Each week we look at a collection of a few books on a topic. You can explore the books on your own, or use them as a foundation for building a display in your library! 

(All the book links below lead to Amazon; if you click on one and buy things from Amazon, CMLE may receive a small percentage of Amazon’s profits. Thanks!)

It’s the week of Thanksgiving and that often means classrooms and libraries will highlight books about Native Americans. It’s great to want to help students learn more about Native American culture, but easy to fall into using books and activities that promote stereotypes. Instead, read this article and try these tips and books suggested by Debbie Reese, assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and tribally enrolled at Nambé Pueblo.

• Choose books that are tribally specific

• Use present tense verbs to talk about Native Nations

• Choose books by Native writers

• Use books by Native writers all year round

Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ying-Hwa Hu (Illustrator), Cornelius Van Wright (Illustrator) “Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dancing that has been shared by generations of women in her family, and she hopes to dance at the next powwow. But she has a problem—how will her dress sing if it has no jingles?
The warm, evocative watercolors of Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu complement author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s lyrical text as she tells the affirming story of how a contemporary Native American girl turns to her family and community to help her dance find a voice.”

The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz, illustrated by Sharol Graves “Traces the progress of the Indians of North America from the time of the Creation to the present.”

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth “Lewis “Shoe” Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he’s not used to is white people being nice to him — people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family’s poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan’s side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis’s home — will he still be his friend?”

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorrell “A look at modern Native American life as told by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. The word otsaliheliga (oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah) is used by members of the Cherokee Nation to express gratitude. Beginning in the fall with the new year and ending in summer, follow a full Cherokee year of celebrations and experiences.
Appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah.”

Pemmican Wars (A Girl Called Echo) by Katherena Vermette This is the first graphic novel in a new series! “Echo Desjardins, a 13-year-old Métis girl adjusting to a new home and school, is struggling with loneliness while separated from her mother. Then an ordinary day in Mr. Bee’s history class turns extraordinary, and Echo’s life will never be the same. During Mr. Bee’s lecture, Echo finds herself transported to another time and place—a bison hunt on the Saskatchewan prairie—and back again to the present. In the following weeks, Echo slips back and forth in time. She visits a Métis camp, travels the old fur-trade routes, and experiences the perilous and bygone era of the Pemmican Wars.”

Did we miss a book that you’d like to recommend? Let us know in the comments!