Best of
Native-Americans

2018

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga


Traci Sorell - 2018
    Beginning in the fall with the new year and ending in summer, follow a full Cherokee year of celebrations and experiences. Appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah.

Haunted House and Ghost Stories Collection


Ron Ripley - 2018
    The sinister demon lurking behind his family home threats to spill over and destroy all that he holds near and dear…spurring Shane on a journey that will challenge everything he knows about himself and the world. This digital box set contains all of the nine thrilling supernatural novels in this best-selling series: Berkley Street: Twenty years ago, Shane Ryan’s parents disappeared within the halls of their family home. Now, more relatives have vanished, leaving Shane as the prime suspect. But a childhood memory is stirring in his mind -- of a long-forgotten encounter with the sinister monster that has always lurked just beyond the house. The Lighthouse: Against the backdrop of a sunny island and blue skies, Shane is called upon to continue the job he’s best at -- hunting malevolent spirits intent on murdering the living. The beautiful lighthouse watching over the island has given him a false sense of escape as he encounters the terrifying forces within. The Town of Griswold: In search of a break from ghost hunting, Shane spends a day exploring a quaint New England town. Unfortunately, his plans are interrupted when he comes across the deadly ghost of the depraved Abel, who wreaks havoc on the community of Griswold. Sanford Hospital: Shane Ryan is in Sanford Hospital for burn treatments. His recovery is thwarted when he crosses Nurse Ruth, who is as odious and dead as they come. Shane must get rid of her, and he joins forces with friends -- alongside a few ghostly comrades -- in a terrifying battle between good and evil. Kurkow Prison: Shane and his friends are tasked with another ghostbusting mission – the gruesome demons at Kurkow Prison. When one of the new owners mistakenly cuts the iron chains keeping the ghosts locked inside, the property becomes overrun by restless souls. Lake Nutaq: Shane’s idyllic getaway in the woods is cut short by a maniacal ghost named Broken Nose. Ill-prepared, he enlists the help of his friend Frank, and The Englishman, a crazed lunatic with a knack for killing. Still, nothing could prepare them for the evil spirits eager to cause misery and death. Slater Mill: The soul-weary Shane looks to escape the emotional and physical scars of his gruesome occupation. But he has yet another job in Slater Mill. As he prepares for the upcoming battle, he is visited by an old acquaintance whose timing couldn’t be worse. Borgin Keep: Shane has been hunting ghosts all over New England, assuming that the jobs were random, till he ran into The Watchers. When their leader sends him a gruesome message, their killing spree becomes more brazen, and Shane knows he must stop them before it’s too late. Amherst Burial Ground: In the serene town of Amherst, the ghost of a little boy, Samson, possesses a hideous appetite that keeps residents on edge. Meanwhile, Shane is in a deep depression, overcoming a tragic loss. He is quickly realizing that this encounter with Samson and The Watchers may very well be his last. What reviewers are saying: ★★★★★ 'Amazing! Stephen King, move over for your successor…' ★★★★★ 'I don't know what author Ron Ripley's nightmares are like, but he certainly knows how to bring on the scares, in every single story.

Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes


Wab Kinew - 2018
    Including figures such as Crazy Horse, Net-no-kwa, former NASA astronaut John Herrington and Canadian NHL goalie Carey Price, Go Show the World showcases a diverse group of Indigenous people in the US and Canada, both the more well known and the not- so-widely recognized. Individually, their stories, though briefly touched on, are inspiring; collectively, they empower the reader with this message: "We are people who matter, yes, it's true; now let's show the world what people who matter can do."

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story


Joseph Bruchac - 2018
    But Chester refused to give up his heritage. Years later, during World War II, Chester—and other Navajo men like him—was recruited by the US Marines to use the Navajo language to create an unbreakable military code. Suddenly the language he had been told to forget was needed to fight a war. This powerful picture book biography contains backmatter including a timeline and a portion of the Navajo code, and also depicts the life of an original Navajo code talker while capturing the importance of heritage.

The Heart of the Shaman: Stories and Practices of the Luminous Warrior


Alberto Villoldo - 2018
    Villoldo shares some of their time-honored teachings that emphasize the sacred dream: an ephemeral, yet powerful vision that has the potential to guide us to our purpose and show us our place in the universe.The practices in this book will help you forge a sacred dream for yourself. They will help you craft a destiny infused with courage, and driven by vision. You’ll be invited to follow the footsteps of the luminous warrior and learn how to break out of the three nightmares surrounding love, death, and safety that have held you captive, and transform them into the experience of timeless freedom, known as the Primordial Light. This creative power exercised by shamans will lead you to create beauty and healing, and dream a new world into being.When you transform these dreams and accept that life is ever changing, that your mortality is a given and that no one except you can free you from fear —the chaos in your life turns to order, and beauty prevails.“Wake up from the slumber you are living in, and dream with your eyes open so that all the possibilities of the future are available to you.”

First Laugh--Welcome, Baby!


Rose Ann Tahe - 2018
    Who will earn the honor in this story?The First Laugh Ceremony is a celebration held to welcome a new member of the community. As everyone--from Baby's nima (mom) to nadi (big sister) to cheii (grandfather)--tries to elicit the joyous sound from Baby, readers are introduced to details about Navajo life and the Navajo names for family members. Back matter includes information about other cultural ceremonies that welcome new babies and children, including man yue celebration (China), sanskaras (Hindu) and aquiqa (Muslim).

Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War


Lisa Brooks - 2018
    Through both a narrow focus on Weetamoo, Printer, and their network of relations, and a far broader scope that includes vast indigenous geographies, Brooks leads us to a new understanding of the history of colonial New England and of American origins. Brooks’s pathbreaking scholarship is grounded not just in extensive archival research but also in the land and communities of Native New England, reading the actions of actors during the seventeenth century alongside an analysis of the landscape and interpretations informed by tribal history.

God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England


James A. Warren - 2018
    Yet his orthodox brethren were convinced tolerance fostered anarchy and courted God’s wrath. Banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, Williams purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and laid the foundations for the colony of Rhode Island as a place where Indian and English cultures could flourish side by side, in peace.As the seventeenth century wore on, a steadily deepening antagonism developed between an expansionist, aggressive Puritan culture and an increasingly vulnerable, politically divided Indian population. Indian tribes that had been at the center of the New England communities found themselves shunted off to the margins of the region. By the 1660s, all the major Indian peoples in southern New England had come to accept English authority, either tacitly or explicitly. All, except one: the Narragansetts.In God, War, and Providence “James A. Warren transforms what could have been merely a Pilgrim version of cowboys and Indians into a sharp study of cultural contrast…a well-researched cameo of early America” (The Wall Street Journal). He explores the remarkable and little-known story of the alliance between Roger Williams’s Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indians, and how they joined forces to retain their autonomy and their distinctive ways of life against Puritan encroachment. Deeply researched, “Warren’s well-written monograph contains a great deal of insight into the tactics of war on the frontier” (Library Journal) and serves as a telling precedent for white-Native American encounters along the North American frontier for the next 250 years.

People of the Wolf: A Novel of North America's Forgotten Past


Michael W. Gear - 2018
    Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear.In the dawn of history, a valiant people forged a pathway from an old world into a new one. Led by a dreamer who followed the spirit of the wolf, a handful of courageous men and women dared to cross the frozen wastes to find an untouched, unspoiled continent.Set in what is now Alaska, this is the magnificent saga of the vision-filled man who led his people to an awesome destiny and the courageous woman whose love and bravery drove them on in pursuit of that dream.

The Sea of Grass: A Family Tale from the American Heartland


Walter Echo-Hawk - 2018
    Major events are presented from a Pawnee perspective to capture the outlook of the Echo-Hawk ancestors. The oral tradition from ten generations of Echo-Hawk's family tell the stories of the spiritual side of Native life, and give voice to the rich culture and cosmology of the Pawnee Nation.

Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists


Margaret M. Bruchac - 2018
    Bruchac, an Indigenous anthropologist, turns the word savage on its head. Savage Kin explores the nature of the relationships between Indigenous informants, such as Gladys Tantaquidgeon (Mohegan), Jesse Cornplanter (Seneca), and George Hunt (Tlingit), and early twentieth-century anthropological collectors, such as Frank Speck, Arthur C. Parker, William N. Fenton, and Franz Boas. This book reconceptualizes the intimate details of encounters with Native interlocutors who by turns inspired, facilitated, and resisted the anthropological enterprise. Like other texts focused on this era, Savage Kin features some of the elite white men credited with salvaging material that might otherwise have been lost. Unlike other texts, this book highlights the intellectual contributions and cultural strategies of unsung Indigenous informants without whom this research could never have taken place. These bicultural partnerships transgressed social divides and blurred the roles of anthropologist/informant, relative/stranger, and collector/collected. Yet these stories were obscured by collecting practices that separated people from objects, objects from communities, and communities from stories. Bruchac’s decolonizing efforts include “reverse ethnography”—painstakingly tracking seemingly unidentifiable objects, misconstrued social relations, unpublished correspondence, and unattributed field notes—to recover this evidence. Those early encounters generated foundational knowledges that still affect Indigenous communities today.Savage Kin also contains unexpected narratives of human and other-­than-human encounters—brilliant discoveries, lessons from ancestral spirits, prophetic warnings, powerful gifts, and personal tragedies—that will move Native and non-Native readers alike.

Drawing Fire: A Pawnee, Artist, and Thunderbird in World War II


Brummett Echohawk - 2018
    Within three years his unit, a tough collection of depression era cowboys, farmers, and more than a thousand Native Americans, would land in Europe--there to distinguish themselves as, in the words of General George Patton, "one of the best, if not the best division, in the history of American arms." During his service with the 45th Infantry, the vaunted Thunderbirds, Echohawk tapped the talent he had honed at Pawnee boarding school to document the conflict in dozens of annotated sketches.These combat sketches form the basis of Echohawk's memoir of service with the Thunderbirds in World War II. In scene after scene he re-creates acts of bravery and moments of terror as he and his fellow soldiers fight their way through key battles at Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio. Woven with Pawnee legend and language and quickened with wry Native wit, Drawing Fire conveys in a singular way what it was like to go to war alongside a band of Indian brothers. It stands as a tribute to those Echohawk fought with and those he lost, a sharply observed and deeply felt picture of men at arms--capturing for all time the enduring spirit and steadfast strength of the Native American warrior.

Raven Makes the Aleutians


Janine Gibbons - 2018
    How will he get back to the mainland? With the help of a friendly sea otter, Raven comes up with a plan. Will Raven reach the shore?Adapted from a traditional Native story.

American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion


Stephanie Woodard - 2018
    Taking us beyond the headlines, American Apartheid offers the most comprehensive and compelling account of the issues and threats that Native Americans face today, as well as their heroic battle to overcome them. Author Stephanie Woodard details the ways in which the federal government, states and counties curtail Native voting rights, which, in turn, keeps tribal members from participating in policy-making surrounding education, employment, rural transportation, infrastructure projects and other critical issues affecting their communities. This system of apartheid has staggering consequences, as Natives are, per capita, the population group that is most likely to be shot by police, suffer violent victimization by outsiders, be incarcerated, and have their children taken away. On top of this, indigenous people must also fight constantly to protect the sacred sites and landscapes that hold their cultural memories and connect their spirituality to the nation’s mountains, plains, waterways and coastlines. Despite these many obstacles, American Apartheid offers vivid pictures of diverse Native American communities that embody resilience, integrity, and the survival of ancient cultures.

Monacan Millennium: A Collaborative Archaeology and History of a Virginia Indian People


Jeffrey L Hantman - 2018
    Monacan Millennium tells the story of the Monacan Indian people of Virginia, stretching from 1000 A.D. through the moment of colonial contact in 1607 and into the present.Written from an anthropological perspective and informed by ethnohistory, archaeology, and indigenous tribal perspectives, this comprehensive study reframes the Chesapeake's early colonial period--and its deep precolonial history--by viewing it through a Monacan lens. Shifting focus to the Monacans, Hantman reveals a group whose ritual practices bespeak centuries of politically and culturally dynamic history. This insightful volume draws on archeology, English colonial archives, Spanish sources, and early cartography to put the Monacans back on the map. By examining representations of the tribe in colonial, postcolonial, and contemporary texts, the author fosters a dynamic, unfolding understanding of who the Monacan people were and are.

Palominos Near Tuba City: New and Selected Poems


Denise Sweet - 2018
    These forty poems take us on a rich and fascinating journey, transporting us through history on memory's voices, singing a new vision of the familiar. Though her subjects vary from a visit to the mission at White Earth to parking a car, Sweet brings freshness to each. The poems leave markers where they have touched us, places we will return to to remember the startling beauty of a phrase, the quiet wisdom of a story, the good humor of our poet companion. She carries us to the brink of discovery; her words push us over.

Sharing Our Truths / Tapwe


Henry Beaver - 2018
    Learn the protocols for building a tipi, trapping a beaver, laying the grandfather stones for a fire, smudging, and harvesting salt from the Salt Plains in Wood Buffalo National Park. In Cree, tapwe means "it is so" or "the truth." In this, the ninth book in This Land is Our Storybook series, Henry writes, "We can tell you what to do with the truths we share in this book, but we hope that reading our story will help you get to know us a little better so that together we can make this nation a place we can all be proud of."

Secret of the Spirit Walls


Dorothy M. Keddington - 2018
    Then a large stone came hurtling down the hillside, striking the snake squarely on its head. Another rock followed, this one crushing the viper beneath its weight. The echoes died and the rattling was still. Then Gabe was beside me, his strong arm around me, helping me to my feet. My fear-frozen muscles melted at his touch and suddenly I was too weak to stand. My arms found their way around his neck, and I realized that his breathing was as rapid as mine.Anna O'Neill is guiding her students through the last days of school when she gets the call that her brother has disappeared in the wilds of southern Utah. But when she arrives in Moab, she realizes that things just aren't adding up. With the help of filmmaker Gabriel Mahoney, Anna initiates her own search, pursuing leads into rugged Nine Mile Canyon, the seat of an ancient civilization whose lure may have pulled her brother to his death.

Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan


Barbara J. Barton - 2018
    Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan focuses on the history, culture, biology, economics, and spirituality surrounding this sacred plant. The story travels through time from the days before European colonization and winds its way forward in and out of the logging and industrialization eras. It weaves between the worlds of the Anishinaabek and the colonizers, contrasting their different perspectives and divergent relationships with Manoomin. Barton discusses historic wild rice beds that once existed in Michigan, why many disappeared, and the efforts of tribal and nontribal people with a common goal of restoring and protecting Manoomin across the landscape.

Rural Indigenousness: A History of Iroquoian and Algonquian Peoples of the Adirondacks


Melissa Otis - 2018
    Yet, by the late nineteenth century, historians had scarcely any record of their long-lasting and vibrant existence in the area. With Rural Indigenousness, Otis shines a light on the rich history of Algonquian and Iroquoian people, offering the first comprehensive study of the relationship between Native Americans and the Adirondacks. While Otis focuses on the nineteenth century, she extends her analysis to periods before and after this era, revealing both the continuity and change that characterize the relationship over time. Otis argues that the landscape was much more than a mere hunting ground for Native residents; rather, it a location of exchange, a space of interaction where the land was woven into the fabric oftheir lives as an essential source of refuge and survival. Drawing upon archival research, material culture, and oral histories, Otis examines the nature of Indigenous populations living in predominantly Euroamerican communities to identify the ways in which some maintained their distinct identity while also making selective adaptations exemplifying the concept of survivance. In doing so, Rural Indigenousness develops a new conversation in the field of Native American studies that expands our understanding of urban and rural indigeneity.

Standing Up to Colonial Power: The Lives of Henry Roe and Elizabeth Bender Cloud


Renya K. Ramirez - 2018
    Elizabeth fought against termination as part of her role in the National Congress of American Indians and General Federation of Women’s Clubs, while Henry was one of the most important Native policy makers of the early twentieth century. He documented the horrible abuse within the federal boarding schools and co-wrote the Meriam Report of 1928, which laid the foundation for the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Together they ran an early college preparatory Christian high school, the American Indian Institute. Standing Up to Colonial Power shows how the Clouds combined Native warrior and modern identities as a creative strategy to challenge settler colonialism, to become full members of the U.S. nation-state, and to fight for tribal sovereignty. Renya K. Ramirez uses her dual position as a scholar and as the granddaughter of Elizabeth and Henry Cloud to weave together this ethnography and family-tribal history.