Can you all recommend your favorite books by/about Native North Americans?
Can you all recommend your favorite books by/about Native North Americans?
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Can you all recommend your favorite books by/about Native North Americans?
Dana Stabenow. Mystery writer. Love her
Margaret Coel’s books are cozy mysteries that I’ve enjoyed.
Louise Erdrich, is a Native American writer. I read and enjoyed The Roundhouse and The Antelope Wife.
Those were both great. I’m currently reading her LaRose.
Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn
I enjoyed The Anasazi Mysteries by Kathleen O’Neal Gear. She also co-writes a series called North America’s Forgotten Past. I haven’t read them but have heard good things about them.
The Song of Hiawatha is lovely and considered America’s Epic Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Longfellow was not Native American.
Robyn Wakefiled Murphy, she did say by OR about Native Americans.
Sherman Alexie has written quite a few wonderful books.
Tony Hillerman, Jim Chee mysterie
Louise Ehrdich
Tony Hillerman
Tony or Anna Hillerman, Louise Erdrich, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Killers of the Flower Moon is very good but also very sad.
Indian Horse and The Orenda
1,000 White Women
I agree, a great read, I would love to go see the monument that honors these women, think it is in Montana, but might be wrong on the state, but a great book.
I thought it was fictional.
@Beth it is fictional. And it was written by a white guy. And it perpetuates myths about Native Americans.
I found this from the author: In 1854 a group of prominent Cheyenne chiefs attended a peace conference with representatives of the U.S. government at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory. There the chiefs requested the gift of 1000 white women as brides for their young warriors. Because theirs was a matrilineal society, the Cheyennes believed that all of the children born of these unions would automatically be considered white people, thus allowing the next generation of Cheyennes to assimilate themselves into the white world. From the Cheyenne worldview this was a bold, ingenious, and also quite tragic proposal. It goes without saying that the notion of white women breeding with savages was not well received by the government authorities. The peace conference fell apart,the Cheyenne chiefs went home, and, of course, the white women did not come.
The Roundhouse
Killers of the Flower Moon, Island of Blue Dolphins, anything by Louise Erdrich but LaRose is my favorite.
I would also say Tony Hillerman and His Jim Chee series. Margaret Cole and her Windriver Reservation series
Mine are non fiction…Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, Killer of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Black Elk by Joe Jackson and A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt @Jackson.
Anything by Linda Hogan ?
Power was by Linda Hogan, wasn’t it? That was a good book
I read a lot of Linda Hogan in college because my professor was a fan. I love Solar Storms, I reread it often and it always seems new to me
I’ll have to add that one to my list ?
Empire of the Summer Moon the Rise and Fall of the Commanches
Empire of the Summer Moon was very good.
Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko
Lucia St Clair Robson, Ride The Wind and she has written others. Ride The Wind about Quanah Parker Comanche chief’s mother and father.
I liked this book a lot!
@Claudia me too
I went and ordered Ride the Wind when I saw your comment. I live in East Texas with the descendants of the Parkers. They are quite proud of their shared history with both the Parker and other early Texas families and their Comanche ancestors.
“Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher”
That was a great book! What an interesting true story.
I second this
Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan
Any Louise Erdrich books, Yellow Raft on Blue Water
Allen Eckert and John Sudgen’s books about Tecumseh
Timothy Egan’s ‘Short Nights of The Shadow Catcher’!
Fools Crow. Sorry, can’t remember the author
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
I would also say Leslie Marmon Silko and Linda Hogan.
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus, Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
Tony Hillerman isn’t Native American, but he has written numerous books about the Southwest and the Navajo Tribal Police. My husband loves his books. I haven’t read any of them yet. After his death, his daughter has carried on the writings and seems to be doing a good job.
I love these books! Joe Leaphorn & Jim Chee are wonderful characters.
I have a Sherman Alexie shelf and a Louise Erdrich shelf. Sherman is a wonderful poet also.
Follow The River by James Alexander Thom. A wonderful book, I read it years ago and still recommend it to everyone.
I loved that book! Read it many years ago on the recommendation of a friend and I remember it vividly.
Check out this book on Goodreads: Birdie https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28513021-birdie
Check out this book on Goodreads: Love Medicine https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/91440.Love_Medicine
Louise Erdrich. Just started There, There. Loved Tony Hillerman.
The Round House, by Louise Erdrich.
Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Sacajawea… by Anna Waldo
It’s a novel.
My husband loves reading about Native Americans, so my sister suggested he read Killers of the Flower
Moon by David Grann. It’s about the murders of Osage Indians in Oklahoma and the investigation by the newly formed FBI.
Undaunted courage is fantastic. Lewis and Clark expedition
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling.
For non-fiction Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown outlines the tragic history of Native Americans in the U.S. Tony Hillerman has a great series of mysteries featuring Navajo detectives.
Killers of the Flower Moon
That was a excellent book!
Louise Erdich and Barbara Kingsolver have written alot of books featuring Native Americans.
There are now many important books on how Native Americans have been mistreated (to put it lightly) in this country. To find out more about how they lived as a society before persecution, consider Tending the Wild, Braiding Sweetgrass, and 1491.
Sherman Alexie is a wonderful author. His recent memoir about his mother “You Dont Have to Say You Love Me’ is exceptional.
Yeah, but have you read about him lately? He’s being dropped by publishers and stores and schools…
The First North Americans series by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear. There are about 22 books in all ranging from the first crossing of the Bering Strait up to the 13th century, covering people’s from all over North America.
The Last Report on The Miracles At Little No Horse and A Plague of Doves. Both good. Both by Louise Erdrich.
Hillerman and Doss
I’ve really enjoyed books by Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie & Brady Udall.
Robinson Crusoe
anything by Louise Erdrich
William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series.
Yello boat on blue water
Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.
It is non-fiction that I read as part of my American History class in college: “A Century of Dishonor” by Helen Hunt Jackson. It traces 100 years of broken treaties by the white US government and the native Americans.
Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden, Hidasta
Bury Me at Wounded Knee
I meant Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee …. Sorry
All of James Alexander Thom’s fiction are very good books about Native People’s.
Island of the Blue Dolphins and Julie of the Wolves, both are chapter books geared towards kids but are great, quick reads.
Julie’s Wolf Pack was my favorite book when I was a kid. I don’t know how many times I checked it out of my school’s library until I got my own copy. I loved the wolves and preferred reading about their lives over Julie’s.
I don’t know that I read that one. I remember Julie of the Wolves and Julie. I’ll have to put it on my TBR list.
Julie’s Wolf Pack is the last book in the trilogy, published in 1997. It centers completely around the wolves and Julie only shows up a few times.
Books by Louise Erdrich.
Anything by Louise Erdrich
Fools Crow by James Welch (Blackfoot) and Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
There is also a lot of really good Native American poetry out there!
New one:. There there.
The series by the Gears (husband and wife anthropologists) People of the …. Start with People of the Wolf. Covers the migration from Asia across the Bering Straight.
Coming of the Storm is really good too.
Empire of the summer moon is a great nonfiction choice!!
Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Last of the Mohicans by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Oops sorry I misread, ignore Age of Innocence.
Last of the Mohicans is by James Fenimore Cooper
Bury my Heart at wounded knee by dee brown is my favorite book.
Agree. So worth the read
Last of the Mohicans
Jimmy Bluefeather by Kim Heacox
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Anna Lee Waldo “Sacajawea”
“Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown is good. “Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh” by Allan Eckert is also good.
Lots of Alaska Native books…Two Old Women, Bird Girl, Ada Blackjack, Fifty Miles From Tomorrow.
Sherman Alexie
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Walls Kimmerer. One of the best books I have ever read.
Neither Wolf nor Dog.
Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo
Biography of Cynthia Ann Parker, the mother of Quanah Parker, and the bio of Quanah Parker.
Louise Erdrich
I Heard the Owl Call My Name–a beautiful story.
I had my students read this book. I loved it.
Caleb’s Crossing and Empire of the Summer Moon
Anything by Louise Erdrich
Dee Brown books,
The White Indian series by Donald Porter.
Sherman Alexie!!!!
The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman, and the rest of his excellent novels.
Paul Chat
Scott Momaday, House Made of a Dawn & Rainy Mountain
The Man who Killed the Deer by Frank Waters; House Made of Dawn and The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday; Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich.
A Plague of Doves – Louise Erddrich
Birchbark House, Sing Down the Moon, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Bless Me, Ultima. I’m a middle school teacher so my taste is geared that way ?
Sherman Alexie
N. Scott Momaday, Vine Deloria, Harjo, (author’s) Killers of the Flower Moon, Lost Bird of Wounded Knee (titles) … many more … just ask!
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (YA;) the Inconvenient Indian (and anything else) by Thomas King; anything by Richard Wagamese, Joseph Boyden (heavy Canadian content!!!)
Counting Coup about native basketball and life on the reservation
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.
Boston Jane trilogy by Jennifer L Holm (YA book)
Last of the Mohicans
The round house
Wind walker.
The Talking Earth
From my friend Susan: Books by Louise Erdrich, Ojibwe. Also books by Kent Nerburn about Native Americans.
Little Tree, don’t recall the author.
“The Education of Little Tree” by Forrest Carter.
@Deb I read this with my seventh grade students. Such a good book.
From my friend Kaitlin God is Red, Braiding Sweetgrass, Trail of Lightning
Centennial
The Surrounded, Bead on an Anthill, Walking the Rez Road, Winter in the Blood, the Scalpel and the Silver Bear, Smoke from their Fires
She Who Remembers
A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House
Ishi- the last of his tribe
Another good one.
Black Elk Speaks
Wonderful book!!!
Good one!
Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko
Winter Bone
Yellow Raft on Blue Water
I love Louise Erdrich, both her adult and childrens books
Louise Erdrich is an awesome writer ….I read all of her books
@Clarice i started The Bingo Palace before going to bed the other night. The writing was so “fast” i couldn’t sleep!
Tony Hillerman books
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Great book
When the legends die
A series of mysteries written by Tony Hillerman, a Navaho. Many titles, all good.
So glad to find out about Anne Hillerman.
@Edie she has not written many. My memory is fuzzy ( as usual) but I think I read that she is writing from plot outlines her dad left behind. The stories have a few ongoing characters, so you may want to start with the early books to be able to follow the ongoing story as it develops.
@Edie most stories happen on Navajo reservation and around Shiprock/Gallup NM.
@Lynn Yes! I fell in love w the Lt. Joe Leaphorn character. He then trains the younger detective Jim Chee.
@Barbara I started reading him when I moved to NM 15 yrs ago. My first visit to my new local library, they had a display of his books featuring his ties to NM. I dived in and didn’t resurface until I had read all his books. Love him…might be time to go back and read him again.
Lynn Olsson Wow, you are right in the neighborhood! I’ve read them all from way over in NJ.. But that’s the great thing about books, you can be transported anywhere. EnjoyI
@Lynn, I found 4 Anne Hillerman titles. Oh, joy!
There is a site you can google called Fantastic Fiction that lists all authors and their book titles!!!!
@Edie enjoy!
Beet Queen by louise Erdrich
Tony Hillerman
Leslie Marman Silko
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee…..read this a looong time ago.
One Thousand White Women
I really enjoyed One Thousand White Women too
Anything by Sherman Alexie
“The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Resistance” by Alvin M. Josephy Jr. is an excellent book. “The Comanchero Frontier: A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations” by Charles L. Kenner tells a little known story about Native American relations with white settlers in the American Southwest from the Spanish conquistadores onward. “The Westo Indians: Slave Traders of the Early Colonial South” by Eric E. Bowne relates another relatively unknown story about a relatively unknown tribe. Alan Eckert’s “The Winning of America” series, six books (historical fiction), provides a great deal of knowledge about the leaders of northeastern tribes such as the Iroquois, the Shawnee, the Delaware, the Algonquin, etc.
Louise Erdrich
Yes!
Any of Louise Erdrich novels … you can’t go wrong!
I heard the owl call my name
Blue highways by William Least Heat Moon
Also his book River-Horse
I just finished Heart Berries which was great.
It’s been awhile since I read it, but I think Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech would fall under this category. It’s a Newberry Award winner, so was written for youth.
Michael Dorris
Check out Louise Erdritch’s books
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis 1993
Mankiller. It’s the autobiography of Wilma Mankiller who was chief of the Cherokee tribe during the 1980s-1990s.
books by Jim Harrison like : The great leader and Brown dog
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Black elk speaks
Any of the wonderful writings by Starhawk
Sherman Alexie
I got to here Russell means speck at a book store in Denver his book was great, REALLY involved with AIM, good reading Dee Brown busy my heart at wounded knee is good
Julie Of The Wolves & Island Of The Blue Dolphins. They are both YA books, but close to my heart.
Mysteries by William Kent krueger
The Round House, the Whistler
A Narrative In The Life Of Mary Jamison by James Seaver. It tells the story of a woman who lived in the Genesee Valley & what is now Letchworth state park. She was taken by natives as a child, and eventually came to live with the Seneca people near me. Called “The white woman of the Genesee”, she married a Seneca husband and chose to stay with the people (even going so far as to hide when white people came near out of fear of being “rescued”). She is a local folk here in Western NY near Buffalo.
The Way of the Sacred Tree
Louise Erdrich definitely, her books read like poetry. Disappointed that she wasn’t included. Love the way she writes. Although, Sherman Alexis has a more realistic view of “Rez” life
Bury my heart, Tony Hillerman, Selu, corn mother, Our Stories Remember, JA Jance,
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water and 1000 White Women
Richard Wagamese “Indian Horse”
So many books about Native Americans perpetuate myths (vanishing Indian, stoic warrior, etc). I love Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, and I love this nonfiction book of his even more!
Thanks for sharing your list. I’ll add them to my every growing to-be-read list!
Watch this poem by Thomas King!
http://www.nsi-canada.ca/2012/03/im-not-the-indian-you-had-in-mind/
Joseph Bruchac writes great stories with Native American protagonists. For non-fiction Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a must.
Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne.
Try Cherokee Native and roboticist’s Daniel Wilson’s Robopocalypse. Crazy dystopic and insightful
Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Scott O’Dell was definitely a man of his time, with a strong bias against Indigenous Americans. https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-critical-look-at-odells-island-of.html
This blog, by the way, has a Best Books section (https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/best-books.html) but it is for children’s books.
I liked Quiet Until the Thaw
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/quiet-until-thaw-by-alexandra-fuller.html
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear (nf), tony and anne hillerman, Navajos wear Nikes (nf)
Skunny Wundy….Seneca indian tales by Arthur c parker
Bury my heart at wounded knee
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis
Louise Erdrich writes novels about the Chippewa tribe.
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Anything by Tony Hillerman or Dana Stabenow.
One Thousand White Women
The Killers of the Flower Moon.
Anything by Louise Erdrich ❤️
Island of the blue dolphins
Buffalo Woman by Dorothy M. Johnson. This novel is from the 1970s but she is better known for her short stories from the 1950s like ”A Man Called Horse,” “The Man who Shot Liberty Valance,” “The Hanging Tree,” and many others. She also wrote a great story about Cynthia Ann Parker, mother of Quanah Parker. The story is called “Lost Sister.”
There There by Tommy Orange. Just came out this month. Highly recommend.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a well written non-fiction book about the Osage people and the murders that took place in the early 1900s due to whites trying to cash in on the Osage’s oil rights.
Buffy Ste Marie’s biography is coming out in September. She is an iconic artist and her songs were anthems for AIM. Loved Now that the Buffalo’s Gone. She was banned by the best.
Ishi
I loved that book! Made me cry, but I’ve never forgotten it.
I love this sad, tragic book.
Karli Shanklin and Donna Kilpatrick Stockebrand if you liked Ishi you should read The Last Algonquin as well.
@Debby thank you, I will put it on my list!
The Round House and One Thousand White Women.
Round House
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
Sherman Alexie’s books
Two authors come to mind – Luther Standing Bear (My Indian Boyhood, My People the Sioux, Land of the Spotted Eagle, Stories of the Sioux) and Joseph M. Marshall III (The Lakota Way, The Journey of Crazy Horse, Walking with Grandfather, etc.).
Louise Erdrich is wonderful, any of her books. Round House is a good one to start with or her first Love Medicine.
Agree!
There There
I agree.
Red Cloud Speaks
Ceremony by Leslie Silko- classic!!! N. Scott Momaday – anything
Last of the Mohicans, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Julie of the wolves
The White Indian Series by Donald Porter there were close to 30 books in the series. I loved this series. Killer of the Flower Moon & Centennial.
The Sign of The Beaver
Sherman Alexie. Tommy Orange.
Have you read that new book by Tommy Orange? I definitely want to. All the amazing reviews piqued my interest in the first place. That, and living in Seattle.
Not yet. It’s sitting on my nightstand at the moment next in my queue, but I had to plug a fellow bay area Native!
@John homer. 😉
Because I lived there and know how much he meant to the tribe–“Among the Mescaleros, The Story of Father Albert Braun”. You can find it on Amazon.
The North America’s Forgotten Past novel series by Michael gear
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, Custer Died For Your Sins, by Vine Deloria, God Is Red by Vine Deloria Jr, The Trail of Tears by Gloria Jahoda, Code Talker by Chester Nez, just to name a few. All non-fiction.
Code Talker was good.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Margaret Coel series set in Wyoming.
The Last of the Mochicans
On a lighter note, but still packed with well researched information about the desert southwest tribes, read Tony Hillerman’s books featuring Navajo policemen.
The Windwalker – Blaine Yorgason
https://www.amazon.com/Ranger-Tonto-Fistfight-Heaven-Anniversary/dp/0802121993
Black Elk Speaks.
Have this one on my TBR shelves. Need to read it.
Novels by Tony Hillerman and his daughter Ann
Reading There There, Tommy Orange now…..it’s incredible.
Jean Craighead George’s Talking Earth is one of my favorite children’s books, and it’s about the Seminoles in Florida.
Caleb’s crossing is a great book
Tony Hillerman novels.
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac and Tony Hillerman.
Louise Erdrich books
Also Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee-Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz.
Any books by Don Coldsmith or Richard Wagamese
Anything by Louise Erdrich!
My favorite is The Last Miracle at Little No Horse.
My favorite is The Master Butchers Singing Club.
Rez Life by David Treuer
Sherman Alexis
Barbara Kingsolver wrote one but I don’t remember the title. Great story though!
Animal Dreams is one of Kingsolvers
And The Bean Trees?
Louise Erdrich.
Bury my heart at wounded knee
This is a beautiful book.
Books by Dee Brown
Not enthusiastically. Read Dee Brown for something to do on the bus ride to boot camp when I was a kid and prbly wasn’t a prudent way to start a military hitch. I will check this post to see which books explore native American culture as it interest me to. Grew up in the days when Saturday morning cowboy and Indian shows sold a lot of goods to Americans.
I wish I knew without doubt that my use of interest needed correction and that correction was a simple trailing s. Appeals prbly even works better.
1000 White Women
Loved this book
It is a wonderful book.
New contemporary novel, There There by Tommy Orange. Haven’t read but NPR profiled it.
The Journey of Crazy Horse; A Lakota History by Joseph M Marshall III
Love To Water My Soul by Jane Kirkpatrick
A whole series that starts with crossing the land bridge from Russia to North America First boo k is People of the Wolf by W. Micheal Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear. There are 17 books and they are all wonderful.
This is my favorite in this category
I have read a couple books that W Michael wrote on his own and at least one she wrote on her own, and this is a couple that needs to stay together. The “People of “ series is so much better.
The Sacred has by far been my favorite, most informative, and most referred to book on Native Americans out of the few hundred I own.
what is the author’s name?
Empire of the Summer Moon, about Quanah Parker of the Comanche. His white mother had been kidnapped as a child and assimilated into the tribe (the move The Searchers tells that story)
Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. In California that have a city of Ramona and a Ramona Festival and pageant every year for the last about a hundred years or so. They do the novel as a play set on the hill side in an outside Amphitheatre. It’s absolutely wonderful.
Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria. Land of the Grasshopper Song by Mabel Reed and Mary Ellicott Arnold. A Time of Little Choice by Randall Milliken. The Ohlone Way by Malcolm Margolin. There are hundreds more. I find them at state and national park visitor centers, archaeological booksellers, and often in the natural resources sections of some stores.
Sherman Alexi is a native author that has written many great books!
Black Elk Speaks
Though not a native Marie Sandoz has many.
David Treuer has several books
One Thousand White Woman is the best !
Tony Hillerman novels
Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales & Contemporary Writing by Native American Women. (edited by Paula Gunn Allen)
Annie Dillard
Not a book, but I do recommend looking up the different mythologies. I find that to be fascinating reading
“Black Elk Speaks”
Sherman Alexie is wonderful. Start with The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and then keep reading. I really love Flight. Alexie is a talented poet and novelist. The film Smoke Signals is based on his work. Alexie wrote the screenplay.
all Sherman Alexie
“Ride the Wind” , “Walk in my Soul”, and “Light a Distant Fire” by Lucia St. Clair Roson.
“Notes on a Lost Flute” by Kerry Hardy and “Empire of the Summer Moon” by S.C. Gwynn — both are captivating and chock full of enlightening information.
https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013692/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529257226&sr=1-4&keywords=native+american+authors+fiction
Anything by Tiny Hillerman
Ann Hillerman has done 3 new books about her Dad’s characters. I was skeptical……until I read them.
https://www.amazon.com/Bury-My-Heart-Wounded-Knee/dp/0805086846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529258033&sr=1-1&keywords=bury+my+heart+at+wounded+knee
There There – Tommy Orange; Ceremony – Leslie Silko.
“A Little Matter of Genocide”, “Fantasies of the Master Race”, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” all by Ward Churchill and two books he authored with Jim Vander Wall: “Agents of Repression” and “The COINTELPRO Papers”, which both deal, in part, with the American Indian Movement. Also, “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” by Peter Matthiessen and “My Life is My Sun Dance” by Leonard Peltier. “Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building” by Richard T. Drinnon. Finally, one of the earliest eyewitness testimonies about the destruction of the natives of the Americas is “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolome de las Casas.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Read this many years ago and it made me cry and changed the way I looked at US history.
Defiintely one of the best contemporary books about US history from the Native American perspective. It also made me cry. I also recommended some other non-fiction books in this thread. Are you familiar with any of those? There are many more that I am inteterested in reading. I
keep up on news and issues concerning our native brothers and sisters. I am from California but have lived in Utah over 25 years. Bears Ears National Monument here was once protected for the tribes by President Obama but the current administration reduced the monument by 85% and opened it up to mining. The fight goes on…
@Donna The Bears Ears thing has me crushed. I have never had the pleasure of visiting, and now I will miss out on most of it. I read that there are archeological sites that are now unprotected ted?
Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling
Skins
By Adrian C Louis
Louise Erdrich
Just started reading “There, There” by Tommy Orange. I also love all books by Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie
The Education of Little Tree
Black Elk speaks but I don’t remember the author’s name
Neihardt
The Wind is My Mother, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, Stone Heart, Navajo Weapon, Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes.
Sherman Alexie
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Tony Hillerman (author)
One of the best!!!
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Black Elk Speaks and recently finished Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI which was fantastic.
The Round House
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie
Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier.
House Made of Dawn. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by N. Scott Momaday.
Braided Sweetgrass
If you wish to read beliefs, writings and speeches by various tribe Chiefs and Elders… Recommend “ The Wisdom of the Native Americans ..edited by Kent Nerburn. This book contains there thoughts, beliefs and their ways… from various tribes
There are lots of mysteries featuring Native Americans. Namely Tony Tillerman and his daughter Anne; James D. Doss and Margaret Auel and a few others.
Waterlily
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn.
He also did The Wisdom of Native Americans.. I will look for this other book
@Debbie it is a wonderful read. They just made an independent film based on the book. Very good film.
@Alex thank u for the info I will watch for the film
Blue Highways
And other books by William Least Moon
Detective novels by Tony Hillerman
His daughter Anne has continued the series after his death. They’re also very good!
https://www.amazon.com/Killers-Flower-Moon-Osage-Murders/dp/0385534248
Trail of tears
Bless me ultima ( more west Hispanic -great)
Black Elk Speaks…great book?
https://www.amazon.com/News-World-Paulette-Jiles/dp/1511356812
Captured
Death comes to the arch bishop -more New Mexico story – not Native American -so good
Louise Erdrich or Sherman Alexie
Exactly what I was about to recommend!
2 more recommendations we didn’t see on the list
Yes Kimberly Gnoth. Black Elk Speaks is amazing in itself and in addition as to it’s publishing (translations done from Lakota to English and then back to Lakota… great anthropology story… ) and also just read the Osage murders book which was fascinating.
The Education of Little Tree by Carter. This is a fantastic story!
The Education of Little Tree
I read that years ago.
Finally! I’ve been waiting for someone else to mention Little Tree! And now there are three of you! It is such a wonderful book–maybe a little embellished, but who cares? I loved it.
@Patricia it is a wonderful book and it is way past time for me to read it again!
Diary of a Part Time Indian Sherman Alexie and his memoir.
Renegade Tribe
Round House by Louise Erdrich and others of hers
Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King.
She Who Remembers, by Linda Lay Shuler
Two Old Women written by Velma Wallis. It is a life changing story of hope. You won’t be disappointed.
I just found this in the NYT from 2016. It’s a list of Louise Erdrich’s favorite Native writers from her “By the Book” contribution: “Winter in the Blood,” by James Welch. “Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong,” by Paul Chaat Smith. “War Dances,” by Sherman Alexie. “Three Day Road,” by Joseph Boyden. “Ceremony,” by Leslie Marmon Silko. Joy Harjo’s and Gerald Vizenor’s work. And the book I am reading now — “Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media,” by my own sister Heid Erdrich.
I think this is what I wanted. Espclly P. C. Smith.
Thanks for this list.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. Just about anything written by him.
Black Elk Speaks
The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman by Margot Mifflin
Thanks for making this post! I love Native American culture and history plus am researching my own roots. I will definitely check out the suggestions here.
if no one has suggested Leslie Marmo silko, that’s another wonderful author.
Highly recommend One Thousand White women by Jim Fergus.
I just ordered this book from Better World Books!
I read that many readers would not believe that 1000 WW was fiction!
what is that?
Lori Lammert, it’s fiction based on a real fact where the Cheyenne made their proposal but it fell apart and the women were not actually sent to mate with the Cheyenne.
One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial “Brides for Indians” program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man’s world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.
Books by Sherman Alexie or Louise Erdrich
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
The “White Indian” series (into double digit releases) that segued into overall American history novels by ? Porter? if I’m correct; in paperback series still in libraries I believe. The best if you’re into this genre
One of my very favorite reads.
Empire of the Summer Moon and Caleb’s Crossing. Empire of the Summer Moon is nonfiction about Quanah Parker. An excellent read. Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks is historical fiction about an Indian who goes to Harvard.
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
One of my favorites.
Louise Eldridge!
Erdrich?
@Susan You are right. I misspelled her name?
Wounded Knee as a foundational text. Deeply upsetting but a great reference book as well.
I read that book years ago when it was first published. Very well written by Dee Brown. You are right, it is very upsetting. That book has always stayed with me. It should always be taught as part of American history.
Donna Kilpatrick Stockebrand, I read it in context of Arthur Kopit’s play “Indians.”
I think “Indians” is a fascinating absurdist play. Just love it. It is not a realistic depiction of most of the historical figures in the play.
Look it up and see if you can find any of the production shots – Sam Waterston played John Grass, Stacey Keech was Buffalo Bill and Raul Julia was – if memory serves, Geranimo.
Memory did not serve, Raul played the Grand Duke – the guy that Buffalo Bill shot all the Buffalos for. The Grand Duke wanted more than anything to shoot a Comanche.
On the Rez
Precia @Pricia we keep meeting-again! ?
@Donna – I know. Stop stalking!!!!
@Pricia ok, I can take a hint! Lol! I will just go off in my corner and read!
@Donna – it’s funny, I rarely read fiction any more. Have you read Cod: A History of the Fish that Changed the World?
@Pricia no, I haven’t heard of that one.
Donna Kilpatrick Stockebrand – I love Mark Kurlansky. He has this bizarre thing he does as a writer – he writes about a particular item of food or how a trend in food develops and impacts the culture that produces it.
He’s written about oysters, salt, Birdseye and cod.
It’s deep, down in the soul of nerddom detail. No one is ever making a movie out of his books. But I find them irresistible. In fiction I really like lyric mythological writers like Salman Rushdie or Gunther Grasse. I like the agony and loss in something like William Kennedy’s work, but in nonfiction, I love mind-numbing detail. I read the history of the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. I had to have part of my brain isolated it was so so so dry.
I will not tolerate that kind of thing out of a fiction writer but omg, if it an utterly useless piece of trivial and you can devote two pages to it, go for it.
Indeh by Eve Ball. Ms Ball, who lived in Ruidoso NM, was my mother’s friend. They met while my mother was working for Indian Health Service in Mescalero NM.
Round house by Louise erdrich
I LOVED that book. I rarely reread books but this is one I might.
I love Louise Erdrich.
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead
https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/dont-f-with-tommy-and-terese?utm_term=.lc1Nz6D26b#.vtXAenqNnP I discovered this article about Tommy Orange and Terese Marie Mailhot. If you’re interested in Native writing, as I am, then I think the IAIA – Institute of American Indian Arts – is worth watching.
Yeah IAIA! Looking forward to reading There There and Heart Berries.
@Ann I’m reading There There now. It’s excellent.
Willa Cathers Death Comes for the Archbishop.
“I Will Fight No More Forever” by Merrill D. Beal
Re-posting https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Lost-Flute-Field-Wabanaki/dp/0892727799/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530674886&sr=8-1&keywords=notes+on+a+lost+flute&dpID=510K9Hu0b9L&preST=_SX258_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
Just read Killer of the Flower Moon.
Night Flying Woman by ignatius broker. Fabulous – life changing!
Education of little tree.
except when it turned out tp be by a non-Native racist.
The Homesman and One Thousand White Women. Both gripping!
YA – Sing down the Moon by Scott O’Dell.
I Heard the Owl Call My Name
Louise Erdrich writes many novels from a Native American POV
Love her
wow! I love this thread!
Beet Queen, too
I have really liked all of Louise Erdrich’s novels.
Thomson Highway, Thomas King, Louise Erdrich There There by last name Orange wonderful authors.
The Round House ?
My mom always loved the Tony Hillerman mysteries
Me too, but I was disappointed in the books his daughter wrote.
Always enjoyed Tony Hillerman mysteries even more fun when visiting NM and AZ
Yes! Hillerman!
When the Legends Die by Hal Borland
Only Earth and Sky Last Forever by Nathaniel Benchley
The Song of Hiawatha
Sherman Alexie’s books.
I loved reading The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter.
A boy who was taken by native people and returned 10 years later.
Based on true stories
“Black Elk Speaks” –with John Neihardt.
We learn about a boy’s vision, how it was performed/danced to manifest the desired outcome. About Black Elk’s travels with Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West Show,” and life among the Lakota in the latter part of the 19th century.
He speaks of “The Herb of Understanding.” After attending a Medicine camp in Colorado, I was rereading the book and realized that I had received a vision of that flower on Spirit Horse Mountain, the day after my first sweat lodge.
After that, I did a day fast in the Sierra Nevada and was led to one of his nephews as a teacher. Black Elk’s gift of his vision is still giving.
HOUSE MADE OF DAWN by N. Scott Momaday.
I love this strand, too, and am really grateful that it was started and for all the contributions. Thanks!
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris.
Most books by Louise Erdich!
I’ll join the choir – Louise Erdrich’s books. For non-fiction The Killers of the Flower Moon was a stunning book.
Sherman Alexie!
Brother Eagle Sister Sky by Chief Seattle
Just starting Tommy Orange’s There There. Certainly not up to the standard of N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn. Poor Tommy. Reads like a facebbook angry post so far. Still hoping though. If Sherman Alexie says it’s good ……
I just finished Reservation Blues and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and I loved them but they had the same effect on me that reading The World According to Garp did when I was 16 years old.
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
One of my all time favorites!!!!
Me too – a fav of mine!
Loved There, There
1000 White Women.
These are historical, “The Last of the Mohicans” which I hear is harder to read, or “Undaunted Courage”about Lewis & Clark, these have been recommended so I can’t wait to hear what others say.
I’ve preferred every movie version of The Last of the Mohicans to the book, if that tells you anything (the third book in The Leatherstocking Tales, The Pathfinder, is a good example of what not to do when writing for the modern age).
Last of the Mohican is hard to read because if the language and style of writing was so different than what we are used to! But once you get it, the book is a great read
Last of the Mohicans was the only book my mother told me I was not allowed to read. I was about 10 or 12 years old. Never understood why.
That is interesting, because Cooper was suggesting interracial relationships were both desirable and dangerous! Maybe she had views on this?
Catherine Hemphill, my small Kansas town had one black family and later one Jewish. The black girl was my very best friend until she changed schools. Then we were friends again in HS. My dad was prejudiced, but my mom, never. Still . . . Thank you for your insight.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and One Thousand White Women.
I loved both books!!!! If you loved One Thousand White Women, you’d like The Homesman. Great read!
Wounded Knee was an excellent read.
Nearly anything by Louise Erdrich
Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Also, any of Louise Erdrich’s books. She is a Native author.
Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition” by John Neihardt; ‘One Thousand White Women’ by Jim Fergus; ‘ The Earth is Weeping’ by Peter Cozzens.
Me too. I love first person narratives. That’s a great book.
” Black Elk Speaks” ITs the recollections of Black Elk.
Black Elk Speaks.☺️
Raising Ourselves, Tao of Raven and Two Old Women. All Alaska Native books.
The color of Lightning
the Tony Hillerman series is wonderful
Round House; Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Anything by Tony Hillerman
When The Owl Speaks My Name / about the Tlinket tribe . Also anything byLouise Erdrich is terrific- her focus is on Native Americans vs a vs the non Native American society and some of the novels are ones you can’t put down .
Anything by Sherman Alexie
Jessamine West Massacre at Fall Creek about the first time killing natives was thought of as a crime, as a murder.
Laughing Boy, a Pulitzer winner by Oliver LaFarge.
Dancing with Wolves, although I enjoyed the movie version better.
Hanta Yo by Ruth Beebe Hill and Red Heart and Children of First Man by James Alexander Thom
1000 White Women.
I really loved 1000 White Women!?
LaRose and Round House by Louise Erdrich.
“Tracks” is my all-time favorite Erdrich.
“Ceremony?” Does that sound right? Oh yeah, also by Louise Erdrich.
Thank you Linda Bennett . I should have remembered it was Leslie Marmon Silko.
Cheryl, I was also going to suggest Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. Studied it years ago in a Native American Literature class and I just picked up a copy to read again.
Follow the River was awesome, old book.
Yes, Black Elk Speaks..mec
The Leaphorn mysteries by Tony Hillerman
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Ceremony by Silko
Oh, thank you, that’s right; Leslie Marmon Silko, right? Thanks for jogging my memory.
Jenny of the Tetons
Walking the Res? Sorry, I haven’t read these in ‘dogs’ years.’
Sherman Alexie?
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Anything by Thomas King
Bury my heart at wounded knee. You’ll weep.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown is a true heart breaking story about Native Americans in North America.
LaRose by Louise Erdrich is a contemporary one that I enjoyed.
Empire of the summer moon by S.C. Gwynne It’s about “Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian Tribe in American History “
Also Killers of the Flower Moon. About the Osage Indians in Olkahoma
“Comanche Moon”
Sign of the Beaver
Slavery in Indian Country
There, There by Tommy Orange
Geronimo, Cochise, and the Apache Wars.
“The Heart of Everything That Is,” a biography of Red Cloud.
Anything by Louise Erdrich. She is a phenomenal writer.
Really liked Erdrich’s The Round House.
Stone Song, by Win Blevins. A novel about Crazy Horse.
Anything by Basil Johnston
The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I have likedSherman Alexie, but can’t recommend him as a person right now.
@Pam I have read a lot of her books, she is very good. I agree with you in Sherman Alexie. Leslie Mormon Silko also is really good.
Are we recommending books or people?
Love Silko
Authors
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Flowers of the Killer Moon
Waterlily. Written by a Native North American.
Wonderful book by Ella Cara Deloria
Empire of the Summer Moon and The Heart of Everything That Is
All books by the Gears. Anthropologist create stories for various tribes and periods.
Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian
Google native American poets o e of my favorite books is called Heart Berries it’s a memoir but the language is so beautiful.
I am currently reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich. She has written many books concerning native Americans.
“Meditations with Native American Elders: The Four Seasons.” Ed: Don L Coyhis. A daily guide to Native American philosophy. Love its inspiration.
The Lakota Way
By Joseph M. Marshall III
Remember My Name by Sara Banks. It’s a YA book but it’s a great easy read.
There There by Tommy Orange
Two of my favorites are Ishi In Two Worlds and The Last Algonquin. Both stories are about the last known members of their tribes on the east and west coasts. Both are true stories and both told by the men who knew them best. Very, very good.
Only Earth and Sky by Nathaniel Benchly. When the Legends Die by Hal Borland. Killing the Flower Moon.
Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo. I loved this book – all 1000 pages.
Read it back in the 70s. Grew up in Missoula, Montana, where a city park is named Sacajawea.
If you are looking for truth Dell Brown’s “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” is a must read. This book should be required for HS students.
To whomever recommended Richard Wagamese’s Medicine Walk. Thank you. I’d read Indian Horse and loved it. This is as good or even better. <3
Empire of the Southern Moon by Samuel Gwynne & Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo. Both excellent books.
One Thousand White Women…..unsure it is actually true but it is a wonderful story. I returned it to the Public Library with a sprig from my pine tree.
@Sara , It’s fiction that’s not based on anything that ever happened. To me, that’s not a criticism. There can be a different kind of truth in fiction. I just want to know which it is.
I have that book, but haven’t read it yet.
Education of Little Tree
I buried my heart at wounded knee by Dell Brown
anything by Joy Harjo, a poet in particular
Absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian is a YA book and one of my favorites
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian.
In Search of April Raintree