Washoe County Library System

"Not since Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine has such a powerful and urgent Native American voice exploded onto the landscape of contemporary fiction. Tommy Orange's There There introduces a brilliant new author at the start of a major career. "We all came to the powwow for different reasons. The messy, dangling threads of our lives got pulled into a braid--tied to the back of everything...

Sherman Alexie, in his first book for young adults, tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the reservation to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, beautifully written, semi-autobiographical, and coupled with poignant drawings that reflect...

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new "emancipation" bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isnt about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a "termination"...

A celebration of the long-cherished Seminole Nation tradition of sharing fry bread during family meals combines evocative verses with vibrant artwork. Using illustrations that show the diversity in Native America and spare poetic text that emphasizes fry bread in terms of provenance, this volume tells the story of a post-colonial food that is a shared tradition for Native American families all across the North American continent. Includes a recipe...

Born to parents who fled slavery and the Trail of Tears, young Afro Indigenous girl Magnolia Flower sets off on a journey in her quest to be free and connect with others, proving how brave one can be when leading with one's heart.

The childhood of Sitting Bull, who was called Slow and then became the greatest Lakota hero. In the 1830s, parents in the Lakota Sioux tribe gave their children childhood names like Runny Nose and Hungry Mouth. Later when the child had grown and proven himself, he earned a new name. Returns Again named his boy Slow because he never did anything quickly. Slow hated his name and tried hard to earn a better one. At fourteen, Slow had a chance to show...

The author of Ghost Soldiers examines the real-life story of America's Manifest Destiny and westward expansion, describing the forcible subjugation of Native American tribes that stood in the way, including the fierce and bloody battles against the Navajo, which ended with a brutal siege at Canyon de Chelly and "the Long Walk" migration.

The 1653-1654 diary of a fourteen-year-old Pocasset Indian girl, destined to become a leader of her tribe, describes how her life changes with the seasons, after a ritual fast she undertakes, and with her tribe's interaction with the English "Coat-men" of the nearby Plymouth Colony.

In September 1944 eleven-year-old Billie lives with her great aunt, Doff, eagerly waiting for her older brother Leo to return from boot camp, and desperate to find the father that left when she was little; but Leo brings a friend with him, a Navajo named Denny, and the injured dog they have rescued and named Bear--and when the two young men go off to war Bear becomes the thread that ties them all together, and helps Billie to find a true friend.