Native American Heritage Month @ Taft: Notable Native Americans

Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth Winner of the American Indian Youth Literature Award 2020. The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside." In Apple (Skin to the Core), Eric Gansworth tells his story, the story of his family--of Onondaga among Tuscaroras--of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary by Joe Jackson Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John G. Neihardt from a series of interviews with Black Elk and other elders at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Black Elk Speaks is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed--while the historical Black Elk has faded from view. In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West.

Crazy Horse by Larry McMurtry Legends cloud the life of Crazy Horse, a seminal figure of American history but an enigma even to his own people in his own day. Yet his story remains an encapsulation of the Native American tragedy and the death of the untamed West. Crazy Horse strips away the tall tales to reveal the essence of this brilliant, ascetic warrior-hero.Larry McMurtry's vivid, carefully considered, succinct biography will lure not only his own fans but history buffs, Western enthusiasts, students of all things Native American, and anyone concerned with the white man's atonement and restitution to native peoples. In a portrait that only he could render, Larry McMurtry captures the poignant passing of a time and offers a vibrant new understanding of the mythic Crazy Horse and what he stood for.

Geronimo by Robert M. Utley Renowned for ferocity in battle, legendary for an uncanny ability to elude capture, feared for the violence of his vengeful raids, the Apache fighter Geronimo captured the public imagination in his own time and remains a figure of mythical proportion today. This thoroughly researched biography by a renowned historian of the American West strips away the myths and rumors that have long obscured the real Geronimo and presents an authentic portrait of a man with unique strengths and weaknesses and a destiny that swept him into the fierce storms of history. Historian Robert Utley draws on an array of new sources and his own lifelong research on the mountain West and white-Indian conflicts of the late nineteenth century to create an updated, accurate, and highly exciting narrative of Geronimo's life. Utley unfolds the story through the alternating perspectives of whites and Apaches, and he arrives at a more nuanced understanding of Geronimo's character and motivation than ever before. What it was like to be an Apache fighter-in-training, why Indians as well as whites feared Geronimo, how Geronimo maintained his freedom, and why he finally surrendered—the answers to these questions and many more fill the pages of this irresistable volume.

Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership by Frederick J. Dockstader

Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans by Alison Owings In Indian Voices, Alison Owings takes readers on a fresh journey across America, east to west, north to south, and around again. Her oral history documents what Native Americans say about themselves, their daily lives, and the world around them. Young and old from many tribal nations speak with candor, insight, and humor about what it is like to be a Native American in the twenty-first century. Through intimate interviews many also express their thoughts about the sometimes staggeringly ignorant, if often well-meaning, non-Natives they encounter--some who do not realize Native Americans still exist, much less that they speak English, have cell phones, use the Internet, and might attend pow wows and power lunches. Indian Voices, an inspiring and important contribution to the literature about the original Americans, will make every reader rethink the past--and present--of the United States.

Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog; Richard Erdoes Mary Brave Bird grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in a one-room cabin without running water or electricity. With her white father gone, she was left to endure “half-breed” status amid the violence, machismo, and aimless drinking of life on the reservation. Rebelling against all this—as well as a punishing Catholic missionary school—she became a teenage runaway. Mary was eighteen and pregnant when the rebellion at Wounded Knee happened in 1973. Inspired to take action, she joined the American Indian Movement to fight for the rights of her people. Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national bestseller and winner of the American Book Award.

The Last Warrior: Peter MacDonald and the Navajo Nation by Peter MacDonald

Mankiller: A Chief and Her People by Wilma P. Mankiller; Michael Wallis In this spiritual, moving autobiography, Wilma Mankiller, former Chief of the Cherokee Nation and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, tells of her own history while also honoring and recounting the history of the Cherokees. Mankiller's life unfolds against the backdrop of the dawning of the American Indian civil rights struggle, and her book becomes a quest to reclaim and preserve the great Native American values that form the foundation of our nation.

Maria Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina by Maria Tallchief; Larry Kaplan In broad outline it sounds like a fairy tale: the daughter of a full-blooded Oklahoma Osage Indian and a determined Scots-Irish mother, Maria became one of the world's legendary performers before her twenty-third birthday. Hers is a story of passion and commitment, an unvarnished memoir that trembles with the joys and rigors of a dancer's life - a woman who, like Colette, Coco Chanel, or Maria Callas, understood that a committed talent could transform the world around her. Present at the creation of the world-famous New York City Ballet, she became the inspiration and wife of George Balanchine, the century's extraordinary ballet master. Together they brought dance to center stage in America's cultural life. Maria Tallchief thrilled America in the title role of Balanchine's first Firebird, reduced audiences to awed silence in his Swan Lake and Orpheus, and created the role of Balanchine's Sugar Plum Fairy in the ballet Nutcracker, which will delight audiences of all ages as long as dancers perform it. How all this magic was achieved is the heart of this fascinating self-portrait; the soul is the dancer herself.

Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the rise of the American Indian Movement by Dennis Banks; Richard Erdoes (Editor) Dennis Banks, an American Indian of the Ojibwa Tribe, is probably the most influential Indian leader of our time. In Ojibwa Warrior, written with acclaimed writer and photographer Richard Erdoes, Banks tells his own story for the very first time and reveals an inside look at the birth of the American Indian Movement.

Ira Hayes: The Akimel O'odham Warrior, World War II, and the Price of Heroism by Tom Holm The gripping, forgotten tale of Ira Hayes--a Native American icon and World War II legend who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima but spent the latter half of his life haunted by being a war hero...Ira Hayes breaks apart the complexities of Ira's short life in honor of all Native veterans who have been to war in the service of the United States. This is equally their story.

Poet Warrior: A Memoir by Joy Harjo Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice. Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, and the messengers of a changing earth--owls heralding grief, resilient desert plants, and a smooth green snake curled up in surprise. She celebrates the influences that shaped her poetry, among them Audre Lorde, N. Scott Momaday, Walt Whitman, Muscogee stomp dance call-and-response, Navajo horse songs, rain, and sunrise. In absorbing, incantatory prose, Harjo grieves at the loss of her mother, reckons with the theft of her ancestral homeland, and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member. Moving fluidly between prose, song, and poetry, Harjo recounts a luminous journey of becoming, a spiritual map that will help us all find home. Poet Warrior sings with the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo.

Sarah Winnemucca by Sally Zanjani Sarah Winnemucca was one of the most influential and charismatic Native American women in American history. Born a Paiute in western Nevada, she spent much of her life working for her people, serving as interpreter and messenger for the U.S. Army during the Bannock War of 1878, traveling to Washington to obtain the release of her people from confinement on the Yakama reservation, and touring the east coast giving speeches about the plight of her people and criticizing the reservation system. In 1883 she wrote her autobiography, the first written by a Native American woman. She opened a Native school in Nevada whose educational practices were far ahead of its time.

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation by Peter Cozzens Until the Americans killed Tecumseh in 1813, he and his brother Tenskwatawa were the co-architects of the broadest pan-Indian confederation in United States history. In previous accounts of Tecumseh's life, Tenskwatawa has been dismissed as a talentless charlatan and a drunk. Cozzens shows us that while Tecumseh was a brilliant diplomat and war leader-- admired by the same white Americans he opposed-- it was Tenskwatawa, called the "Shawnee Prophet," who created a vital doctrine of religious and cultural revitalization that unified the disparate tribes of the Old Northwest.

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin When superstar athlete Jim Thorpe and football legend Pop Warner met in 1904 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools such as Harvard and the Army in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work. But this is not just an underdog story. It's an unflinching look at the persecution of Native Americans and its intersection with the beginning of one of the most beloved--and exploitative--pastimes in America, expertly told by nonfiction powerhouse Steve Sheinkin.

Warrior Woman: The Story of Lozen, Apache Warrior and Shaman by Peter Aleshire Warrior Woman is the story of Lozen, sister of the famous Apache warrior Victorio, and warrior in her own right. Hers is a story little discussed in Native American history books. Instead, much of what is known of her has been passed down through generations via stories and legends. eter Aleshire uses historical facts and oral histories to recreate her life. With immaculate detail he tells the story of her childhood, surrounded by the vastness of nature and the Chiricahua legends and religions that shaped her thoughts. He describes her coming-of-age ceremonies, and induction into her tribe as a spiritual leader. As the white men slowly took over the land of her people and forced them from one reservation to another, her role slowly evolved to match that of the staunchest warrior -- an almost unheard-of occurrence among the Native Americans of the 19th century, where a woman's place was with the children in the villages. This is not only the story of Lozen, but the story of her people, from the events leading up to the Apache Wars until their inevitable and unfortunate conclusion.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie A searing, deeply moving memoir about family, love, loss, and forgiveness from the critically acclaimed, bestselling National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.