Luther Standing Bear (Sioux)
Standing Bear's dismay at the condition of his people, when after sixteen years' absence he returned to the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, may well have served as a catalyst for the writing of this book, first published in 1933. In addition to describing the customs, manners, and traditions of the Teton Sioux, Standing Bear (as Richard N. Ellis notes in the foreword) "also offered more general comments about the importance of native cultures and values and the status of Indian people in American society." With the assistance of Melvin R. Gilmore, curator of ethnology at the University of Michigan, and his niece and secretary, Warcaziwin, Standing Bear sought to tell the white man "just how we lived as Lakotans." His book, generously interspersed with personal reminiscences and anecdotes, includes chapters on child rearing, social and political organization, the family, religion, and manhood. Standing Bear's views on Indian affairs and his suggestions for the improvement of white-Indian relations are presented in the two closing chapters. "A serious and notable contribution to racial understanding."—Saturday Review of Literature
Bison Books

Moses Cruikshank (Athabascan)
Moses Cruikshank, an Athabaskan elder and storyteller from interior Alaska, blends description, opinion, advice, and humor to teach lessons learned from living in the country.  The first part of the book is the author's stories; the second part is a discussion of the historical significance of the stories and methods used to reproduce the oral record in written form.
University of Alaska Press

Greg Sarris (Coast Miwok/Pomo)
A world-renowned Pomo basket weaver and medicine woman, Mabel McKay expressed her genius through her celebrated baskets, her Dreams, her cures, and the stories with which she kept her culture alive. She spent her life teaching others how the spirit speaks through the Dream, how the spirit heals, and how the spirit demands to be heard. Greg Sarris weaves together stories from Mabel McKay's life with an account of how he tried, and she resisted, telling her story straight--the white people's way. Sarris, an Indian of mixed-blood heritage, finds his own story in his search for Mabel McKay's. Beautifully narrated, Weaving the Dream initiates the reader into Pomo culture and demonstrates how a woman who worked most of her life in a cannery could become a great healer and an artist whose baskets were collected by the Smithsonian. Hearing Mabel McKay's life story, we see that distinctions between material and spiritual and between mundane and magical disappear. What remains is a timeless way of healing, of making art, and of being in the world.
University of California Press

Mark St. Pierre (Abenaki)
This heartwarming account portrays a spirited, modern-day Lakota Sioux woman's triumph over debilitating illness and depressing conditions on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Madonna Swan-Abdulla, born in 1928, contracted tuberculosis as a teenager, lost a lung and spent a decade in sanatoriums. She speaks eloquently and without self-pity in these sometimes loosely connected sketches admirably edited by St. Pierre, sociology professor at Colorado Mountain College. Sustained by strong family ties, especially the love of her mother, Swan-Abdulla finds joy in simple ways and stands up to corrupt tribal leaders. Her life is fitting reminder that real heroes can be found in everyday life.
University of Oklahoma Press

Melissa Fawcett-Tantaquidegon (Mohegan)

The life story of a Mohegan elder whose hundred years of life span tribal traditions, an Ivy League education and career in anthropology, and a return to her own comnmunity as its beloved medicine woman.
University of Arizona Press

George Beaver (Mohawk)

Historical perspectives & personal views from a contemporary Iroquois columnist.  Articles originally published in the Brantford expositor, 1987-1995.
Iroqrafts

Evan Pritchard (Micmac)

A large, ambitious, first-ever study of the little-known history of New York's Native peoples, especially the Lenapes of the Hudson Valley.
Council Oaks Books

Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki)

Memorable words from Native people of many nations. "A beautiful and very precious collection of traditional wisdom." -Peter Matthieson
Harper San Francisco

Ignatia Broker (Ojibway)
With the art of a practiced storyteller, Ignatia Broker recounts the life of her great-great-grandmother, Night Flying Woman, who was born in the mid-19th century and lived during a chaotic time of enormous change, uprootings, and loss for the Minnesota Ojibway. But this story also tells of her people's great strength and continuity. This popular book is also available on audiotape read by Debra Smith. An enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, she has performed her own poetry on a syndicated radio series on Native writers.
Minnesota Historical Society Press

Polingaysi Qoyawayma (Hopi)
This is the story of the Hopi woman who chose in her early youth to live in the white man's world. She became known as Elizabeth Q. White. Born at Old Oraibi, Arizona, she was of the first Hopi children to be educated in white schools. Later she was the first Hopi to become a teacher in those schools. Here her biographer records Qoyowayma's break with the traditions of her people and her struggle to gain acceptance for her radical teaching methods.  Throughout her life this remarkable woman has held to the best in Hopi culture and has fought to maintain it in the lives of her students. Her story, rich in information on Hopi legend and ceremony, is a moving introduction to the Hopi way of life.
University of New Mexico Press