Books for Indigenous Peoples' Day

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with this list.

Updated September 14, 2023
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New Native kitchen : celebrating modern recipes of the American Indian
Bitsoie, Freddie
Paper Book
From Freddie Bitsoie, the executive chef at Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian's Natural Museum of the American Indian, and James Beard Award-winning author James O. Fraioli, New Native Kitchen is a celebration of Indigenous cuisine. Offering delicious dishes like Cherrystone...
Bowwow powwow : bagosenjige-niimi'idim
Child, Brenda J.
Paper Book
Windy Girl is blessed with a vivid imagination. From Uncle she gathers stories of long-ago traditions, about dances and sharing and gratitude. Windy can tell such stories herself-about her dog, Itchy Boy, and the way he dances to request a treat and how he wriggles with joy in response to, well,...
Custer Died for Your Sins An Indian Manifesto
Deloria, Vine.
Audiobook
Standing Rock Sioux activist, professor, and attorney Vine Deloria, Jr., shares his thoughts about U.S. race relations, federal bureaucracies, Christian churches, and social scientists in a collection of eleven eye-opening essays infused with humor. This "manifesto" provides valuable insights on...
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne.
Ebook
New York Times Bestseller Now part of the HBO docuseries "Exterminate All the Brutes," written and directed by Raoul Peck Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples ...
The birchbark house
Erdrich, Louise.
Paper Book
For use in schools and libraries only. Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
Covered with night : a story of murder and indigenous justice in early America
Eustace, Nicole
Paper Book
In the summer of 1722, on the eve of a conference between the Five Nations of the Iroquois and British-American colonists, two colonial fur traders brutally attacked an Indigenous hunter in colonial Pennsylvania. The crime set the entire mid-Atlantic on edge, with many believing that war was...
Birdsong
Flett, Julie
Paper Book
BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, KIRKUS, HORN BOOK, QUILL & QUIRE, GLOBE AND MAIL WINNER OF THE TD CANADIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AWARD FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S...
La nina que amaba los caballos salvajes
Goble, Paul
Paper Book
Asi comienza la historia de una nina nativa americana dedicada al cuidado de los caballos de su tribu. A traves de un texto simple y brillantes ilustraciones, Paul Goble narra la manera como la nina finalmente se convierte en parte de la manada para correr libre para siempre.
The girl who loved wild horses
Goble, Paul.
Paper Book
"There was a girl in the village who loved horses... She led the horses to drink at the river. She spoke softly and they followed. People noticed that she understood horses in a special way." And so begins the story of a young Native American girl devoted to the care of her tribe's...
Indigenous continent : the epic contest for North America
Ha?ma?la?inen, Pekka
Paper Book
There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus "discovers" a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing "New World" as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back,...
Living nations, living words : an anthology of first peoples poetry
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, has championed the voices of Native peoples past and present. Her signature laureate project gathers the work of contemporary Native poets into a national, fully digital map of story, sound, and space, celebrating their vital and...
Where the dead sit talking
Hobson, Brandon
Paper Book
With his single mother in jail, Sequoyah, a 15-year-old Cherokee boy, is placed in foster care with the Troutt family. Literally and figuratively scarred by his unstable upbringing, Sequoyah has spent years mostly keeping to himself, living with his emotions pressed deep below the surface - that is,...
The only good Indians : a novel
Jones, Stephen Graham
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From USA TODAY bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a "masterpiece" (Locus Magazine) of a novel about revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition....
100 Native Americans who shaped American history
Juettner, Bonnie.
Paper Book
Learn all about the fascinating lives and tremendous impact of 100 extraordinary Native Americans with this fact-filled biography collection for kids. Educational and engaging, 100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History features: Simple, easy-to-read text that has been...
Sweetest Kulu
Kalluk, Celina
Paper Book
"Dream a little, Kulu, this world now sings a most beautiful song of you." This beautiful bedtime poem, written by acclaimed Inuit throat singer Celina Kalluk, describes the gifts given to a newborn baby by all the animals of the Arctic. Lyrically and tenderly told by a...
Notable native people : 50 indigenous leaders, dreamers, and changemakers from past and present
Keene, Adrienne
Paper Book
An accessible and educational illustrated book profiling 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, from NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota to Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation An American Indian...
Braiding sweetgrass
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member...
We are water protectors
Lindstrom, Carole
Paper Book
From author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Michaela Goade comes a New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Medal winning picture book that honors Indigenous-led movements across the world. Powerfully written and gorgeously illustrated, We Are Water Protectors,...
Fry bread : a Native American family story
Maillard, Kevin Noble
Paper Book
Winner of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal A 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Winner "A wonderful and sweet book . . . Lovely stuff." --The New York Times Book Review Told in lively and powerful...
1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus
Mann, Charles C.
Paper Book
A groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus's landing had crossed the...
An indigenous peoples' history of the United States for young people
Mendoza, Jean
Paper Book
2020 American Indian Youth Literature Young Adult Honor Book 2020 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People,selected by National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children's Book Council 2019 Best-Of Lists- Best YA Nonfiction of...
There there
Orange, Tommy
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A wondrous and shattering award-winning novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. A contemporary classic, this...
Race to the sun
Roanhorse, Rebecca
Paper Book
Lately, seventh grader Nizhoni Begay has been able to detect monsters, like that man in the fancy suit who was in the bleachers at her basketball game. Turns out he's Mr. Charles, her dad's new boss at the oil and gas company, and he's alarmingly interested in Nizhoni and her brother, Mac, their...
Trail of lightning
Roanhorse, Rebecca
Paper Book
One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time 2019 LOCUS AWARD WINNER, BEST FIRST NOVEL 2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novel One of Bustle's Top 20 "landmark sci-fi and...
Songs from the loom : a Navajo girl learns to weave
Roessel, Monty
Paper Book
"Roessel shares his heritage with readers by describing how his mother taught his daughter how to work a loom. From the shearing of the sheep to the weaving itself, traditions, stories, and lively, full-color photographs bring the activities to life."
The four sacred gifts : indigenous wisdom for modern times
Sanchez, Anita L.
Audiobook
New suns : original speculative fiction by people of color
Shawl, Nisi
Paper Book
Winner of the 2020 Locus, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and Brave New Words Awards. "There's nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns," proclaimed Octavia E. Butler. New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color...
The Sioux chef's indigenous kitchen
Sherman, Sean
Paper Book
2018 James Beard Award Winner: Best American Cookbook Named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2017 by NPR, The Village Voice, Smithsonian Magazine, UPROXX, New York Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Mpls. St....
Ceremony
Silko, Leslie Marmon
Paper Book
The great Native American Novel of a battered veteran returning home to heal his mind and spirit, from celebrated author Leslie Marmon Silko Decades after its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature--a...
American Indian stories
Zitkala-S?a
Paper Book
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition. Impressions of an Indian Childhood describes her first eight yeas on the Yankton Reservation, where she was born in 1876. Her schooling in Indiana revealed a gift...

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