Best of
Native-Americans

2012

If You've Forgotten the Names of the Clouds, You've Lost Your Way: An Introduction to American Indian Thought and Philosophy


Russell Means - 2012
    The civilization of the American Indian was predicated on the people's relationships with every form of life, from the perspective of close-knit family communities. This introduction partially explains why indigenous people the world over never overpopulate their environment or destroy the lands where they live. This is the only philosophy that can stop the worldwide ongoing rape by the patriarchs.

Without Reservations: The Cartoons of Ricardo Cate


Ricardo Cate - 2012
    Actor Wes Studi says, “Caté’s cartoons serve to remind us there is always a different point of view, or laughing at every day scenes of home life where Indian kids act just like their brethren of different races. Without Reservations is always thought-provoking whether it makes you laugh, smirk, or just enjoy the diversity of thought to be found in Indian Country.”

Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story


S.D. Nelson - 2012
    Through her true story, readers will learn what it was like to be part of this Native American community that lived along the Missouri River in the Dakotas, a society that depended more on agriculture for food and survival than on hunting. Children will relate to Buffalo Bird Girl’s routine of chores and playing with friends, and they will also be captivated by her lifestyle and the dangers that came with it.Using as a resource the works of Gilbert L. Wilson, who met Buffalo Bird Woman and transcribed her life’s story in the early 20th century, award-winning author-illustrator S. D. Nelson has captured the spirit of Buffalo Bird Girl and her lost way of life. The book includes a historical timeline.

The Militarization of Indian Country


Winona LaDuke - 2012
    Geronimo descendant Harlyn Geronimo explained, “Obviously to equate Geronimo with Osama bin Laden is an unpardonable slander of Native America and its most famous leader.” The Militarization of Indian Country illuminates the historical context of these negative stereotypes, the long political and economic relationship between the military and Native America, and the environmental and social consequences. This book addresses the impact that the U.S. military has had on Native peoples, lands, and cultures. From the use of Native names to the outright poisoning of Native peoples for testing, the U.S. military’s exploitation of Indian country is unparalleled and ongoing.

Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask


Anton Treuer - 2012
    . . I made many lifelong friends at college, and they supported but also challenged me with questions like, ‘Why should Indians have reservations?’ ”What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers—or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matterof-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what’s up with Indians, anyway.• What is the real story of Thanksgiving?• Why are tribal languages important?• What do you think of that incident where people died in a sweat lodge?White/Indian relations are often characterized by guilt and anger. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.Anton Treuer, author of The Assassination of Hole in the Day and many other books on Ojibwe history and language, received an Ambassador Award in 2011 from Facing Race: We’re All in This Together, an initiative of the St. Paul Foundation. All around Minnesota, Treuer has given scores of public lectures and been asked hundreds of questions—many like the ones in this book.

The Storyteller's Bracelet


Smoky Zeidel - 2012
    Government has mandated native tribes send their youth to Indian schools where they are stripped of their native heritage by the people they think of as The Others.Otter and Sun Song are deeply in love, but when they are sent East to school, Otter, renamed Gideon, tries to adapt, where Sun Song does not, enduring brutal attacks from the school headmaster because of her refusal to so much as speak.Gideon, thinking Sun Song has spurned him, turns for comfort to Wendy Thatcher, the daughter of a wealthy school patron, beginning a forbidden affair of the heart. But the Spirits have different plans for Gideon and Sun Song. They speak to Gideon through his magical storyteller's bracelet, showing him both his past and his future. You are both child and mother of The Original People, Sun Song is told. When it is right, you will be safe once more.Will Gideon become Otter once again and return to Sun Song and his tribal roots, or attempt to remain with Wendy, with whom he can have no future?

Star Ancestors: Extraterrestrial Contact in the Native American Tradition


Nancy Red Star - 2012
    These ET relationships have existed since the beginning of time. They have been depicted on ancient rocks and hides, embedded in creation stories, choreographed in sacred dances, beaded on wampum belts, and continued to this day through rituals and the tobacco blessing. They show that with the vital support of our Star Ancestors, we can bring our planet back into balance with natural laws. Exploring the unifying “Sky Elder” theme found in virtually every Indian culture, Nancy Red Star shares her profound interviews with wisdomkeepers from several Native traditions, including Mayan elder and daykeeper Hunbatz Men, Stargate International CEO and UFO researcher Cecilia Dean, and Choctaw medicine man Sequoyah Trueblood, and offers their teachings on taking our rightful place among the peoples of the universe. Laying out a path for rebuilding our world, the Sky Elders’ original instructions initiate us into the possibility of a coming time of peace. Inviting all peoples to realize their Star ancestry, the women and men of proud lineage and inspiring wisdom who share their experiences here offer us a survival plan for walking into the next world.

Cherokee Talisman


David-Michael Harding - 2012
    They were thieves and killers who burned houses to the ground and kidnapped women and children. They were protectors of a Nation – guerrilla fighters serving their country. They were husbands and fathers who built homes in lush valleys for their families.They were – the same men.In 1775 perspective came with the color of your skin. An orphan boy, Totsuhwa, is taken under the wing of legendary Cherokee war chief Tsi’yugunsini, the Dragon. But even under a dragon’s wing isn’t safe when a covetous nation forms around them.Amid the battles, Totsuhwa fights the reoccurring pain of loss until he meets Galegi, who becomes his wife. Trying to raise their son in a peace the new world won’t allow, they teach him the strictest Cherokee traditions while white assimilation, encroachment, and treachery grows. General Andrew Jackson wages war against tribes across the southeast and the toll is high. With his people gradually losing everything, Totsuhwa must find a way to save his family — and the Cherokee nation — before all is lost.Cherokee Talisman recreates the neglected history that existed when one nation was born and another almost died.

Cradle Me


Debby Slier - 2012
    Native American families have a way of carrying their infants and this book shows the different tribes and how they carry them to keep them close to the mothers body and keep the baby happy.The cradle board is blessed prior to placing the baby in it.Each board is personalized for each tribe.

Desert Trader The Life and Quilts of Goldie Tracy Richmond


Carolyn O'Bagy Davis - 2012
    She created amazing award winning applique quilts depicting scenes from desert life that are now revered for their artistic vision. This book introduces Goldie and shares her wonderful quilts.

Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846-1873


Brendan C. Lindsay - 2012
    The murder, rape, and enslavement of thousands of Native people were legitimized by notions of democracy—in this case mob rule—through a discreetly organized and brutally effective series of petitions, referenda, town hall meetings, and votes at every level of California government. Murder State is a comprehensive examination of these events and their early legacy. Preconceptions about Native Americans as shaped by the popular press and by immigrants’ experiences on the Overland Trail to California were used to further justify the elimination of Native people in the newcomers’ quest for land. The allegedly “violent nature” of Native people was often merely their reaction to the atrocities committed against them as they were driven from their ancestral lands and alienated from their traditional resources. In this narrative history employing numerous primary sources and the latest interdisciplinary scholarship on genocide, Brendan C. Lindsay examines the darker side of California history, one rarely studied in detail, and the motives of both Native Americans and Euro-Americans at the time. Murder State calls attention to the misuse of democracy to justify and commit genocide.Purchase the audio edition.

Sacajawea of the Shoshone


Natasha Yim - 2012
    Against great odds, they changed their own lives—and their worlds. Stories of princesses from different cultures and different epochs in history are richly illustrated with photographs, maps, and lovely pen-and-watercolor paintings that help bring these fascinating females to life. One minute Sacajawea was picking berries and the next her Shoshone tribe was being attacked by another tribe. As she ran for her life, she was scooped up and taken far away from her village and family—and into history. When Lewis and Clark happened upon her living amongst a new tribe and chose her to accompany them, they greatly benefited from her skills as an interpreter and guide. From her mountain home to the banks of the Missouri River, over the majestic Rockies to the pounding waves of the Pacific, Sacajawea traveled farther than any American woman of her time. With rich illustrations and plenty of interesting facts and narrative, this book brings to life the story of the real and remarkable Shoshone princess who helped Lewis and Clark navigate their way across the American West.

Song of the Taino


Devashish - 2012
    This is the story of the epic encounter between two alien civilizations in the lands that the Spanish renamed Espanola and Puerto Rico, between a unique culture that would soon vanish from the earth - though its legacy lives on throughout the Caribbean - and a crusading nation whose lust for gold and missionary zeal brought the fires of hell to a new world that was as old as its own.

Life and Death at Windover


Rachel K. Wentz - 2012
    The bones of several other individuals soon emerged from the peat bog. It would be determined that the human remains uncovered at Windover were between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, making them 3,200 years older than King Tutankhamen and 2,000 years older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. This was just the beginning of an archaeological adventure that continues today.“Windover is truly a unique site that continues to astonish. Dr. Wentz does a wonderful job of telling the two stories of Windover. One is the story of the people who lived in the area and are buried in the pond. The other story introduces you to the amazing people and circumstances which made the excavation possible. From its discovery by a backhoe operator and a concerned and interested landowner to the crew who worked on the project, Wentz effectively captures the stories of a fascinating archaeological discovery.”

Sam Sixkiller: Cherokee Frontier Lawman


Chris Enss - 2012
    The Oklahoma Historical Society Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History for 2012. A riveting biography of a little-known Native-American who shaped history—complete with shootouts, romance, intrigue, and a little politics.

How to Create Sacred Water: A Guide to Rituals and Practices


Kathryn W. Ravenwood - 2012
    Combining her longtime devotion to sacred altars with her newfound connection to crystals, she developed a process to make crystal homeopathic elixirs to cleanse bodies of water both near and far. Sharing her journey of spiritual calling and discovery, Ravenwood explains how to create crystal homeopathic elixirs using a sacred water altar and attuned crystals. Detailing how to create a personal altar in your home, the crystals most suitable for this work (such as amethyst and selenite), as well as how to program them with your healing intentions, she describes the month-long cycle--from full moon to full moon--of ritual and prayer at the core of the process that infuses the elixirs with their cleansing and healing powers. Ravenwood provides shamanic journey meditations based on Native American and Egyptian traditions to help you connect with ancient water spirits and guides and instill your water-healing work with sacred purpose. She explains how to ceremonially apply an elixir to a body of water and how the remedy will propagate outward to the ocean, bringing healing to the waters it spans as well as to the animals it encounters. Bringing spirituality into physicality and providing a practical application for the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, this hands-on shamanic method enables each of us to take part in transforming our planet as well as our selves--for the health of Gaia and our own bodies is directly tied to the health of the waters that surround and are within us.

Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota


Gwen Westerman - 2012
    But the true depth of the devastation of removal cannot be understood without a closer examination of the history of the Dakota people and their deep cultural connection to the land that is Minnesota. Drawing on oral history interviews, archival work, and painstaking comparisons of Dakota, French, and English sources, Mni Sota Makoce tells the detailed history of the Dakota people in their traditional homelands for at least hundreds of years prior to exile.“Minnesota” is derived from the Dakota phrase Mni Sota Makoce, Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds—and the people’s roots here remain strong. Authors Gwen Westerman and Bruce White examine narratives of the people’s origins, their associations with the land, and the seasonal round though key players and place names. They consider Dakota interactions with Europeans and offer an in-depth “reading between the lines” of historical documents—some of them virtually unknown—and treaties made with the United States, uncovering misunderstandings and outright deceptions that helped lead to war in 1862.Dakota history did not begin with the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862—nor did it end there. Mni Sota Makoce is, more than anything, a celebration of the Dakota people through their undisputed connection to this place, Minnesota, in the past, present, and future.Gwen Westerman is professor of E nglish and Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Bruce White is author of We Are at Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People.

Ancient Pueblos, Sacred Places


Buddy Mays - 2012
    Want to know what really happened to the thousands of Anasazi, Mogollon, Sinagua, Salado, and Hohokam Indians who inhabited these communities between A.D. 800 and 1300? Did they mysteriously vanish off the face of the earth or did they meet another, less sinister fate? This book is a must for anyone planning a visit to the pre-Columbian Indian pueblos of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, or Colorado.

THIS LAND: Only One Cumorah


Wayne May - 2012
    Cecil McGavin and Willard W. Bean (& Wayne N. May) is an incisive study of the geographical locations of the three colonies that came to America in ancient days; and their spreading into North America in what is now Southern Canada and the country east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes. The authors address themselves to the non-scientist, the ordinary reader and student of religion. The text needs to be studied rather than just read. Anyone interested in the subject will find the effort thoroughly worth while.The thesis centers around a concept of the Prophet Joseph Smith who “was definitely convinced that the Nephites had spread over North America.” While traveling with Zion’s camp near the Illinois River, a skeleton was found which Joseph Smith identified as Zelph. He explained that Zelph was a converted Lamanite and became a great warrior of the Nephite armies “from the eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains.” Nearby, as explained by the Prophet, the Nephite city of Manti had been built. Later when the remains of a stone tower were found along the Grand River in Missouri, he told his brethren that it was ‘an old Nephite tower.”The authors of this book maintain that the Nephites spread throughout North America and the country particularly east of the Mississippi River. Contiguous to the Great Lakes is where the thousands of people finally found the land of their desires. The present Hill Cumorah was the center and here the gold plates were buried to be brought forth in this day by the visitation of the Angel Moroni, who placed them in the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Here the great battles were finally fought between the Nephites and Lamanites, and archeologists of today verify this idea by their careful investigations.Levi Edgar Youngof the First Council of the Seventy.

Tecumseh


James Laxer - 2012
    This pictorial biography tells the story of his remarkable life, culminating in the events of the War of 1812.Tecumseh (meaning "shooting star" in Shawnee) was named after the meteor that auspiciously streaked across the sky on the night he was born. He lived during turbulent times, when the thirteen colonies that were to become the United States had begun to rebel against British rule, and settlers were pushing westward, rapidly encroaching on the traditional lands of the native peoples. Tecumseh and his family were forced to move many times as their villages came under frequent attack from militiamen and settlers. His father and his older brother Cheeseekau were both killed in battles with the settlers.Tecumseh spent his youth learning the skills that would make him a hunter and warrior. At the age of twenty-five he became chief of his own village. As he grew older, influenced by his visionary younger brother, "The Prophet," Tecumseh realized that unless all native peoples came together to form a great confederacy, they would never be able to hold onto their land. And so he began to travel great distances with this message, encouraging the Muscogees, Kickapoos, Winnebagos, Potawatomis, Ottawas and Sacs to join forces with him against the Americans. Tecumseh was a great orator and became a rallying figure for the beleaguered tribes, warning William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, and others that if the US did not return the lands they had taken, there would be war.On June 18, 1812, the US declared war on Great Britain. Tecumseh sided with the British, hoping to create an independent native state north of the Ohio River, between the US and Canada. He developed a magnetic friendship with Brock, commander of the British troops, who recognized that he was "a gallant warrior," and together they took Fort Detroit. But shortly afterwards Brock was killed in the battle of Queenston Heights.Tecumseh was disgusted when the British began to retreat. "You always told us," he declared to Major General Procter, "that you would never draw your foot off British ground; but now, father, we see you are drawing back… We must compare our father's conduct to a fat animal, that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted, it drops between its legs, and runs off." He rallied those loyal to him and fought on relentlessly, but was finally killed in the Battle of Moraviantown in 1813.An epilogue looks at what happened after Tecumseh's death, including the peace negotiations that finally ended the War of 1812. Tecumseh's dreams were never fulfilled, but he remains a symbol of justice for the First Peoples of the Americas.James Laxer's informative, accessible text is based on reminiscences written by Stephen Ruddell, a white boy who was raised by the Shawnees, on the oral traditions of the Shawnees and other native peoples, and on accounts written by officials in the United States government and British military officers who knew Tecumseh. Combined with Richard Rudnicki's exceptional illustrations, which have been thoroughly researched for historical accuracy, this an outstanding pictorial biography.Includes maps, timeline and glossary.