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Ancona, George (Maya), Powwow.
1993, color photos by the author.
Through beautiful full-color
photographs, George Ancona takes the reader to the Crow Fair,
the largest powwow in the
U.S.
pb 10.00
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Anglesey, Zoe (Chicana), ¡Word
Up! Hope for Youth Poetry from El Centro de la Raza. 1992.
As Father Ernesto Cardenal,
the great Nicaraguan poet and teacher and inspiration for this
book says, “I think that everyone, being
human, is a poet, like all birds sing.” The children of
the Hope for Youth Poetry Workshop demonstrate that poetry
is also
a way of
building community and generating power. These poems speak
to us and our children, and give us hope for the future.
pb 13.00
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 Argueta, Jorge (Pipil/Nahua), Alfredito Flies Home. 2007, illustrated by Luis Garay.
Alfredito and his grandma and parents are preparing to go home to El Salvador for Christmas—the first time they’ve returned since they fled as refugees and made their way to California on foot. This will be the first plane ride for them, and anticipation has little worms crawling in Alfredito’s stomach. The excitement of the plane ride; the joyful reunion with his sister and his aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and new puppies; the trip to the cemetery to visit with the grandparents; and the Christmas celebration—too soon it is over and Alfredito must fly home again, to California.
Some young readers will be familiar with what it means to be so desperate to have to go with “any Señor Coyote, or run through the mountains, or hide in the trunks of cars” in order to get to el norte, where there may be the possibility of employment, the possibility of sending money home to relatives. These young readers know, as does Alfredito, that not everyone, for many reasons, gets to go back home.
The cover painting shows Alfredito in his back yard pretending to be an airplane, while a real plane flies overhead. On the ground are the universal symbols of north and south—a football and a soccer ball—and both belong to him. Garay’s amazing acrylic-on-canvas paintings, on a lush and varied palette, perfectly complement this warm story of the loving reunion of a boy and his large extended family. Alfredito Flies Home brings to mind the wisdom, “¡Ningún ser humano es ilegal!” (To be human is never illegal).
hc 18.00
Also available in Spanish, Alfredito regresa volando a su casa, hc 18.00 |
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Awiakta, Marilou (Cherokee), Rising Fawn and the Fire Mystery. 2006,color illustrations by Beverly Bringle (Choctaw).
Based on a real event that took place in 1833, Rising Fawn is
the profoundly affecting story of a Choctaw child, secure in
the peace
of a loving family, whose whole world, in an instant, is destroyed.
Her story—with variations—was repeated thousands
of times, and Awiakta has set it down with honesty and beauty.
Bringle’s
full-color paintings and Awiakta’s thoughtful discussion
questions will thoroughly engage young readers.
pb 15.00
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Benton-Banai, Edward (Ojibwe), The Mishomis Book. 1988, b/w
illustrations.
From the Creation Story,
How Original Man came to be on Earth, and how, as Waynaboozhoo,
he became a hero and a teacher for
the Ojibwe
People, this is a deeply-moving spiritual and historical odyssey
not “just” for children.
pb 24.00
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Big Crow, Moses Nelson/Eyo Hiktepi (Lakota), A Legend from Crazy Horse Clan. 1987, b/w illustrations.
Big Crow tells the story of how Tashia Gnupa (Meadowlark), a human child, joins the Buffalo Nation and later returns home to become the mother of warriors. This story is from Eyo Hiktepi’s people, from his family, out of a language that is his own. It makes a world of difference.
pb 6.00 |
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From DuWayne Leslie Bowen (Seneca) |
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A Few More Stories: Contemporary Seneca Indian Tales of the Supernatural. 2000, b/w illustrations.
A Few More Stories is every bit as scary and wonderful as Bowen’s previous book, One More Story. Here, young readers will meet a shape shifter caught in a jar with lightning bugs, a mysterious dark figure wearing a brim hat and poling a boat at night, the terrible Hah Ghone Dais—Long Nose—who roams the night seeking children, a giant snake who just wants to be left alone, talking horses and a devil and a killer rabbit, a “dew eagle,” and a grandma and best friend whose love transcends death.
pb 13.00 |
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One More Story: Contemporary Seneca Tales of the Supernatural. 1991, b/w illustrations.
“The old folks always had time to tell us things,” says Bowen, “and on hot or chilly nights, they told us ghost stories.” For children who love to turn the lights out and be scared in a safe place, this is perfect.
pb 13.00
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Broker, Ignatia (Ojibwe), Night Flying Woman. 1983, b/w illustrations.
An
Ojibwe elder recounts the life of her great-great grandmother,
during a time of enormous change, uprootings, and loss.
This story
is a gift, an antidote for all the lies about our past that we
have had to endure.
pb 14.00
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From Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki) |
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The Arrow Over the
Door. 1998,
b/w illustrations; Abenaki.
Told in alternating
viewpoints of two young men—Stands Straight,
an Abenaki, and Samuel Russell, a Quaker—during the time
of the American Revolutionary War, this well-told story, based
on a historical
meeting between the Abenaki and the Quakers, reminds us that “the
way of peace...can be walked by all human beings.”
hc
16.00, pb 5.00
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Children of the
Longhouse.
1996; Mohawk.
Here’s a new
idea—Indians have a life that doesn’t revolve around
the white man! So much fiction available to young people focuses on the cataclysmic
relationship between the Indians and non-Indians that it’s easy for
some to forget that people have lived in, and called this place “home,” for
millennia. In this coming-of-age story, the children of the longhouse are
Ohkwa’ri
and Itsi:tsia, 11-year-old twins, brother and sister, living in a Mohawk
town in the traditional homelands of what is now eastern New York State,
in 1491.
Reflecting the balance between male and female roles in Iroquois society,
the book’s chapters alternate between the events and perspectives of
Ohkwa’ri
and Itsi:tsia, who very definitely see things differently. Bruchac seamlessly
incorporates an impressive amount of information about pre-contact Mohawk
culture, society, and beliefs, and tells a good story as well.
pb 6.00
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Geronimo. 2006; Apache.
As narrated by Geronimo’s
adopted grandson, Little Foot, this fast-moving story is rich
with cultural and historical markers and
a litany of broken promises. As Little Foot observes, “Lies
from the mouths of the White Eyes seemed as certain as the sunrise
each morning in the east. Even when they wrote their promises
down on paper, they still did not keep them. Paper lies are even
easier
to burn.” Chronicling the captivity years from 1886 to
1894, each short chapter begins with a historical third-person
record that
offers a counterpoint to Little Foot’s narrative and grounds
it in the history of the times. Through Little Foot’s interpretation,
middle readers will come to know the great spiritual leader as
a man who loved his wives and many children, had an infectious
sense
of humor, and was an astute businessman besides. Geronimo is
a story of resistance and survival, courage and sacrifice, and,
above all,
the fight to maintain land, culture and community. Told from
the perspective of the people themselves—with a refreshing
absence of words such as “renegades” and “raiders”—Bruchac’s
work is an antidote to the many toxic volumes, fiction and so-called
non-fiction, that portray Geronimo and his people as savages.
hc 17.00
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The
Heart of a Chief. 1998; Penacook.
This beautifully written
story deals with some of the many issues confronting Native young
people today, on and off
the reservation: Indian “mascots,” leadership,
and alcohol abuse. This may be the only story for this age
group that realistically portrays a loving
extended Indian family trying to deal with alcoholism. For this
one thing alone, it is worth the price of the book.
pb 6.00
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Hidden Roots. 2004; Abenaki.
Taking place in the early 1960s, Hidden Roots is
rooted in the Vermont Eugenics Program that began some thirty years
before
and left the
Abenaki people, for generations, “hiding in plain sight.” When
his
“Uncle” Louis
can no longer contribute to his family’s silence and shame, 11-year-old
Sonny begins to understand the why’s of having to
leave your home in the middle of the night, having secrets hanging
heavily in the air, having to keep your head down and not bring attention
to yourself, having to watch your father’s self hatred turn to
violence,
having been told your grandfather is your uncle because he still
lves in the Indian way. And Sonny begins to come to know that roots—even
hidden roots—run deep. In Hidden Roots, Joe Bruchac has
written an honest, truth-telling story that may well be the most important
book
this prolific writer has ever produced. Thank you Joe. You have done
a good thing.
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March Toward the Thunder. 2008; Abenaki.
Between 1861 and 1865, during what has been labeled the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history, more than one million young men, foot soldiers who had enlisted or been drafted into the infantries of the Northern and Southern armies, were maimed or killed as they marched toward the thunder of each other’s artillery.
It’s the summer of 1864, and 15-year-old Louis Nolette, an Abenaki from Canada, is living in New York with his mother. Lured by the promise of good wages and a “fine, clean uniform,” and the North’s stated commitment to end slavery, Louis signs up with the Irish Brigade—known for its courage and ferocity—marching from New York to Virginia.
An “eager boy going into battle,” what Louis finds out during this long summer is that war is not about heroes or villains: it’s about scared kids on both sides of the trenches, killing and dying for a “cause” that becomes further and further removed from their realities.
March Toward the Thunder is not a blow-by-blow description of some of the major battles of the Civil War. It is not a roster of the famous names, though some make an appearance, too. Rather, it is about the exhausted, homesick young people who do the fighting and whom readers will get to know and like—before almost all of them are killed.
Of the others who become friends—amidst “the confusion of gunshot and smoke, shots and screams and the sounds of men calling for water or their mothers”—few are left alive. And many of those others who might survive find parts of themselves left at the hospital tent, with the doctors’ sawbones-approach to medicine.
In some places, compassion emerges from the bloody chaos: informal truces between young men on opposing sides, who share the little they have; a deep friendship that develops between Louis and a young Mohawk named Artis, who, in another war in another time and place, might have become deadly enemies; and, in the trenches, “Amazing Grace” sung, as “at least a thousand voices and hearts of men in both blue and gray were lifted above the earthly battlefield.”
In March Toward the Thunder, Louis, his mother, his comrades,—and his “enemies”—are real people. Through them, middle readers will find no “good guys” or “bad guys,” no simplistic declaration of “mission accomplished.” Rather, with the assistance of a skilled teacher, they will be able to relate to the historical and contemporary issues of military recruitment and war.
hc 17.00
For a full review click HERE. |
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Skeleton Man.
2001, b/w illustrations; Mohawk.
Told from the present-tense
perspective of a contemporary youngster whose father is Mohawk,
this terrifying young-adult novel
is rooted
in a traditional story told among the Algonquian and Haudenosaunee
peoples of the Northeast. In the oral story, a cannibal
ogre hides
its face from the child it has stolen to fatten up. Here, Molly—with
her understanding of the story, trust in her dreams, and the
help
of family and community—figures out how to destroy Skeleton
Man and rescue her parents. Young readers will not be able to
put this
one down.
hc 17.00, pb 5.00
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The Return of Skeleton Man. 2006, b/w illustrations; Mohawk.
As Bruchac’s
sequel to Skeleton Man begins, our intrepid young hero, Molly,
is complaining about—sequels. But this time Molly,
the woman warrior who had already once fought and conquered
the Skeleton Man, is suffering. It’s not “just” traumatic
stress syndrome, it’s the knowledge that the monster is
not really dead, and that he’s waiting to strike again.
With that knowledge, strengthened by the ancient stories her
father has taught her, a
hotel housekeeper who is not really what she seems, a spirit
Rabbit who still appears in her dreams, and her willingness to
cry “help” into
the night, she must once again go into battle. The end
of the confrontation, in which Molly in her commandeered bulldozer
fights Skeleton Man
in his all-terrain vehicle, is at once predictable and
terrifying.
Middle readers will love it.
hc 16.00
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Wabi: A Hero's Tale. 2006.
If you’ve been raised as an owl (even if you find out later that you’re also a human), there’s one thing you need to know: “If you don’t hop off the branch, you’ll never catch anything.” That’s what Wabi finds out from the wisdom of his great-grandmother, who is also a shape-changer. And hop off the branch Wabi does, into the adventure of his life.
As Wabi watches and listens to the people in the village below, he learns what it is to be human. But in his quest to find out who he is and where he belongs, his way of seeing the world remains delightfully ornithno-centric: “If you can hear the deliciously terrified heartbeat of a mouse hiding in the grass far below your treetop perch, it is not at all difficult to make out a human conversation within a nearby wigwam.”
Wabi is at first perplexed by the humans: their physical makeup, with fingers instead of talons and legs that bend forward instead of backward; their homes, built like upside-down nests; their eating habits that eschew “delicious-looking chipmunks” and “yummy and crunchy” baby crows; and their etiquette, which precludes the presenting of one’s beloved with a live rodent.
With Abenaki words sprinkled throughout the narrative and elements from traditional Abenaki tales—and the great Tao interpreter Chuang Tsu—seamlessly woven into the story, Wabi rescues a wolf cub who becomes his devoted companion, falls in love with a human girl, and engages in mortal combat with monsters intent on destroying their world. The sometimes gruesome encounters will resonate with middle readers, as will Wabi’s wry observations (“It is very easy to locate a large, bloodthirsty creature when it attempts to tear out your throat”). Bruchac’s considerable talents shine through Wabi’s story; there’s not a single wasted scene in this expertly crafted thriller.
hc 17.00, pb 7.00 |
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The Wind Eagle and Other Abenaki Stories.
1985, b/w illustrations.
These
are all Gluskabi stories, and it is easy to tell that the author
is a true storyteller, because the words go
easily from the page to
being said.
pb 10.00
CD to accompany this book, 14.00 |
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The Winter People.
2002.
The Winter People takes place in 1759, towards the
end of the period that became known as the French and
Indian Wars.
In a targeted raid, the British soldiers led by Major
Robert Rogers and called “Rogers Rangers” kill a number
of people and burn down most of the village. It is in this
setting that a 14-year-old soon-to-be warrior named Saxso sets
out to rescue his mother and sisters, taken captive by Rogers
Rangers. Told in Saxso’s own words, the story is rooted
in land, culture, and community. Saxso’s strength and
courage comes not from imagining himself a hero so much as
from relying on lessons learned from his elders, and the knowledge
of his responsibility to the community. He knows who he is
and what he has to do. What’s remarkable about The
Winter People is that it draws on the oral histories
of the descendants of the survivors of Rogers Raid to
reconstruct
through their eyes what really happened and how the community
survived.
hc 19.00, pb 6.00
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Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki) and Shonto Begay (Dinè), Navajo Long Walk: The Tragic Story of a Proud People’s Forced March from their Homeland. 2001, color paintings by Shanto Begay (Diné).
There is no word in English that describes the Diné word, hozho. Some say “beauty,” some say “harmony” or “balance,” but it is much more than all of those words. Hozho is and always has been the guiding force of the people of Dinétah, and it is this thing that was almost completely destroyed—along with homes, crops, orchards, and animals—by what became known as the Long Walk. Joe Bruchac’s text tells the story of Kit Carson’s army raid and the forced march from Canyon de Chelly to the desolate reservation known as Bosque Redondo. But it is Shonto Begay’s luminous paintings—and his captions—that speak the heart of the Dinè people and inform the reader as words alone never could. This is a beautiful book about an unspeakable tragedy.
hc 19.00
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Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki) and James Bruchac (Abenaki), When the Chenoo Howls: Native American Tales of Terror. 1998, b/w illustrations by William Sauts Netamuxwe Bock (Lenni Lenape).
Based on traditional stories from the Northeast Woodlands, these 12 terrifying tales—“from the very distant past to very recent times”—are of ordinary and extraordinary heroes battling hideous monsters. In many of them, having a good heart and a clear mind and “standing up against their own fears” are what enables them to defeat their terrible foes. There are cautionary tales too, demonstrating what can happen to children who don’t heed the advice they’re given. Of course, in these stories, the monsters win. Bock’s pen-and-ink sketches give just enough detail; they are perfect and perfectly horrifying. When the Chenoo Howls will enthrall reluctant young readers, as well as children who love being scared in a safe place.
pb 11.00
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Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki), and Gayle Ross (Cherokee), The Girl
Who Married the Moon: Tales from Native North America. (1994), 2006.
In this companion volume to Bruchac’s now out-of-print Flying
with the Eagle, Racing the Great Bear, Joe Bruchac and Gayle
Ross tell 16 traditional stories that celebrate the passage from
girlhood
to womanhood and, as Ross says in the introduction, “to
honor the generations of grandmothers who have gone before
us and to reach
the daughters and granddaughters who will come after.” In
four stories from four Indian nations from four geographical
regions of
North America, courageous and resourceful young women outwit
monsters and avoid bad marriages, but also suffer the consequences
of their
actions and join their husbands in the world of the spirits.
Together, these stories have beauty and power, and are laugh-out-loud
funny,
tragic and frightening as well.
pb 10.00
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Bruchac, Margaret (Abenaki), Malian’s Song. 2005, color illustrations by William Maughan.
Malian’s Song is a true account of the October 4, 1759, attack
on the village of Odanack by Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers.
Because
the people were warned by one of Rogers’ Mohican scouts, 32
of the villagers were killed, rather than the 200 later claimed
by Rogers,
but their homes were burned, and their stores of corn pillaged.
This story has existed in the living traditions of Abenaki
people for
nearly 250 years, and Bruchac sets down this tragic event carefully
and with great feeling. Young readers will see the loss and
pain and sorrow, and they will also see how the people have
continued,
and do so still. The illustrations are lovely. The people are
dressed as they would have been in that day, in a combination
of Native and
English clothing. Maughan has beautifully drawn the close ties
between family members and the strengths of each.
hc 17.00
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Buffalo Bird Woman (Hidatsa), as told to Gilbert L. Wilson, Waheenee: An Indian Girl’s Story. (1921), 1981, b/w illustrations by Frederick Wilson.
Waheenee-wea (Buffalo Bird Woman) was born in 1839, two years after
the devastating smallpox epidemic that wiped out most of the Mandan
and about half of the Hidatsa people. The survivors consolidated
and moved north, where they founded Like-a-Fishook Village. Waheenee’s
great-grandmother White Corn and grandmother Turtle told her many
stories of these times. In the early 1900s, Waheenee herself told
many stories to the anthropologist Wilson. Here, she tells of emulating
her mothers and grandmothers, learning her growing responsibilities
and teaching a puppy his, farming and harvesting and preparing
vast amounts of food, moving camp, welcoming visitors, fooling
around
with girlfriends, teenage crushes and poking fun at clan relations,
and listening to stories that teach why certain behaviors are to
be cultivated or avoided. In Waheenee’s stories, young readers
will get a warm narrative of the day-to-day lives of the Hidatsa
people and their Mandan relatives.
pb 13.00 |
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Carlson, Vada (Dinè), and Gary Witherspoon (Dinè), Black Mountain Boy: A Story of the Boyhood of John Honie. 1993, b/w illustrations by Andy Tsinajinnie (Dinè).
Prepared by Rough Rock
Demonstration School primarily for Dinč youngsters, these six
stories from the childhood of Dinč elder John Honie will
be enjoyed by everyone. From “Big Sister and Learning
to Herd the Sheep” to “Becoming a Man,” this
is an antidote to Scott O’Dell’s atrocious Sing
Down the Moon.
pb 15.00
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From Marlene Carvell |
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Sweetgrass Basket. 2005; Mohawk.
Sweetgrass Basket,
told in the alternating voices of two young Mohawk sisters attending
the now-notorious Carlisle Indian
Industrial School
in the early 1900s, is a wrenchingly beautiful story of two
sisters trying to keep themselves together in an atmosphere that
fosters
only hate and shame. But amidst all the abuse, the children
resist the value system being foisted on them, sometimes with
great
good humor. “I must say,” the older sister Mattie says to
Sarah about the hated Mrs. Dwyer, “‘that I hope
she steps in a hold and is swallowed by the earth.’ Suddenly
Sarah’s
eyes brighten and a smile spreads across her face. ‘Mattie,
how dreadful,’ she says in mock horror. ‘What
a terrible thing to do to Mother Earth.’” The ending is a surprise
that’s not really a surprise. Children died at Carlisle, in
front of cold, hard people who didn’t give a damn.
hc 17.00
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Who Will Tell My Brother? 2002; Mohawk.
Unlike his older brother,
Evan Hill was born looking like his white mother rather than
his Mohawk father. In waging a struggle
against
his high school’s Indian
mascot, Evan follows in his brother’s footsteps, taking on a task that
is “a
matter of honor, a matter of respect.” Journal entries that are quiet,
moving, and very readable express Evan’s deep shame and great determination
as he tries to get the students, teachers, principal, and school board to
listen to
him. “I simply have no choice. I have no choice,” he says. When
he addresses the school board in his “monthly plea for justice,” they
condescendingly explain to him that “racism is a matter of opinion.” In
the face of escalating name-calling, threats and even physical attacks by
some of the students, Evan stands strong. He knows what he has to do.
pb 6.00
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Clutesi, George (Tse-Shaht), Son of Raven, Son of Deer. (1967),
1994, b/w illustrations by the author.
Ah-tush-mit, son of
Deer, captures fire from the Wolf people for the humans; Ko-ishin-mit,
son of Raven, insists on
copying other people,
and gets his comeuppance; and other legends from the Tse-Shaht
people of the Northwest Coast.
pb 17.00
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Culleton,
Beatrice (Métis), Spirit of the White Bison.
1985, b/w illustrations.
Through the eyes of a white bison, Culleton tells the story of the
deliberate decimation of the buffalo.
pb 6.00
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Dolan, Marlena (Cree/Dakota), ed., Just Talking About Ourselves:
Voices of Our Youth. 1994-96, color illustrations.
These
stories, poetry, and visual art by Native young people of British
Columbia, full of truth, strength and courage,
reflect the often
harsh
realities of their lives.
Vol.
I, II, III; pb 11.00 each
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Dunn, Anne M. (Ojibwe), When Beaver Was Very Great: Stories to
Live By. 1995, b/w illustrations.
Brimming with kindness
and insight, strength and beauty, Anne’s traditional legends,
modern stories, and poems are truly “stories
to live by.”
pb 14.00
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Eastman, Charles A./Ohiyesa (Dakota), Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains. (1918), 1991, b/w illustrations.
“[T]he early chiefs,” Ohiyesa writes, “were spokesmen and leaders in the simplest sense, possessing no real authority.” Indian Heroes is a book of short biographical stories of 15 great Indian leaders, “real heroes of a free and natural people”: Red Cloud, Rain-in-the-Face, Little Wolf, Chief Joseph, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Little Crow, Gall, Two Strike, American Horse, Dull Knife, Roman Nose, Hole-in-the-Day, and Tamahay. Most of these leaders were friends and acquaintances of Ohiyesa, and his telling of their lives makes all the difference.
pb 20.00 |
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Ekoomiak, Normee (Inuk), Arctic Memories. 1988, color illustrations by the author.
“We love to go outside and play,” Normee Ekoomiak writes. “Inside an iglu there is not very much space. You cannot stay inside for a long time, not even during a snowstorm. But if you go outside to play, you’re your body will always be healthy and normal. Also, someone has to go outside the iglu after a snowstorm to dig the people out.” Ekoomiak’s embroidery-and-felt appliqué paintings and words, in Inuktitut and English, depict traditional stories, family life, animals, and games, and honor a very old lifeway that continues still.
pb 8.00 |
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From Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe) |
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The Birchbark
House.
1999, b/w illustrations by the author.
Told from the point of view of Omakayas, this is a lovely story
of a little girl and her extended family, living in 1847 on the
land
called the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. There is tragedy
here, as well as joy and healing, and the singular importance of
place and family in a child’s life: “Omakayas rose on her
elbow and threw back her head, closed her eyes and smiled as the
white-throated
sparrow sank again and again through the air like a shining needle,
and sewed up her broken heart.”
pb 7.00
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The Game of Silence. 2005, b/w
illustrations by the author.
Omakayas, Little Frog, is not the same little girl
that we met in
The Birchbark House. In 1850, at nine winters, she is an almost-woman,
taking on more responsibility, thinking more serioiusly about her
place in the world, and dreaming prophetic dreams, The Game of
Silence is
the story of one full year in the life of a child on the brink of
womanhood, a year in which her life and the lives of all of her relations
take a turn form which there is no going back, the heartache of being
fored into the unknown, of having to say goodbye to the land you
love. Louise Erdrich writes that The Birchbach House and The
Game of Silence are “are, in the truest sense,
labors of love for my characters, for my children, my ancestors and
my people.”
They are an antidote to Laura
Ingalls Wilder’s toxic and hyper-marketed Little House books.
hc 16.00, pb 6.00 |
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Gaikesheyongai, Sally (Ojibwe), The Seven Fires:
An Ojibway Prophecy. 1994, color illustrations.
A spiritual history
of the Ojibwe people, simply and beautifully told, and beautifully
illustrated by Polly Keeshig-Tobias
(Ojibwe).
pb 6.00
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Grace,
Catherine O’Neill, and Marge Bruchac
(Abenaki), 1621:
A New Look at Thanksgiving. 2001, color photos.
Produced in collaboration
with the Wampanoag Indian Program at Plimoth Plantation, 1621 weighs
Wampanoag oral traditions and English colonial written records
against
the popular myth of “brave settlers
inviting wild Indians over for turkey dinner.” Stunning
photographs by Sisse Brimberg and Cotton Coulson, accompanied
by simple, thoughtful
text, are designed to walk the young reader into the dual perspectives
of Native peoples and English colonists in Patuxet/Plymouth.
The text,
written for a young audience but not solely for children, also
offers insights into the relationship of the Wampanoag people
to their traditional
homelands, and survival into the present. As well, 1621 addresses
the harsh reality of the subsequent colonial history. Along
with Giving
Thanks and Thanksgiving: A Native Perspective, 1621 is
an excellent tool for un-teaching the myth of “The First
Thanksgiving.”
hc 18.00, pb 8.00
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Harper, Maddie (Ojibwe), “Mush-hole”:
Memories of a Residential School. 1993, color illustrations.
Maddie Harper tells of experiences in an Indian residential
school, and her escape and recovery from the negative values
and cultural
degradation she was forced to live with.
pb 6.00
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Hubbard, Jim, ed., Shooting
Back from the Reservation. 1994,
b/w photos.
Given a camera, some
film, and a short course in photography, children from reservations
in Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wisconsin
give back
to the reader a camera’s-eye view of their
lives.
pb 17.00
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Hungry Wolf, Beverly (Blackfoot), Daughters of the Buffalo Women:
Maintaining the Tribal Faith. 1996, b/w photos and illustrations.
In this companion to
her earlier The Ways of My Grandmothers,
are stories from Beverly Hungry Wolf’s mother, Ruth Little
Bear, and
the other elder women who grew up in the early 1900s. Here
are memories of reservation life, boarding schools and hardscrabble
existence;
along with observations of the revival of tribal traditions
by the younger generation, always with the guidance of the
elders. These
are real stories, by real people. It makes all the difference.
pb 15.00
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Hunter, Sally (Anishinaabe), Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago
Tradition. 1996, color photos; Hochunk.
In this addition to
the “We Are Still Here” series,
12-year-old Russell (Hunter’s grandson) learns how to grow
and dry corn from
his
Hochunk (Winnebago) grandfather.
pb 7.00
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Indian Teacher and Educational Personnel Program, Humboldt State
University, Northwest Indigenous Gold Rush History: The Indian
Survivors of California’s Holocaust. 1998, b/w photos.
Children’s literature
about the “Gold Rush” and textbooks paint
the “forty-niners” as courageous pioneers in pursuit
of gold and the “Gold Rush” as an exciting, thrilling,
adventurous time in the history of Califonia. From an Indian
perspective, this
time was one of invasion, famine, murder, even massacre. This
book, put together by a group of Indian students at Humboldt
State University, deals with this era honestly and
from a fully Indian perspective, and, in the hands of an innovative
teacher,
can be used with children.
pb 7.50
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