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South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations

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KEYOWRDS: Oceti Sakowin: The People of the Seven Council Fires

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KEYOWRDS: Oceti Sakowin

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OSEU Exemplar Lesson Development - WoLakota Project

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2018 4th Grade / OSEU Exemplar Lesson Development 2017 Fine Arts / OSEU Exemplar Lesson Development 2016 Social Studies / OSEU Exemplar Lesson Development 2015 OSEU Connector Statement Development Inquiry Design Model (IDM) Template & Research

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Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center - Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center

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The Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center (Akta Lakota means to honor the people) is an educational outreach, which strives to preserve and promote Lakota (Sioux) culture, of St. Joseph's Indian School.

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Native Voices Books | Traditional & Contemporary Native Books

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"Though dramatic threads of family alcoholism, domestic violence, and bullying introduced in previous stories are mentioned, they take second team to the overarching stand-alone theme of 'always trying to do what's right.' The boys of team Achukma score with veteran readers and recruits alike."

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Are you looking for best books by or about American Indians? First Nations? Native Americans? Indigenous People?

Update on Nov 26, 2018: Some of the books in these lists may have religious or spiritual content that is problematic to the people whose ways are being used by writers. For context, see my post on November 15, 2018 "Open Letter: Trail of Lightning is an Appropriation of Diné Cultural Beliefs. Does the Letter from the Diné Writers Collective Mark a Turning Point?"

Below are links to posts on American Indians in Children's Literature and elsewhere that'll help you find ones selected by Native people (me, and other Native people, including members of the American Indian Library Association)! This page will be updated, so come back and visit again!

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Best Books by Native or Indigenous Writers

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a site to locate books about American Indians

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http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_cora_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link

http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/shipping_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link

http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_readingslider-wrapper.jpg link

http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/robette_danielle_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link

New book reviews are in!

book reviews

Review: Shi-shi-etko

Shi-shi-etko is one of the finest examples of an age-appropriate lesson to teach children about a dark chapter in Native history. In vivid, tender prose, Campbell conveys for children the true impact of residential school policies for Indian communities in the United States and Canada.

Read more...

Review: Darkness Under the Water

As it stands, Darkness Under the Water is a travesty, a melodrama marketed specifically to young people in Vermont-including Abenaki young people-who will probably be told this is how it was.

Read more...

Review: Chicora and the Little People

The first Lumbee legend to be told in a children's picture book, this story teaches children the importance of honoring the wisdom of children and other "small" voices, and of being courageous in the face of riducule.

Read more...

Join our email list

featured book

A beautiful expression of the belief that all things in creation are sacred. The text is easy for very early readers.

featured video

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http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_cora_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/shipping_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_readingslider-wrapper.jpg link http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/robette_danielle_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link New book reviews are in! book reviews Review: Shi-shi-etko Shi-shi-etko is one of the finest examples of an age-appropriate lesson to teach children about a dark chapter in Native history. In vivid, tender prose, Campbell conveys for children the true impact of residential school policies for Indian communities in the United States and Canada.

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photography project

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Native Knowledge 360° is the National Museum of the American Indian's national initiative to inspire and promote improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians. Discover standards-compliant, interactive teaching resources for all grade levels.

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"Newly Digitized Collection of Early 20th-Century Lakota Drawings Tells a Curious History"

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"Newly Digitized Collection of Early 20th-Century Lakota Drawings Tells a Curious History"

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collection digitized by the Newberry Library

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The collection has been digitized by the Newberry Library, as part of its new open access policy.

CHICAGO - At a glance, they may look like more conventional outsider art work, but upon closer inspection you realize these drawings contain a history of a community that was actively being erased by the United States. Many show scenes of warfare and hunting, vividly depicted in watercolor and colored pencils and punctuated with splashes of red.

In 1922, the Newberry Library acquired this collection of 160 drawings, attributed to "Sioux Indians" living in Fort Yates, which serves as headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The three boxes of art were sold by one Aaron McGaffey Beede, an Episcopal missionary who had provided paper and art supplies to the residents he had come to know, and paid them small sums to purchase the resulting works. This strange exchange arose from a dire situation: in the winter of 1913-14, the Lakota faced starvation from failed crops and a mysterious disappearance of cattle. These drawings, for them, carried exceptional value linked to survival; today, they represent significant records of indigenous self-representation as well as cross-cultural exchange.

The entire collection is now available to examine online as part of the Newberry's new open access policy that has so far made over 1.7 digital images available for unrestricted and free use. The drawings, specifically, are part of the Edward E. Ayer Collection, which comprises artworks, books, and other materials related to American Indian history and culture.

Beede specifically desired that these drawings go to the Ayer collection, writing in a letter to the Newberry that "it is saving pictures, which will be very valuable in future that I want."

According to Will Hansen, the Newberry's Curator of Americana, Beede's commissions reflect "a strain of American Puritanism that continues to this day, which is that people should work for money." Yet, he added, "another part of it was the desire from white Americans or European Americans to encourage Native people to document themselves and their story." This inclination was part of the problematic, white notion at the time that Natives were a "vanishing race," whose history and culture had to be quickly preserved. Edward Curtis, famously, was one photographer who felt the need to take on such a responsibility.

The Lakota who executed these drawings certainly trusted Beede, who had learned the Sioux language at the age of 15. Most were made by adults, with children contributing about 40. Almost all are unsigned, although Beede later added annotations directly on the drawings - a rather unceremonious way to explain the scenes. In a couple, he notes their creators, such as one Joseph Brownface, age 13.

Although produced with crude material, the drawings closely recall the Plains pictorial tradition seen on hide paintings. Many of them were done on recycled paper from school notebooks or primers - all "evocations of directed culture change through education," as Castle McLaughlin, curator of North American Ethnography at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology told Hyperallergic.

While the appearance of some exotic animals such as lions and camels show the influence of these textbooks, the artworks mostly depict scenes of everyday life, from ritual dances to hunting of animals such as horses, foxes, and, notably, buffalo. There are also courting scenes, as well as a child's picture referencing the late-19th-century movement known as the Ghost Dance.

"All of these are retrospective views of traditional life, and done about 30 years after the last bison hunt at Standing Rock," McLaughlin said. "That is where I would locate the response to the 'starving time,' because many of those I looked at show times of independence and plenty, as represented by the hunting scenes."

The graphic depictions of wounds, she added, are not unusual and can be traced to the earliest ledger drawings of the 1860s. Battle wounds, specifically, were considered war honors. As for the presence of blood splatters, "as opposed to a more controlled indication of blood," McLaughlin said, this could be attributed to the influence of non-Native artwork and the " growing emphasis on artistic expression and individuality over conventional image vocabularies and techniques."

It's likely that the Newberry displayed the drawings shortly after it acquired them. However, they have since remained in the archives for decades. The library's recently implemented open-access policy provides an opportunity to study them closely, and soon, visitors will be also be able to examine them in person. Hansen said that he plans to place the collection on view once ongoing renovations to the library's first floor wrap up this June.

They will reside in the ground floor's new exhibition space, which will host a new display every 12 weeks. The Newberry aims to organize this programming in such a way that Native American-produced works comprise three out of every four rotations. Aside from the Sioux drawings, Hansen hopes to show the " Black Horse Ledger," drawings by the Kiowa artist Silver Horn, and artworks by the Pueblo painter Awa Tsireh. Giving indigenous material such visibility is significant, particularly at the Newberry, where t he majority of Native-related material in its collection was produced by settler-colonizers or Europeans. Such gestures reflect the institution's awareness of absences within its holdings, and represent important steps towards decolonizing the archives.

"I seriously try to, with the endowment funds we have, acquire a fair amount of Native-produced artwork and a variety of works of contemporary Native people," Hansen said. "As someone who's collecting now, I think about building the collection to add things from their perspective, rather than more writing about them."

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Newly Digitized Collection of Early 20th-Century Lakota Drawings Tells a Curious History

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The collection has been digitized by the Newberry Library, as part of its new open access policy. CHICAGO - At a glance, they may look like more conventional outsider art work, but upon closer inspection you realize these drawings contain a history of a community that was actively being erased by the United States.

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from Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Native Knowledge 360° is the National Museum of the American Indian's national initiative to inspire and promote improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians. Discover standards-compliant, interactive teaching resources for all grade levels.

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13 Books to Share Stories of Native American History and Experience with Kids and Teens

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13 Books to Share Stories of Native American History and Experience with Kids and Teens

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from Brightly

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15 Books to Share Stories of Native American History and Experience with Kids and Teens | Brightly

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These stories offer young readers an opportunity to learn more about the rich and complex history of Indigenous peoples in North America.

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School Library Resources

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School Library Resources - American Indian Library Association

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School Library Resources American Library Association Office for Diversity, featuring information on ALA's Spectrum Initiative, offering library school scholarships for Native and other underrepresented graduate students seeking the MLS degree. American Indians in Children's Literature Blog by AILA member Debbie Reese. "Established in 2006, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical perspectives and analysis of ...

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http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_cora_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link

http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/shipping_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link

http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_readingslider-wrapper.jpg link

http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/robette_danielle_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link

New book reviews are in!

book reviews

Review: Shi-shi-etko

Shi-shi-etko is one of the finest examples of an age-appropriate lesson to teach children about a dark chapter in Native history. In vivid, tender prose, Campbell conveys for children the true impact of residential school policies for Indian communities in the United States and Canada.

Read more...

Review: Darkness Under the Water

As it stands, Darkness Under the Water is a travesty, a melodrama marketed specifically to young people in Vermont-including Abenaki young people-who will probably be told this is how it was.

Read more...

Review: Chicora and the Little People

The first Lumbee legend to be told in a children's picture book, this story teaches children the importance of honoring the wisdom of children and other "small" voices, and of being courageous in the face of riducule.

Read more...

Join our email list

featured book

A beautiful expression of the belief that all things in creation are sacred. The text is easy for very early readers.

featured video

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http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_cora_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/shipping_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/judy_doris_readingslider-wrapper.jpg link http://oyate.org/modules/mod_image_show_gk4/cache/robette_danielle_cropslider-wrapper.jpg link New book reviews are in! book reviews Review: Shi-shi-etko Shi-shi-etko is one of the finest examples of an age-appropriate lesson to teach children about a dark chapter in Native history. In vivid, tender prose, Campbell conveys for children the true impact of residential school policies for Indian communities in the United States and Canada.

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When We Were Aloneby David Alexander Robertson 

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When We Were Aloneby David Alexander Robertson 

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When We Were Alone has 478 ratings and 110 reviews. Nat said: The first thing I noticed upon starting When We Were Alone were the gorgeous illustrations ...

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by Louise Erdich

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modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

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From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich comes an arresting, lyrical novel set in North Dakota when Native Americans were fighting to keep their lands.Set in North Dakota at a time in the past century when Indian tribes were struggling to keep what little remained of t...

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by Daniel Heath Justice

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why indigenous literatures matter (indigenous studies)

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ethnic studies - native american studies

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american literature - indian authors - history and criticism

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canadian literature - indian authors - history and criticism

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canadian literature - native authors - history and criticism

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first nations - literature - history and criticism

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indians of north america - literature - history and criticism

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indians of north america - representation

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indigenous literature; aboriginal literature; first nations literature; indigenous studies; aboriginal studies; first nations studies; what is indigenous literature; indigenous politics; indigenous writing; resurgence; sovereignty; indigenous activism; why indigenous literature matters

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social science / ethnic studies / native american studies

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social science/ethnic studies - native american studies

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social science / ethnic studies / native american studies

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social science/ethnic studies - native american studies

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Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (Indigenous Studies)

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Part survey of the field of Indigenous literary studies, part cultural history, and part literary polemic, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter asserts the vital significance of literary expression to the political, creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous peoples today. In considering the c...

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Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream....

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#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women 

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#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women 

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by Lisa Charleyboy

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Notyourprincess has 698 ratings and 221 reviews. destiny said: I really wanted to love this, because when I realized it was a compilation of artwork and...

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Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

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Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

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by Joseph Bruchac

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Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World …

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After being taught in boarding school that Navajo is a …

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A Selection of Books by and about Native Americans

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A Selection of Books by and about Native Americans

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Books similar to Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

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Best books like Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux : #1 Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota #2 Lame Deer, Seeker...

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Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

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Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

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Black Elk Speaks has 11,629 ratings and 568 reviews. Michael said: This is a haunting and moving transcription of interviews with the revered medicine ma...

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Search results for "Billy mills" (showing 1-20 of 21 books)

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Search results for "joseph marshall III" (showing 1-20 of 45 books)

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Search results for joseph marshall III: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and

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Talk Story

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Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture is a literacy program that reaches out to Asian Pacific American (APA) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children and their families. The program celebrates and explores their stories through books, oral traditions, and art to provide an interactive, enriching experience. Children and their families can connect to rich cultural activities through in their homes, libraries, and communities. We welcome all ethnicities to customize as needed for your community family literacy needs.

Booklists

The APALA and AILA Children's Literature Bibliographies are your "go to" sources for quality books about the American Indian/Alaskan Native and Asian Pacific American experiences.

American Indian / Alaskan Native Book List
Asian Pacific American Book List

Find storytime ideas
Help your child get ready to read
Plan your own Talk Story family literacy event

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Talk Story Together - Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture

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Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture is a literacy program that reaches out to Asian Pacific American (APA) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children and their families. The program celebrates and explores their stories through books, oral traditions, and art to provide an interactive, enriching experience.

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Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults

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Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults

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LibGuides: Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults: Websites

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LibGuides: Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults: Websites

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The Language Conservancy

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Rising Voices / Hótȟaŋiŋpi - Revitalizing the Lakota Language

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Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings & Standards

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Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings & Standards

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2018 South Dakota

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Visit our North Dakota sister site, www.TeachingsofOurElders.org "WoLakota" implies balance and coming together. The WoLakota project supports students in high-need schools, pairing trained mentor-teachers with new teachers and providing Courage to Teach circles to tend to the ʻheartsʼ of each. Mentors support the embedding of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings (OSEU) into practice, complementing standards in any content area.

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Find the information from the State Tribal Relations Listening Session "Partners In Health." Read more...

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lakota language berenstain bears revitalization endangered preservation documentary sioux dakota

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LLC's channel will allow you to familiarize yourself with Lakota and LLC by collecting the best of LLC's projects, media reports on Lakota and LLC, and the F...

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At the CCBC, we define "multicultural" literature as books by and about people of color and First/Native Nations individuals: African and African Americans, American Indians, Asian/Pacifics and Asian Pacific Americans, and Latinos. This listing introduces 30 essential books and a range of authors for teens. Interested in multicultural literature for younger readers?

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Multicultural Children's Books

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Subject Guides: Multicultural Children's Books: Home

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Subject Guides: Multicultural Children's Books: Home