Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki)

An autobiographical look at the place where the author lives, its native past and its influence on his life ...
Milkweed Editions

Maurice Kenny (Mohawk)

Thought- provoking sketches of such little known Native historical figures as Black Kettle and Yellow Wolf ...
White Pine Press

Black Elk (Lakota Sioux)
Beautifully told through the celebrated poet and writer John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks offers much more than a life story. Black Elk’s profound and arresting religious visions of the unity of humanity and the world around him have transformed his account into a venerated spiritual classic. Whether appreciated as a collaborative autobiography, a history of a Native American nation, or an enduring spiritual testament for all humankind, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable.
University of Nebraska Press

Wallace Black Elk (Lakota Sioux)
In a first-person narrative, a Lakota shaman blends an explanation of the mystery and ritual of the sacred pipe with a lively account of growing up Native American.
HarperOne

Janet Campbell Hale (Coeur d' Alene)
In this collection of bittersweet autobiographical essays, Hale reveals and examines her often conflicting experiences as the daughter of a Native American father and mixed-blood mother, a single parent, and a fiction writer.
University of Arizona Press

Sidner Larson (Gros Ventre)
"The ongoing tale of the mixed-blood Indian in this country can be convoluted and difficult. Sidner Larson's version of the paradox is honest and compelling, a coming of age story from the northern plains unlike anything else I have read." - Joy Harjo. Larson was a catch colt - a child born to an unmarried Gros Ventre woman. In this rapid and candid autobiography Larson describes his youth in Montana, in apartments and ranch houses. He lived at various times with his mother, his aunt, and his grandmother, but always without his father, whom he wondered about for years. Eventually Larson found his father, but he first found himself, and that took more time and trouble. "Catch Colt" is a romp through modern American Indian life, told by someone who knows both its thrills and its bruises.
University of Nebraska Press

Jacquelyn Kilpatrick (Cherokee)
Celluloid Indians is an accessible, insightful overview of Native American representation in film over the past century. Beginning with the birth of the movie industry, Jacquelyn Kilpatrick carefully traces changes in the cinematic depictions of Native peoples and identifies cultural and historical reasons for those changes. In the late twentieth century, Native Americans have been increasingly involved with writing and directing movies about themselves, and Kilpatrick places appropriate emphasis on the impact that Native American screenwriters and filmmakers have had on the industry. Celluloid Indians concludes with a valuable, in-depth look at influential and innovative Native Americans in today’s film industry.
University of Nebraska Press

John Stands in Timber (Cheyenne)
This classic work is an oral history of the Cheyenne Indians from legendary times to the early reservation years, a collaborative effort by the Cheyenne tribal historian, John Stands In Timber, and anthropologist Margot Liberty. Published in 1967, the book now has an updated bibliography and a new preface by Liberty, in which she shares her memories of Stands In Timber and describes the circumstances of the Cheyennes over the past thirty years.
Yale University Press

Henrietta Mann (Cheyenne)
This book draws on oral histories, interviews, and tribal records to document 111 years during which Cheyenne and Arapaho children were educated in White ways. Throughout the book, the feelings and experiences of the author and her great-grandmother, White Buffalo Girl, provide personal commentary on historical events. Chapter 1 provides background information on Cheyenne and Arapaho beliefs, symbolism, rituals, spirituality, traditional history, modern history from 1673 to 1867, and traditional educational practices. Chapter 2 describes the role of Protestant, Jesuit, and Franciscan missionaries in the early schooling of American Indians, as well as federal government strategies for solving the "Indian problem." In 1876, for economic reasons, the Cheyenne resigned themselves to placing their children in schools. Chapter 3 traces government policies after 1871, when formal education and forced acculturation were instituted. A sketch of daily life at an industrial education school is given as well as an account of the formation and practices of the Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and other off-reservation boarding schools.
University Press of Colorado