It's Native American Heritage Month, and we have books on display to celebrate! Best of all, these are just a few of the books we have in our collection - so if you're looking for more, don't hesistate to ask.
Books for Adults
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: Follow young cartoonist Junior as he leaves his reservation to attend an all-white school in an all-white town in this novel based on Alexie's own childhood!
Tonto and the Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie: Step into life on the Spokane Indian Reservation in this short story collection. Looking for more? It inspired the movie Smoke Signals, also in our collection!
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie: Step away from Junior and into Sherman Alexie's life in this memoir, featuring 78 essays and 78 poems and written after his mother's death.
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich: In a world where evolution has begun to run backwards, and pregnant women have begun to be confined by the government, Cedar, four months pregnant herself, leaves her adoptive parents and heads to the Ojibwe reservation, looking for the birth mother she never knew.
The Reason for Crows: A Story of Kateri Tekakwitha by Diane Glancy: The story of the 17th-century Mohawk woman Kateri's interactions with her land, the Jesuits, and the religion they brought. Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to become a saint. Her feast day is July 14.
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday: In this 1969 Pulitzer Prize winner, Abel, returning to his reservation after WWII, struggles to reconcile the traditional ways of his people with the ways of the modern world.
Red Land, Red Power: Gaining Knowledge in the American Indian Novel by Sean Kicummah Teuton: Step into the "Red Power" novels of the 1960s and '70s in this exploration of novels and novelists, including such writers as N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, and Leslie Marmon Silko.
Books for Teens
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac: After being told for years that their native language is worthless, Ned and his friends are recruited by the Marines to serve as Code Talkers, sending messages in an unbreakable code: the Navajo language.
Jim Thorpe: Original All-American by Joseph Bruchac: Follow all-American athlete Jim Thorpe from his childhood through his college years and beyond in this biography.
Picture Books
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes: A Tale of Bragging and Teasing written by Joseph & James Bruchac & illustrated by José Aruego & Adrienne Dewey: In this folktale, learn how Brown Squirrel became Chipmunk.
Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith: Jenna, of the Muscogee Nation, borrows from her friends and family to create her very own jingle dress, so she can perform the jingle dance at the next powwow.