"What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.
One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the “First Americans” and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.
The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.
The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Presently, several states have designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a day we observe without any recognition as a national legal holiday.
In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994."
This libguide is a collaborative endeavor of the Hay Library and Western's DEI Committee.
(This LibGuide is by no means an exhaustive list of resources, but we do endeavor to keep this list of materials updated.)
Select the individual's name to view their works available in the Hay Library or online. Select the individual's picture to view their biography information.
Author Sherman Alexie, using poetry and prose saturated with imagery, drama, and humor, has shed light on what it means to be a Native American in contemporary American society. His works have helped his fellow Native Americans to understand themselves better by honing in on typical problems rampant on reservations, including poverty, alcoholism, and racism.
Leslie Silko (born 1948) is one of the foremost authors to emerge from the Native American literary renaissance of the 1970s. She blends western literary forms with the oral traditions of her Laguna Pueblo heritage to communicate Native American concepts concerning time, nature, and spirituality and their relevance in the contemporary world.
Vine Deloria, Jr. (born 1933) was a revolutionary thinker who spoke out against the decadence of U.S. culture and insisted that young Native Americans receive traditional teachings before exposing themselves to the philosophies of the dominant Euro-American culture. Through his widely published books, he brought greater understanding of Native American history and philosophy to a vast global audience.
One of the most distinguished Native-American authors writing today, N. Scott Momaday is chiefly known for novels and poetry collections that communicate the fabulous oral legends of his Kiowa heritage. In 1969 he became the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel House Made of Dawn.
Louise Erdrich was a Native American writer with a wide popular appeal as a poet and children's author, as well as a novelist. She was no literary lightweight, however, having been compared to such noted American authors as William Faulkner. She was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2001 for her book The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and received the award in 2012 for The Round House.
Native American Joy Harjo (born 1951) is a multi-faceted writer, artist, and musician. Trained first as a painter, Harjo shifted her attention to poetry during her undergraduate studies at the University of New Mexico. Of Muscogee Creek heritage, Harjo often draws on Native American spirituality and culture in her work, spotlighting feminist concerns and musical themes as well. Harjo has taught at the University of Colorado, the University of Arizona, and the University of New Mexico and has written several television scripts and screenplays. She has been honored with numerous awards and fellowships for her writing and music. She published a memoir, Crazy Brave, in 2013.
Tommy Orange is a writer of Cheyenne and Arapaho heritage. He holds a master's degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In 2018, Orange released his first novel, There There. The book begins with a prologue in which Orange offers details on the Native experience and history. It goes on to introduce its ensemble cast of Native and mixed-race characters living in Oakland, California, as the city prepares for its first Powwow.
Select the individual's name to view works about them that are available in the Hay Library or online. Select the individual's picture to view their biography information.
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman ever to serve as chief of the Cherokee nation. She assumed that post in December of 1985, when the tribe's former chief, Ross Swimmer, left to become assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs. As deputy principal chief under Swimmer, Mankiller automatically assumed tribal leadership following Swimmer's departure. With 67,000 members, the Cherokees was the second largest Native American tribe at the time of her appointment to chief.
Deb Haaland is a Native American politician and member of the Laguna Pueblo people. She is a Democrat who made history in 2018 by becoming the first Native American to represent New Mexico's 1st Congressional District. Along with Sharice Davids, Haaland also became the first Native American to ever serve at the federal level. Haaland is a lawyer and the former chair of New Mexico's Democratic Party, the first Native American to chair a national party. She has one daughter whom she raised as a single mother. In 2020, Haaland was nominated by President-Elect Joe Biden to be his Secretary of the Interior. She was confirmed by the Senate on March 15, 2021.
Maria Tallchief (born 1925) was a world-renowned ballerina and one of the premiere American ballerinas of all time. She was the first American to dance at the Paris Opera and has danced with the Paris Opera Ballet, the Ballet Russe, and with the Balanchine Ballet Society (New York City Ballet). Tallchief was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, on January 24, 1925. She was raised in a wealthy family. Her grandfather had helped negotiate the Osage treaty, which created the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma and later yielded a bonanza in oil revenues for some Osage people.
Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915) was the first American Indian woman to become a physician in the United States. She served her community tirelessly in this capacity, and in others as well--as a missionary, as a representative of her people in the East and in the nation's capital, and as a politically active temperance advocate.
Chief of the proud Oglala Sioux tribe, Red Cloud (1822-1909) saw his people defeated and forced onto United States reservations.
Born on a tributary of the North Platte River in Nebraska, Red Cloud early distinguished himself as a warrior. By the 1860s Makhpiyaluta (his Native American name) was leading his own band of warriors and had gained an important reputation. In the Sioux War of 1865-1868 he was war chief of all the Oglala.
John Bennett Herrington is a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut and former commander in the U.S. Navy. As an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, Herrington was the first Native American to fly into space and to spacewalk. He honored his heritage by carrying traditional objects from his Chickasaw heritage with him during his space flights. Following his retirement from NASA, Herrington became a motivational speaker, encouraging children to make the most of their educational opportunities.
As a result of his election on November 3, 1992, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (born 1933) of Colorado became the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate in more than 60 years. A member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Campbell was also a renowned athlete and captained the U.S. judo team for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
Allan Houser was a master in all sculpture media, including stone, marble, alabaster, fabricated steel, clay, and bronze. He worked equally well in tempera, charcoal, pastel, and oil. His works are displayed in prominent museums and public places throughout the world, and have received numerous awards. According to the New York Times, his work, which reflects many different styles, exhibits the recurring themes of “mother and child, warriors on horseback, [and] Apache fire dancers.”
Call number: 813.6 OR14T 2018
There There is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen . It's "masterful . . . white-hot . . . devastating" (The Washington Post) at the same time as it is fierce, funny, suspenseful, thoroughly modern, and impossible to put down. Here is a voice we have never heard--a voice full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with urgency and force. Tommy Orange has written a stunning novel that grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide. This is the book that everyone is talking about right now, and it's destined to be a classic.
Call number: 791.4372 AL54S 1998
Set in Arizona, Smoke Signals is the story of two Native American boys on a journey. Victor is the stoic, handsome son of an alcoholic father who has abandoned his family. Thomas is a gregarious, goofy young man who lost both his parents in a fire at a very young age. Through storytelling, Thomas makes every effort to connect with the people around him: Victor, in contrast, uses his quiet countenance to gain strength and confidence.When Victor's estranged father dies, the two men embark on an adventure to Phoenix to collect the ashes. Along the way, Smoke Signals illustrates the ties that bind these two very different young men and embraces the lessons they learn from one another.
Call number: 897 SI34S 1981
Call number: 897 M739H 1977
This 1969 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of a young American Indian struggling to reconcile the traditional ways of his people with the demands of the 20th century.
Call number: 813.54 L888L 2021
"Louise Erdrich is one of the most important, prolific, and widely read contemporary Indigenous writers. Here leading scholars analyze the three critically acclaimed recent novels—The Plague of Doves (2008), The Round House (2012), and LaRose (2016)—that make up what has become known as Erdrich’s “justice trilogy.” Set in small towns and reservations of northern North Dakota, these three interwoven works bring together a vibrant cast of characters whose lives are shaped by history, identity, and community. Individually and collectively, the essays herein illuminate Erdrich’s storytelling abilities; the complex relations among crime, punishment, and forgiveness that characterize her work; and the Anishinaabe contexts that underlie her presentation of character, conflict, and community. The volume also includes a reader’s guide to each novel, a glossary, and an interview with Erdrich that will aid in readers’ navigation of the justice novels. These timely, original, and compelling readings make a valuable contribution to Erdrich scholarship and, subsequently, to the study of Native literature and women’s authorship as a whole."
Call number: 709.0113 M297E 2018
The earliest rock art - in the Americas as elsewhere - is geometric or abstract. Until Early Rock Art in the American West, however, no book-length study has been devoted to the deep antiquity and amazing range of geometrics and the fascinating questions that arise from their ubiquity and variety. Why did they precede representational marks? What is known about their origins and functions? Why and how did humans begin to make marks, and what does this practice tell us about the early human mind?
With some two hundred striking color images and discussions of chronology, dating, sites, and styles, this pioneering investigation of abstract geometrics on stone (as well as bone, ivory, and shell) explores its wide-ranging subject from the perspectives of ethology, evolutionary biology, cognitive archaeology, and the psychology of artmaking. The authors? unique approach instills a greater respect for a largely unknown and underappreciated form of paleoart, suggesting that before humans became Homo symbolicus or even Homo religiosus, they were mark-makers - Homo aestheticus.
Call number: 299.7852 W25G 2017
In 1890, on Indian reservations across the West, followers of a new religion danced in circles until they collapsed into trances. In an attempt to suppress this new faith, the US Army killed over two hundred Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek. In God's Red Son, historian Louis Warren offers a startling new view of the religion known as the Ghost Dance, from its origins in the visions of a Northern Paiute named Wovoka to the tragedy in South Dakota. To this day, the Ghost Dance remains widely mischaracterized as a primitive and failed effort by Indian militants to resist American conquest and return to traditional ways. In fact, followers of the Ghost Dance sought to thrive in modern America by working for wages, farming the land, and educating their children, tenets that helped the religion endure for decades after Wounded Knee. God's Red Son powerfully reveals how Ghost Dance teachings helped Indians retain their identity and reshape the modern world.
In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a haunting, visionary memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice.
This book explores how the heritage and behind-the-scenes activities of Native American actors and filmmakers helped shape their own movie images. Native artists have impacted movies for more than a century, but until recently their presence had passed largely unrecognized. From the silent era to contemporary movies, this book features leading Native American actors whose voices have reached a broad audience and are part of the larger conversation about the exploitation of underrepresented people in Hollywood.Each chapter highlights Native actors in lead or supporting roles as well as filmmakers whose movies were financed and distributed by Hollywood studios. The text further explores how a'pan-Indian heritage'that applies to all tribes in terms of spirituality, historical trauma, and a version of ceremony and storytelling have shaped these performers'movie identities. It will appeal to a wide range of readers, including fans of Westerns, history buffs of American popular cinema, and students and scholars of Native American studies.
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes, she circles toward a central argument: The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
Celebrated novelist David Treuer has gained a reputation for writing fiction that expands the horizons of Native American literature. In Rez Life, his first full-length work of nonfiction, Treuer brings a novelist's storytelling skill and an eye for detail to a complex and subtle examination of Native American reservation life, past and present.With authoritative research and reportage, Treuer illuminates misunderstood contemporary issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the waves of public policy that have disenfranchised and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population. Through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges, he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of Native American life.A member of the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota, Treuer grew up on Leech Lake Reservation, but was educated in mainstream America. Exploring crime and poverty, casinos and wealth, and the preservation of native language and culture, Rez Life is a strikingly original work of history and reportage, a must listen for anyone interested in the Native American story.
In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family's lands and opens a dialogue with history. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother's death, to her beginnings in the native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo's personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice. A descendent of storytellers and "one of our finest―and most complicated―poets" (Los Angeles Review of Books), Joy Harjo continues her legacy with this latest powerful collection.
In this literary masterwork, Louise Erdrich, bestselling author of the National Book Award-winning The Round House and the Pulitzer Prize nominee The Plague of Doves, wields her breathtaking narrative magic in an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice, and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture.
The Way to Rainy Mountain has sold over 200,000 copies.'The paperback edition of The Way to Rainy Mountain was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, which exists in a dimension of timelessness. I was first told these stories by my father when I was a child. I do not know how long they had existed before I heard them. They seem to proceed from a place of origin as old as the earth.'The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself.'--from the new Preface
In this wide-ranging historical study of federal Indian law—the field of U.S. law related to Native peoples—attorney and educator Peter P. d'Errico argues that the U.S. government's assertion of absolute prerogative and unlimited authority over Native peoples and their lands is actually a suspension of law.Combining a deep theoretical analysis of the law with a historical examination of its roots in Christian civilization, d'Errico presents a close reading of foundational legal cases and raises the possibility of revoking the doctrine of domination. The book's larger context is the increasing frequency of Indigenous conflicts with nation-states around the world as ecological crises caused by industrial extraction impinge drastically on Indigenous peoples'existences. D'Errico's goal is to rethink the role of law in the global order—to imagine an Indigenous nomos of the earth, an order arising from peoples and places rather than the existing hegemony of states.
How much do you really know about totem poles, tipis, and Tonto? There are hundreds of Native tribes in the Americas, and there may be thousands of misconceptions about Native customs, culture, and history. In this illustrated guide, experts from Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian debunk common myths and answer frequently asked questions about Native Americans past and present. Readers will discover the truth about everything from kachina dolls to casinos, with answers to nearly 100 questions, including: Did Indians really sell Manhattan for twenty-four dollars worth of beads and trinkets? Are dream catchers an authentic tradition? Do All Indians Live in Tipis? Second Edition features short essays, mostly Native-authored, that cover a range of topics including identity; origins and histories; clothing, housing, and food; ceremony and ritual; sovereignty; animals and land; language and education; love and marriage; and arts, music, dance, and sports.
© 2019 Western Wyoming Community College. Western Wyoming Community College does not
discriminate on the basis of race, color, nation origin,
marital status, sexual preference,
sex, age, religion, political belief, disability, or veteran status, in employment,
admission and/or access to program or activities.