Native American Authors
Zitkala-Ša, ("Red Bird") 1876–1938 - Also known by the missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Yankton Dakota Sioux writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist.
Continue to Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Yankton Sioux Writer and Political Activist
Sherman Alexie confessed that his writing career very nearly never happened. For Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who grew up destitute, literary dreams were more than beyond reach—it never occurred to him that a reservation Indian could speak out and be heard. A chance encounter with a poem by Adrian C. Louis gave Alexie the life-altering license to sit down, put pen to paper, and write out all he knew.
Continue to Sherman Alexie, native american author
Anne Hillerman is Tony's daughter and is an outstanding author in her own right, and the research she did shows in this police procedural featuring Chee, his wife, Bernadette Manuelito, Leaphorn and their fascinating family and friends.
Navajo Tribal cops Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito, and their mentor, the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, investigate two perplexing cases.
Continue to Daughter of Tony Hillerman continues the popular Jim Chee-Joe Leaphorn Navajo tribal police series
Last fall, the Smithsonian Institution published Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton
The book contains 33 essays written by 52 authors on a plethora of subjects including the historical movement of humans into the Americas, curation of the skeleton, skeletal morphology and pathology, orthodontics, biomechanical analysis, injury patterns, burial context, 3D modeling, molding and casting methods, Early Holocene humans, identity through art, and human coastal migration from Southeast Alaska.
Continue to History and analysis of Kennewick Man
When University of Kansas researcher Paul Kelton came across a description from missionary Daniel Butrick that documented a Cherokee ritual aimed at fighting smallpox, it changed Kelton’s thinking about the role diseases played in European colonization of the Americas.
“There are a lot of books out there that are dedicated to how Europeans came to acquire so much land in the Americas, but it seems lately that these books are beholden to this idea -- that it was germs above all else that allowed Europeans to come and take over,” Paul Kelton, KU associate professor of history, said.
Continue to Smallpox, war and American Indians
Here is a list of 10 of the most interesting native American authors I have found. Some of their works will shed light on activism, culture, and history, while others expose the challenges of living on reservations or establishing an identity in the modern world. All are beautiful, well-written pieces of poetry, prose, and non-fiction that are excellent reads, regardless of the heritage of their authors. This list touches on just a few of the amazing Native American authors out there and can be a great starting point for those wanting to learn more about native americans.
Continue to Top 10 most popular Native American authors
The Walk a Mile in His Moccasins quote is often contributed to various indian tribes, but it actually comes from a poem written by Mary T. Lathrap in 1895. The original title was Judge Softly. Here is the complete poem.
Continue to Walk a Mile in His Moccasins
This humongous volume of over 1200 pages offers a fresh, absorbing portrait of the United States from the origins of its native peoples to the nation's complex identity in the 1990s. Covering political, economic, cultural, and social history, and combining hundreds of short descriptive entries with longer evaluative articles, the encyclopedia is informative and engaging.
While covering other aspects of American History, The Reader's Companion to American History
Continue to The Reader’s Companion to American History
When given the assignment to write a poem in his seventh-grade English class at Turtle Mountain Community Middle School in Belcourt, North Dakota, Trevis J. LaRocque, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, chose to write about where he was from—the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.
Continue to ‘Where I am From,’ a Poem By Turtle Mountain Seventh-Grader Trevis LaRocque
From the time that Skywoman fell North America was on a turtle shell Native people were free to roam Turtle Island, our natural home. Since 1492 we see and saw Treaties that are still the law The list is long…
This month marks the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, the British colony in Virginia. Two new children's books offer fascinating insights into both the British colonists and the American Indians on whose lands they settled.
Continue to New books for kids excavate facts about Pocahontas, Jamestown colony
I stretch out my arms and fly with the eagles I hunt with the bear I run with the deer I swim with the fish and yet I still am a man.Continue to Fly with the Eagles →
Grandfather, Great Spirit
I give you thanks
That we can sit here
In this circle of Life,
We send Prayers
And the very best thoughts.
Continue to A Song For The People
AUTHOR: Gerald Fisher The fire is dancing tonight and the winds are talking Dancers from past lives enter the circle Leading me back and forth through the history of myself The mind searches as the spirit dancesContinue to The Calling…
Dr. Janine Pease appreciates what a gift “The Spirit of Indian Women” is to her own daughter and granddaughter, as well as all other American Indian women. The book, written by Judith Fitzgerald and Michael Oren Fitzgerald and recently released…
AUTHOR: Editors Report / Indian Country Today Burn tobacco today for the wonderful spirit of Vine Deloria Jr., who passed into the world of the ancestors Nov. 13. Our sincerest condolences and warmest embrace reach out to his family and…
One Thousand White Women The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus Book Excerpt: In September of 1874, the great Cheyenne “Sweet Medicine Chief” Little Wolf made the long overland journey to Washington, D.C., with a delegation of his tribesmen…
Ella Deloria, also known as Anpetu Wastewin, from anpetu "day," waste "good," win "woman," was a Yankton Sioux scholar, interpreter, and lecturer who became a nationally famous linguist and ethnologist. She was born January 3, 1888 at Wakpala, South Dakota, the daughter of Reverend and Mrs. Philip Deloria (Tipi Sapa). Her father was an influential Episcopal clergyman who was well known throughout the Plains Indian community in his own right.
Continue to Ella Carla Deloria (Anpetu Wastewin), Yankton Sioux (1888-1971)
Louise Erdrich is known for her moving and often humorous portrayals of Chippewa life in North Dakota in poetry and prose. In her verse and in novels such as Love Medicine, Tracks, The Bingo Palace, and The Beet Queen, she draws on her years in North Dakota and on her German and Chippewa heritage to portray the great endurance of women and Native Americans in twentieth-century America. She has won an array of awards and substantial recognition for her novels, as well as for her short stories, poetry, and essays.
Continue to Karen Louise Erdrich, Chippewa (1954-?)
Oh Redman To My Beloved People and All Native Americans Oh Redman tall and proud, watch him take his stand. To protect his humble people, and their mighty sacred land.Continue to Oh Redman →
In a time long ago I dreamed a dream of long ago, when you and I were young, and meant to be. When with our tribe we wandered, far and wide and spoke the tongue, of the cherokee.Continue to In…
The Return..KEYWORDS: Native american poem native american poetry indian poem AUTHOR: Little Heart Flower Downward trodden in this valley of great hunger. My wounded spirit lies dry upon the barren floor of life.Continue to The Return →
What would you do…KEYWORDS: native american poem cherokee poetry indian poem What would you do if I took from you Your home, your family and your identity, too? If I changed your religion and the language you spoke, Left you…
The Gift… KEYWORDS: native american poem cherokee poetry native american poetry indian poem Rain on the mountains, Mist on the streams, Of these things The red man dreams.Continue to The Gift →
visions from the past are calling me,Continue to echos →
My Indian Pride… KEYWORDS: native american poetry cherokee poem indian poetry native american poem Martha Moongazer Beard poem My body lives in the white man’s land, Yet strong and proud my red skin still stands.Continue to My Indian Pride →
Life… KEYWORDS: native american poetry native american poem Martha Moongazer Beard poetry native american life poems Come Little Cricket, sing with me. We will gather berries down by the stream, Take them to the fire and make Berry Bread. Tonight…
Survival of the Choctaw Nation.. KEYWORDS: choctaw poem choctaw poetry native american poem native american poetry ML Hunter poem I can see my sons and daughters From this far place I feel the winds of change once again My heart…
Reservation… KEYWORDS: native american poem native american poetry reservation poem reservation poetry ML Hunter Hear, Little Sister, hear while the wind stands still ancient voices speak to youContinue to Reservation →
Passing the memories down… KEYWORDS: native american poem, native american nature poem native american poetry native poetry Martha Moongazer Beard Faintly in the morning hush, I smell the scent of sweet sage brush, Envoking memories of my mountain home As…
Just as the Great Spirit planned.. KEYWORDS: native american poem native american poetry indian poem great spirit poem indian poetry Martha Moongazer Beard poetry Thunder rolls over the mountain, Grey clouds dropping low. Rain falls and kisses three sisters Who…
The Cherokee Path… KEYWORDS: native american poem native american poetry cherokee poem cherokee poetry Indian poem Indian poetry trail of tears poem trail of tears poetry martha moongazer beard poem contemporary poetry Alone with the moon, my spirit cries For…
Blessed to be Cherokee… KEYWORDS: native american poem native american poetry Cherokee poem Cherokee poetry Martha Moongazer Beard poem nature poem nature poetry Big sky above me where Eagle roams Mother Earth below me where I call home. Friends of…
Principle people Was not a church…Continue to Principle People →
The eagle still flies above me, The rivers continue to flow, My native heart is still beating, My red skin still here to show.Continue to Red Woman →
I hear the cries at moonlight, my people of long ago,
Torn away from their birthplace, marched into the unknown.Tired and hungry and dying, not knowing if they will survive,
My proud honorable family, my Cherokee tribe.
Continue to shadow of the eagle
This path was covered with tears from the start, Weeping for the life of a great nation torn apart.Continue to The Cherokee Trail →
One's thoughts - actions - goals
nothingness filled up with sense
constructed stand points.
Clever words - wisdom of self
static dissolving in space.
Continue to Cleared up Desperation…
There was this woman who had no idea...
no idea.....except what to feverishly create
with her thoughts and put them on a canvas
she had this inner knowledge and did not know why....or how.
Continue to an understanding
KEYWORDS: native american poetry Indian poetry native american poem Indian poem leadership poem cultural poetry AUTHOER: Lone Eagle When I was a young boy, I would listen to the elders talk of the days of the Longhouses. They would tell…
AUTHOR: Doreen Yellowbird I could see from her stories a continuum from my great-grandparents to my grandmother then to my mothers. My great-grandparents influenced me through the stories of my grandmother. My grandmother’s influence was stronger than my mother’s because,…
KEYWORDS: trail of tears poem native american poetry Cherokee Trail of Tears cherokee trail of tears how many died on the trail of tears who ordered the trail of tears march AUTHOR: Abe “Del” Jones We whites honor the “Hermitage”…
It is the beginning of the New Year,
I am still here.
I look forward to tomorrow,
Now that my heart feels no sorrow
Continue to New Beginnings
I sit outside during a cold winter night,
Watching the stars shining so bright.
I take a sigh and breath in relief,
Because I know someone up there is watching out for me.
Continue to Winter Nights
The Province of Ontario in Canada has an aboriginal as its representative to the Queen of England. This is an important appointment and a first for the province of Ontario.Continue to Ontario Lieutenant Governor →
A Warrior has fallen… A Warrior has fallen… Fallen far from her home… upon the sands of a foreign land. Iraq… a land of sun and sand. Her Spirit… A Warrior’s Spirit. Her Heart… A Warrior’s Heart. Her Bravery in…
The long epitah engraved on the tombstone on Ten Bears' grave was written by Ten Bears himself before his death. Here it is.
Continue to Epitah from the resting place of Ten Bears
Deidra Suwanee Dees, Muscogee Nation, recently won the First Place Award for her creative verse “Celebrate” by The People’s Poet in the United Kingdom. “Celebrate” addresses an indigenous viewpoint on Christopher Columbus’s impact on the western hemisphere exploring residual effects…
My People have been scattered, My People have been killed. Their dreams lay on the ground, They have lost their will. Their minds numb with pain, Their hands no longer weave. The Warriors no longer hunt, But await Death for…