolf contributing some creative thinking and Thunderbird contributing some dry logs, a big pile of rocks, a freshly killed buffalo, and a rain shower, the monster is greeted by more than a few helpless chicks. Martin’s drawings—especially of the monster getting its comeuppance—are perfect.
hc 15.00

Messinger, Carla (Lenape), with Susan Katz, When the Shadbush Blooms. 2007, color paintings by David Kanietakeron Fadden (Mohawk).

“My grandparents’ grandparents walked beside the same stream where I walk with my brother, and we can see what they saw. Deer leap in the woods. Hawks fly in circles overhead. Frogs splash, and turtles sun themselves.” When a Lenape girl goes to the stream to fish for shad, she knows that another girl did the same generations before. She knows that, through the circle of the seasons, things change and things remain the same, as they always have. Fadden’s paintings, in acrylic on canvas on a palette of earth colors, complement the words. When the Shadbush Blooms is a poem, a song, a prayer for Earth and her inhabitants.
hc 16.00

Munsch, Robert, and Michael Kusugak (Inuit), A Promise is a Promise. 1991, color illustrations by Vladyana Krykorka.

On the first warm day of spring, young Allashua goes out, promising her mom that she would fish in the lake and not on the frozen ocean where the Qallupilluit hang out, waiting to grab children who aren’t with their parents. And, after all, a promise is a promise. Well, you know where she goes, and that’s not her worst mistake—it’s bragging about her fishing skills in front of the Qallupilluit, with their blue and green hair, their long white fingers, and their long green fingernails. Promising the Qallupilluit to bring her brothers to them—and a promise is a promise, Allashua runs home to get her mother. Together, the two are more than a match for the wily Qallupilluit, and it all ends just fine. A Promise Is a Promise is a delight: With a warm, loving family to offset the scary parts, a telling done with a light hand and great good humor, and illustrations that are just perfect.
hc 17.00, pb 7.00

From Nā Kamalei—Ko-olauloa Early Education Program (KEEP), a Native Hawai’ian organization dedicated to providing “services and opportunities that foster culturally appropriate and healthy development of a balanced child,” comes the Ho’ulu Hou Project: Stories Told By Us. Each story in this flip-format bilingual series comes with ideas for reading with young children and family-centered activities. Each is beautifully photographed with elders, parents, children and other relatives as “actors.” The series is birthed in and honors the oral legacy within the Native Hawai’ian communities.

Nelson, S.D. (Lakota), Gift Horse. 1999, color illustrations by the author.

“The thing I remember most from my early days is a horse… [S]he was the blue-grey color of a thunderstorm, and her back was a blur of white spots, like hailstones running down.” S.D. Nelson's incredibly beautiful, bold illustrations bring to life the story, told in the first person, of his great-great-grandfather's transition from boy to man. As Flying Cloud and his horse, a gift from his father, hunt deer, endure a blizzard, and join the men on a buffalo hunt and a raid, he grows into the relationship—no, partnership—between a warrior and his pony.
hc 17.00

Okanagan Tribal Council, Kou-Skelowh/We Are the People: How Food Was Given, How Names Were Given & How Turtle Set the Animals Free. (1984), 2004, color illustrations by Barbara Marchand (Okanagan).

In “How Food Was Given,” the Animal and Plant People must decide how food will be provided for the People-to-Be. “How Names Were Given” tells of Coyote's plans to be named chief of all the Animal People by being first to arrive at the name-giving ceremony. But the Great Spirit has other plans for him. In “How Turtle Set the Animals Free,” the Animal People are Eagle's slaves because nobody is fast enough to win a race against him. These teaching stories, from the Kou-Skelowh (We Are the People) series, are lovely in their simplicity and heart.
pb 13.00

Otto, Simon (Ojibwe/Odawa), Walk in Peace: Legends and Stories of the Michigan Indians. 1990, b/w illustrations by Kayle Crampton.

Here are 18 short, simply and well told how-it-came-to-be stories: how dogs and humans became friends, how pike got a long nose, how turtle got a shell, why snakes shed their skins, how an impatient pigeon became a mourning dove, how a big greedy frog becomes the first toad. Many of the stories are of Nanaboozhoo, and Walk in Peace, with Crampton’s lovely and understated pen-and-ink illustrations, is an excellent read-aloud for the younger listeners.
hc 18.00, pb 10.00

Pennington, Daniel (Cherokee), Itse Selu: Cherokee Harvest Festival. 1994, color illustrations by Don Stewart.

In a woodland village in the original Cherokee homelands in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a southeastern region of what we now know as the United States, a young child and his family prepare for Itse Selu, the Green Corn Festival. Itse Selu is a time of giving thanks for the corn harvest and a time of putting out the old hearth fires and lighting new ones to mark and celebrate the new year. It’s a time of feasting and wellbeing, a time of playing games and listening to stories, a time of watching and learning, a time of dancing the sacred dance until sunrise, a time of forgetting past quarrels and beginning with a happy spirit. There is a lot of cultural information here, but it is not overwhelming, nor is it forced. What we see are happy children, secure among their families and friends. Stewart’s illustrations are amazing.
pb 8.00

Olson, Karen (Cree/Anishinaabe), Living Safe, Playing Safe. Illustrated by Leonard George, Jr. (Thompson).

At school, in the kitchen and in the playground, Tony, Rainey, Jennifer and Mavis learn about buckling up, touching strange dogs, getting picked up from school, identifying poisons, knife safety, and not jumping off a moving swing if you value your foot.
pb 11.00

Eagle Feather—An Honour. 1988, b/w illustrations by the author.

Now that his Mishoomis,is gone, a young man remembers walking with him in the bush and listening to stories of the old days; he remembers being honored with an eagle feather at the powwow and not knowing what he had done to deserve this honor; he remembers his grandfather telling him that “I had achieved a good deed from the first day he held me, as a baby, in his arms.” Plain’s illustrations complement this deep little story and express the many layers of life’s experiences.
pb 8.00