Native Peoples

AudioBook:Harvest House

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by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Read by Shaun Taylor-Corbett and Charley Flyte
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some intense moments involving danger for young indigenous women, instances of racism, some mild swearing, and mention of murder. It’s in the YA section ( grades 6-8) of the bookstore.

It’s the fall, and since the play at school has been canceled, Hughie Wolfe has been looking for something else to do with his time and talents. Enter Sam, who talks Hughie into volunteering at the Harvest House haunted house. This sounds like a good idea until the person in charge decides to set up an “Indian” burial ground and lean into the legend of the “Indian Maiden” ghost at the crossroads. This makes Hughie, who is Muskogee (I think; at least that’s what is sticking in my head and I don’t have the book to check), angry, and so he and his friends decide to investigate the legend and see what truth lies behind it.

It’s part high school drama set in a small Kansas town, nearby Lawrence – Hughie is a sophomore, so there is some drama with bullies and he has his first date with Marie, who is Ojibwe, in addition to the drama about cutting the funds for the drama department – part ghost story. Hughie’s chapters are interspersed with Celeste’s, who is the ghost of the crossroads and whose mission is to protect indigenous girls from the predator that lurks there.

I liked a lot of this book. I liked that it’s an indigenous story set here in Kansas, I liked Leitich Smith’s portrayal of indigenous kids in a non-reservation environment. She really leaned into the racism – so many instances of racism by white people towards the native kids, and in ways they didn’t even think about. I felt like she didn’t go hard enough in the ghost story and backed away from a truly macabre ending, but it is a young YA book, so I can’t really fault that. The narrators were good, though I thought it was dragging by the end, and I sped up the listening speed just so I could finish.

I’m glad it’s out there, though, and I hope it can find its audience.

Warrior Girl Unearthed

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by Angeline Boulley
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Release date: May 2, 2023
Content: It addresses r*pe, sexual assault, predatory behaviors, and missing Indigenous women. There is some swearing and talk of drug use. It’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

What Perry Firekeeper-Birch wanted for the summer: to be lazy, to go fishing, to enjoy the sunshine. What she got: a job with the Ojibwe summer intern program, working at the Tribal museum. What she expected: the summer to be Boring. What she got: a fascinating education in her Tribal history, and in the repatriation (or not) of the items stolen by museums and colleges, including the local Mackinac State University.

That’s just where the summer starts, though. It’s 2014, and there is unrest in the country, with the shooting of Michael Brown, and that hits close to home because Perry’s dad is half Black. Additionally, Indigenous women in the community have gone missing, and her sister, who is working with the Tribal police, is helping look for them. But it all comes to a head when Perry discovers unearthed graves in the yard of a local “businessman” who was going to donate artifacts back to the tribe, but instead gives them to Mackinac State.

It sounds like a lot – and this is just scratching the surface – but Boulley is a talented enough storyteller to weave these seemingly disparate story threads together into a very satisfying whole. The story is less about missing Indigenous women and repatriating lost/stolen artifacts than it is about Perry learning how to take responsibility and be a leader in her community. It’s her growth arc – though the characters of her friends and twin sister (and yes, Daunis from Firekeeper’s Daughter shows up) are fully fleshed out and not simple caricatures. I love how Boulley is able to weave in the Ojibwe language and traditions in a way that feels respectful but is also informative for those of us who are not Ojibwe. It’s a feat to be able to put so much into a book and have it flow seamlessly.

In short: I loved it.

Borders

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by Thomas King, illustrations by Natasha Donovan
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Content: There are some moments that might be intense for some readers. It’s in the middle grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

The premise is simple: A boy and his mother want to go visit family in Salt Lake City from Canada. However, when they get to the border, the customs agents want them to declare a country The mother says “Blackfoot” which isn’t an acceptable answer. The rest of the book is the story of them being caught in the space between border crossings and how they get out.

It’s a simple story, but a powerful one. I admire the way the mother stuck to her values: they are Blackfoot, not Canadian, and that should be an acceptable answer for border crossings. The art is clear and realistic but not overly so. It was the story that I really appreciated in this one. I appreciated the back story about their lives, even if the only person named was the sister, and I enjoyed the way this story was resolved. It may not be the most brilliant graphic novel out there, but it is an important and interesting one.

Undefeated

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by Steve Sheinkin
First sentence: “Jim Thorpe looked ridiculous and he knew it – like a scarecrow dressed for football, he’d later say.”
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Content: There are problematic elements regarding Native representation. It’s in the kids biography section of the bookstore.

As part of our Native people unit in this class I am taking, we had to choose a problematic book to read. I was super surprised to see Sheinkin’s work on the list for problematic; I have a hih respect for his work, and assumed that all of his research wa sipeccalbe.

In this instance, he’s looking at the Carlisle Indian School, a residential school — for “civilizing the natives” — run by the government in the late 1800s though the early 1990s. They ended up with a football program, one that went up against the “big” schools of the time — Harvard, Penn, Yale, and Princeton — even though they were a lot smaller and more poorly equipped. It’s also the history of Jim Thorpe, who ended up being the one of Carlisle’s — and possibly the sport’s — greatest athletes. Where Sheinkin ends up being problematic is in the way he talks about the school and about Thorpe’s Native history. As a white person, Sheinkin doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know, and doesn’t know what it is how it is that he needs to write about it. It makes sense that the book would end up being problematic. .

Truthfully, the part of the book I found most fascinating was the history of football. Sheinkin is an excellent writer and was able to write about the games in a way that made them leap off the page. It was interesting to learn about what the game was like in the early days. And it was interesting to learn the role that Carlisle Indian School played in developing and changing the game.

So, yeah: problematic. But still interesting.

Elatsoe

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by Darcie Little Badger
First sentence: “
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Content: There are a couple instances of mild swearing. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore, but it’s appropriate for younger readers, if they’re not turned off by the length.

Ellie is an Apache living in an alternative Texas where there are monsters, fairy rings to travel in, and she can raise ghosts. It’s an old family gift, and they only use it to raise the ghosts of dead animals. More specifically, for Ellie, the ghost of her beloved dog, Kirby. When her cousin, Trevor, appears to her in a dream saying that he’s been murdered, Ellie takes it upon herself to go down to the town where Trevor is and try and figure out what happened. However, there are secrets in Willowbee. Ones that could put Ellie and everyone she holds dear in danger.

I really liked the premise of this one: ghosts and monsters and vampires and fairies all superimposed on the current United State, plus a murder mystery? Yes! However, this one lost me when it just couldn’t figure out who the audience is. Ellie is seventeen, but she acts like a 13 year old. It feels like a middle grade book: illustrations, short chapters, simpler language. The only reason Ellie is 17, I feel, is so she can drive. There’s no romance, the swearing is pretty mild… it’s not really the YA that YA readers have come to expect. But, it’s also not really a middle grade book, either.

I did finish it, and it was a good story with a decent ending. But, it’s not one of my favorites.

Audio book: Firekeeper’s Daughter

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by Angeline Boulley
Read by Isabella Star LaBlanc
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, some tasteful on-screen sex, and a rape scene. It’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

Daunis Fontaine has not quite fit in growing up. She lives in Sault St Marie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and being half white and half Ojibwe has made it so that she never quite fit in either community. She wants a fresh start at the University of Michigan, but it doesn’t happen once her uncle dies suddenly. And then Daunis is drawn into an FBI investigation over the spread of meth in the region. It gets more complicated when she falls for the new guy, Jamie, and things keep getting more and more involved with the investigation.

I highly highly recommend this one on audio. I don’t know how it would play out in print; I suspect that I would have tripped over the Anishinaabe words that Boulley peppers throughout the book. Speaking of which: I appreciated Boulley’s inclusion of Native customs and practices but in a way that felt like they were important to Daunis, but not crucial to the outcome of the story. I loved LaBlanc’s narration, and the way she brought the characters to life. (The only complaint I had about the audio book is that they pronounced pasty wrong. It’s PAH-sty not PAY-sty. Any self-respecting Michigander knows that.) No, it’s not the fast-paced thriller the publisher is marketing it as, but it is an immersive story about a young woman who is trying to figure out how she can fit in, grieve, honor her traditions, and find her own path.

In short: I found it remarkable.

This Place: 150 Years Retold

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by Various Authors
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Content: There is violence and racism as well as some mild swearing. It’s in the graphic novel section of the bookstore.

This is one of the reasons why I love the Cybils. I had never heard of this book, or would have ever picked it up, had I not been a judge for the graphic novels panel. And I’m so glad I did!

This is a series of short stories starting in the mid-1800s and going through to present day. Each story is told by an Indigenous people about people in their past or present who have somehow influenced or otherwise impressed them. Obviously, I hadn’t heard of any of them, but I found the stories not only to be interesting but to be important as well. I did feel like I connected with some of the stories more than others and that some of the art was better than others, but overall it’s a fascinating and important book. And one I’m glad I read.

Surviving the City

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by Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan
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Content: There is tough content about indigenous women who have disappeared. It’s in the graphic novel section of the bookstore.

Miikwan and Dez are best friends. They’ve done everything together from their hanging out after school to their traditional and important Berry Fast. And ever since Miikwan’s mother disappeared, she has needed Dez in her life. But, Dez’s kokum is not doing well, heath-wise, and the state has threatened to put Dez into a group home. Which she doesn’t want, and so she leaves. Which sends Miikwan into a spiral: she can’t lose another woman in her life.

On the one hand, this is an important book: it’s picturing the lives of Native peoples in the city, not on the reservations, showing them balancing the traditional with the contemporary. It highlights the injustices by the government — why should Dez go into a group home because her grandmother’s health is failing? Would that happen if she were white? Or less poor? — and the grave harms done to indigenous women — the book is populated with ghosts of the women murdered and who have disappeared. It’s definitely an important story to tell.

Which is kind of why I wish it were actually told better. Maybe it’s because I am white, but I didn’t feel like the characters were fully developed — Miikwan’s main character trait was that she missed her mother and Dez’s was that she didn’t want to go into a group home. I wanted to know more about their Berry Fast: what was it, why is it important to them? I just wanted more from these characters to balance out the importance of the story they were telling. I also wanted to know more about the ghosts. Could MIikwan see them? Sometimes I felt like she could. I get why they were around, but what was their connection to our characters? And Dez — I just wanted more from her, other than the fact that she was worried about her kokum. What are her interests? She got in trouble in the beginning, was she the one who was always picked on by the teacher? Does she see the school counselor often (I got that impression, but wasn’t sure). There were just so many holes.

That said, I am glad this exists in the world.

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

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by Joseph Marshall III
First sentence: “Jimmy McClean walked among the buffalo berry thickets along the Smoking Earth River.”
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Content: There is some bullying and talk of war. It’s in the middle grade section (grades 3-5) of the bookstore.

Jimmy McClean is half white, half Lakota, which makes him a target at his school outside the Rosebud Sioux reservation, both from the white kids and from the other Lakota kids. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever fit in, with his blue eyes and brown hair. That is, until his Lakota grandfather takes Jimmy on a road trip through Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana following the footsteps of Crazy Horse — known in his younger years as Light Hair — and learning about the life of this great warrior and leader.

This is such a good story. First off, I enjoyed the grandparent-grandchild dynamic, and I appreciated the division between present day and the historical storytelling. It wasn’t a straight “this is what Crazy Horse did here” narrative, but rather weaving the stories of Crazy Horse’s life in such a way to help Jimmy with his present day problems. I also appreciated the Lakota perspective on Crazy Horse. It’s good to remember that history books just teach the White perspective, and it’s valuable to hear these stories from another side.

It’s short, and it’s a valuable story to have around, and not just for Native representation. It’s a good reminder that history has many sides.

#NotYourPrincess

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edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale
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Content: It’s tough content, talking about abuse and rape. It’s in the Teen Issues (Non-Fiction) section of the bookstore.

This is not the sort of thing I usually pick up: a book of art and poetry and essays. But, my biggest take-away from the Multicultural Literature class I just finished was that 1) there isn’t a whole lot of Native literature out there and 2) I don’t read any of it. So, I decided that I need to try and fix that. At least to some extent. I remembered that this one had recently come out (I had ordered it in for the store), but didn’t know anything about it. So I checked it out.

It’s a compilation from Native women artists, all from different nations, who are expressing themselves. From connections to their past and future, and what their heritage means to to them; to the challenges of being a Native woman today. It covers all of North America, so there are voices from Canadian indigenous women as well as those here in the U. S. It’s sometimes harsh reading, especially for an outsider looking in, but it’s ultimately uplifting and empowering. I’m incredibly glad a collection like this exists, and I’m glad I was compelled into picking it up.