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LibbyTo explore digital books for Native American Heritage Month, visit this link. Enjoy these and thousands of additional titles in the free Libby mobile app. Or, use Libby in your web browser at libbyapp.com. |
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When We Are Kind
by Monique Gray Smith; illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt
What it is: A visually rich meditation on kindness, and how kids can show kindness to the environment, their elders, their families, and themselves.
This picture book features crisp digital illustrations that center Indigenous kids and families, with spare, poetic phrases beginning with "When I am kind" or "I feel," inviting kids to think on the experiences of both giving and receiving kindness.
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Who Will Win?
by Arihhonni David
What it's about: An elder regales a child with the story of a race between Bear, who can run fast, and Turtle, who can think fast. Turtle's mischievous scheme to finish first is both amusing and heartwarming.
Expressive artwork, short, clear sentences, and plenty of repetition make this own voices retelling of a Mohawk trickster tale a strong choice for emerging readers.
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Two Tribes
by Emily Bowen Cohen
Starring: Middle schooler Mia, who lives with her Jewish mom and doesn't know much about her dad's Muscogee heritage... until she sneaks away to Oklahoma to visit him.
The art in this moving, authentic graphic novel offers an extra peek into Mia's journey of self-discovery.
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We Still Belong
by Christine Day
Introducing: Writer, gamer, and 7th-grader Wesley Wilder, whose family is from the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe near Seattle, Washington.
During a single day, disappointments pile up as Wesley's plan to ask out a fellow gamer goes wrong and a teacher disrespects her poem about Indigenous Peoples' Day. Maybe the powwow that night can help her feel like herself again...
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Warrior Girl Unearthed
by Angeline Boulley
What it's about: With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance.
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Man Made Monsters
by Andrea L. Rogers; illustrated by Jeff Edwards
What it is: This enthralling horror anthology from a Cherokee author delivers classic creatures like vampires and werewolves, plus figures from Cherokee legend like Deer Woman.
Alongside these monsters, the book reveals the horrors of forced relocation, intimate partner violence, and generations of trauma.
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Rain Is Not My Indian Name
by Cynthia Leitich Smith
What it's about: In a voice that resonates with insight and humor, author Cynthia Leitich Smith tells the story of a teenage girl who must face down her grief and reclaim her place in the world with the help of her intertribal community.
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This Place: 150 Years Retold
by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, and many more
Explore the past 150 years... through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology.
Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through magic realism, psychic battles, and time travel.
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Tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine
by Shane M. Chartrand
What it is: Cree author Chartrand, executive chef for the River Cree Resort and Casino in Enoch, Alberta, weaves indigenous cuisine with Asian and European riffs in this unique collection of 75 recipes.
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The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen
by Sean Sherman
What it is: A delectable introduction to modern indigenous cuisine of the Dakota and Minnesota territories. Dishes include cedar braised bison, griddled wild rice cakes, amaranth crackers with smoked white bean paste, three sisters salad, deviled duck eggs, smoked turkey soup, dried meats, roasted corn sorbet, and hazelnut-maple bites.
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Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years
by Joy Harjo
What it is: Three-term U.S. Poet Laureate Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, offers the best of her deep-rooted, farseeing, musically astute poetry written over five decades, each accompanied by notes about the inspiration and creation of each poem that allow readers to see even favorite and familiar poems with new eyes.
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Walking the Ojibwe Path: A Memoir in Letters to Joshua
by Richard Wagamese
What it is: Wagamese (1955–2017) was a well-known Ojibwe author of several acclaimed works of nonfiction and fiction, including Indian Horse. This final work is a memoir written to his estranged son about his experiences growing up in foster homes after being abandoned by his family, the challenges of his own decisions, and finding his voice as an Ojibwe writer.
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Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
by Leah Myers
What it's about: In this unflinching and intimate memoir, Myers—the last member of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in her family line—excavates the stories of four generations of women in order to leave a record of her family, weaving in tribal folktales, the history of the Native genocide, and Native mythology. Throughout, she tells the larger story of how, as she puts it, her "culture is being bleached out," offering sharp vignettes of her own life between White and Native worlds.
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The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
by Ned Blackhawk
What it is: Blackhawk's sweeping and overdue retelling of U.S. history recognizes that Native Americans are essential to understanding the evolution of modern America. Among his points: European colonization was not a foregone conclusion; Indigenous peoples of California were among the first casualties of the Civil War; and Indigenous activism in the 20th century reshaped U.S. law and policy. Striking a masterful balance between the big picture and crystal-clear snapshots of key people and events, this is a vital new understanding of American history.
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We Are the Land: A History of Native California
by Damon B. Akins and William J. Bauer, Jr.
What it is: A thoughtful study of California as seen through the eyes of the Indigenous people who shaped it, beginning with the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Reviewers say: "A welcome contribution to Native studies and the rich literature of California's first peoples."--Kirkus
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Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America
by Pekka Hämäläinen
What it is: Finnish historian at Oxford Hämäläinen (Lakota America) delivers a sweeping and persuasive corrective to the notion that “history itself is a linear process that moves irreversibly toward Indigenous destruction.” He focuses instead on the “overwhelming and persistent Indigenous power” that lasted in North America from 10000 BCE until the end of the 19th century.
Reviewers say: "An essential work of Indigenous studies that calls for rethinking North American history generally."--Kirkus
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Crow Mary
by Kathleen Grissom
What it's about: Married to a white fur trader in 1872, a Crow Native woman has her journey to Saskatchewan interrupted when she steals two guns and saves five Nakoda women who were kidnapped by drunken whiskey traders, setting off a culture war.
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A Council of Dolls
by Susan Power
What it's about: Details the story of three women from different generations, told through the stories of the dolls they carried in 1888, 1925 and 1961 bringing to light the damage done to indigenous people through history.
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The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
What it's about: A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years. For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
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The Lost Journals of Sacajewea
by Debra Magpie Earling
What it's about: Stolen from her village and then gambled away to a French Canadian trapper and trader, Sacajewea, determined to survive and triumph, crosses a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her and a company of men who wish to conquer the world she loves.
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Empire of Wild
by Cherie Dimaline
What it's about: A story inspired by the Canadian Métis legend of the Rogarou—a werewolf-like creature that haunts the roads and woods of native people’s communities—finds a woman reconnecting with her heritage when her missing husband reappears in the form of a charismatic preacher who does not recognize her.
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Prey
What it's about: When Naru, a fierce and highly skilled young warrior, sets out to protect her people, the prey she stalks turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator--leading to a vicious and terrifying showdown.
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Winter in the Blood
What it's about: In Montana in the 1960s, a man searches for his wife who left him and stole his heirloom rifle.
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Dark Winds: Season 2
What it's about: Lt. Joe Leaphorn reunites with Jim Chee, his former deputy turned private eye when their separate cases bring them together in pursuit of the same suspect. They find themselves in the high desert of Navajo Country chasing a killer.
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Wild Indian
What it's about: Decades after covering up the murder of his classmate, an Ojibwe man has moved on, changing his name, finding a respectable job and a beautiful wife, when suddenly he crosses paths with a man who shares his violent secret and seeks vengeance.
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Windtalkers
What it's about: A battle-weary Marine Sergeant guards and ultimately befriends a young Navajo trained in the one wartime code never broken by the enemy, the Navajo Code.
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Being Thunder
What it's about: Profiles a two-spirit genderqueer Narragansett teenager from Rhode Island who competes in traditional dance at regional powwows.
Watch now on Kanopy with your Fresno County Public Library Card.
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Native America
What it's about: The series reaches back 15,000 years to reveal massive cities aligned to the stars, unique systems of science and spirituality, and 100 million people connected by social networks spanning two continents.
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Fresno County Public Library
2420 Mariposa St.
Fresno, California 93721
559-600-READ (7323)www.fresnolibrary.org |
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