Spring Break is just around the corner and with it, hopefully, a few days of relaxation and being able to step away from the daily duties of a busy student (or faculty). Maybe this also means that you will find the time to pick up a new book or revisit one you’ve loved for years.
Pulitzer Prize-winning and Native American novelist N. Scott Momaday’s recent passing (on January 24, 2024) inspired us to compile a list of our favorite books written by Native American authors. We hope you’ll enjoy exploring our recommendations and maybe you’ll even find a new favorite read. Leave your own recommendations in the comments!
Make sure to click on the book titles. They will link you to a copy of the book—many can be found in our McNichols campus library!
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
by Rebecca Tull, Assistant Library Professor
“This 1969 Pulitzer Prize winner is set on a reservation in New Mexico and in Los Angeles and tells the story of Abel, a WWII veteran and his struggle to assimilate and adjust. The author’s familiarity with reservation life is evident throughout.”
The Man Made of Words by N. Scott Momaday
by Prof. Sigrid Streit
“Exploring such themes as land, language, and self-identity, The Man Made of Words, retells Momaday’s own journey as one of the first recognized Native American writers of this century.”
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
by Prof. Sigrid Streit
“The Way to Rainy Mountain combines history, folklore, an poetic memoir as it it takes the reader through author N. Scott Momaday’s own journey of discovering his Kiowa background and identity.”
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
by Prof. Erin Bell
“In this non-fiction book, Kimmerer, reflects upon how indigenous knowlege impacts her work as a botanist; as such, it may be appealing to those studying in STEM fields. The text is lengthy but offers a variety of points of connnection to ecology and the greater world. We learn about the secret lives of plants as well as creation myths. Kimmerer also includes various genres of expression from chapter to chapter which make the text formally interesting as well.”
There There by Tommy Orange
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
by Prof. Mary-Catherine Harrison
“There There is multigenerational and polyphonic, mythic and modern. The prologue, an experimental reframing of Native history, will leave you reeling with its brilliance. In the novel, Orange braids the intersecting stories of twelve narrators until their lives explode in a devastating finale at the Big Oakland Powwow. I am confident this will be a book that will be read by generations to come. This break I can’t wait to read Wandering Stars, Orange’s new novel that was published just this week. It tells the stories of some of the ancestors of characters we met in There There. It will be available at the McNichols Library very soon!”
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
by Prof. Erin Bell
“Erdrich is one of my favorite authors; I appreciate how readers can trace the lives of her characters from one novel to the next. The Last Report…really stuck with me as it offers commentary and critique of the impact of the church/missionaries about the indigenous communities in America.”
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
by Prof. Lauren Rinke
“Time after time, when the characters in The Night Watchman confront conflicts, they respond with solidarity to overcome them. When people in power try to enforce their will on others, the most effective way those people can fight back, the novel seems to suggest, is through collective action.”
WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier
by Prof. Stephen Pasqualina
“WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators.”
Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today by Leslie Marmon Silko
by Prof. Stephen Pasqualina
“Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit is a collection of twenty-two powerful and indispensable essays on Native American life, written by one of America’s foremost literary voices.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt
by Prof. Stephen Pasqualina
“Black Elk Speaks, the story of the Oglala Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and his people during momentous twilight years of the nineteenth century, offers readers much more than a precious glimpse of a vanished time. Black Elk’s searing visions of the unity of humanity and Earth, conveyed by John G. Neihardt, have made this book a classic that crosses multiple genres.”
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria
by Prof. Stephen Pasqualina
“Deftly blending humor, social critique, and call for reform, Deloria challenges Native American stereotypes as well as agencies’ attempts to “help” the natives. What’s more, he’s not afraid to call authorities out on their own hypocrisies.”
American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá
by Prof. Stephen Pasqualina
“American Indian Stories, first published in 1921, is a collection of childhood stories, allegorical fiction, and an essay. One of the most famous Sioux writers and activists of the modern era, Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) recalled legends and tales from oral tradition and used experiences from her life and community to educate others about the Yankton Sioux. Determined, controversial, and visionary, she creatively worked to bridge the gap between her own culture and mainstream American society and advocated for Native rights on a national level.”
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
by Rebecca Tull, Assistant Library Professor
“This story, set on an Indian reservation just after World War II, concerns the return home of a war-weary Navaho young man. Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo’s quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of afflictions-despair.”
The Woman Who Owned the Shadows by Paula Gunn Allen
by Rebecca Tull, Assistant Library Professor
“2011 American Book Award Winner. Dogroy Beaulieu, who reveals his marvelous story to a native writer, is a painter by nature, an intuitive visionary artist. He creates shrouds of sacrificed and crucified animals and birds, the faint traces of natural motion on linen, at his studio on the White Earth Nation in Minnesota. The very sight of the shrouds torments the traditional fascists on the reservation, and the faint traces of native totems haunt the patrons of galleries and curators of museums.’I create traces of totemic creatures, paint visionary characters in magical flight, native scenes in the bright colors of survivance,’declares Dogroy. His artistic sentiments and shamanic tribute to the shrouds, however, do not protect him from his envious enemies on the reservation. Dogroy is banished by casino politicians, in flagrant violation of the new Constitution of the White Earth Nation for his artistic tease, his baroque mockery, and his ironic portrayals.”
This Wound Is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt
by Prof. Isaac Pickell
“An absolutely captivating book of “poetry” that really defies any genre expectations, This Wound Is a World is a challenging work that will push students to contend with their Western preconceptions about indigeneity, religion, gender and sexuality, and writing. I would strongly recommend this book, as it does something different than most Native American writing, demanding we accept the intersections that define Native life.”
The Surrounded by D’Arcy McNickle
by Prof. Michael Barry
“1936 novel set on Flathead Reservation; I cannot remember enough about it, but I remember that it is an engaging book.”
Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch
by Prof. Michael Barry
“Harper’s ran an excerpt called “The Good Mother” which three different students of mine read–all of them thought it was moving and thought-provoking. Sierra Crane Murdoch is not Native American, but Lissa Yellow Bird is– she is the woman about whom Murdoch writes at length. Murdoch describes her thoughts when she is asked to write a letter of recommendation for Yellow Bird in Yellow Bird’s bid to foster a child. Yellow Bird has five biological children of her own, some of whom she lost custody of when she was using alcohol and other drugs.”
Tracks by Louise Erdrich
by Prof. Michael Barry
“1988. One of my favorites. I can never forget these characters, who alternately narrate the events: Nanapush and Pauline–and I won’t forget Fleur Pillager either (Fleur is not a narrator, but a principal character). (Our first introduction to her is in this sentence: “Fleur was in the next room, boiling heads.”) Some of the characters show up in Erdrich’s other books as well. One of the characters, Eli Kashpaw, wraps himself in the meat of an animal he has successfully hunted, and almost freezes to death walking back to civilization, and meanwhile the meat has frozen into the shape of his back and his body. Those kinds of images are in every chapter. (There are elaborate traps described in the narratives, for both animals and people.)”
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
by Prof. Amanda Hiber
“In twelve striking, luminescent stories [set in a Penobscot community in Maine], author Morgan Talty—with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight—breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.”
The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
by Prof. Lauren Rinke
“This story examines the difference between images people project for the benefit of others and their true identity. We see how the tribal community is the main character’s source of strength throughout the story.”
Shrouds of White Earth by Gerald Vizenor
by Rebecca Tull, Assistant Library Professor
“2011 American Book Award Winner. Dogroy Beaulieu, who reveals his marvelous story to a native writer, is a painter by nature, an intuitive visionary artist. He creates shrouds of sacrificed and crucified animals and birds, the faint traces of natural motion on linen, at his studio on the White Earth Nation in Minnesota. The very sight of the shrouds torments the traditional fascists on the reservation, and the faint traces of native totems haunt the patrons of galleries and curators of museums.’I create traces of totemic creatures, paint visionary characters in magical flight, native scenes in the bright colors of survivance,’declares Dogroy. His artistic sentiments and shamanic tribute to the shrouds, however, do not protect him from his envious enemies on the reservation. Dogroy is banished by casino politicians, in flagrant violation of the new Constitution of the White Earth Nation for his artistic tease, his baroque mockery, and his ironic portrayals.”
Between the Pages 