East Islip Public Library: November Is National Native American Heritage Month! 

Press release from the East Islip Public Library:

November 3, 2021

Celebrate the history, culture, and traditions of Native Americans in a special collection of both fiction and nonfiction books below.

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States / by Roxanne Dunbar-OrtizGoing beyond the story of America as a country “discovered” by a few brave men in the “New World,” Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity.

Love Medicine: A Novel / by Louise ErdrichThe first book in the tetralogy that includes The Beet Queen, Tracks, and The Bingo Palace follows the lives of two native American families and is enhanced by four previously unpublished chapters.

Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance / by Nick EstesIn 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century. In this book, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI / by David GrannPresents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Where the Dead Sit talking / by Brandon HobsonLiterally and figuratively scarred by his unstable upbringing, Cherokee teen Sequoyah is placed in foster care with the Troutt family, and bonds with fellow foster child Rosemary, who shares his Native American background and tumultuous past.

Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary / by Joe JacksonChronicles the life of the Native American healer and holy man, known for his testimonial “Black Elk Speaks,” who fought at the Little Bighorn, traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and became swept up in the Ghost Dance movement.

The Only Good Indians: A Novel by Stephen Graham JonesA novel that blends classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives.

Heart Berries: A Memoir / by Terese Marie MailhotThe author recounts her coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest where she survived a dysfunctional childhood and found herself hospitalized with a dual diagnosis of PTSD and bipolar II disorder.

Mankiller: A Chief and Her People by Wilma Mankiller & Michael WallisThe first female chief of a large tribe, the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, tells her life story, from her childhood on Mankiller Flats to her struggle to lead her people into a new century.

There There by Tommy OrangeA novel—which grapples with the complex history of Native Americans; with an inheritance of profound spirituality; and with a plague of addiction, abuse and suicide—follows 12 characters, each of whom has private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present / by David TreuerAn anthropologist’s chronicle of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present traces the unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention of distinctive tribal cultures that assimilated into mainstream life to preserve Native identity.

The Heartsong of Charging Elk / by James WelchA witness to the battle of Little Big Horn as a child, Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux, is recruited by Buffalo Bill Cody to join his Wild West show, which creates a sensation in the capital cities of Europe, until he is left behind–because of illness and a bureaucractic mix-up–in the strange, unfamiliar world of Marseille.

This press release was produced by the East Islip Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.