Native American Writers @ Memorial Library

In this stunning collection of prose, poetry, and beautifully matched art, young Native women honor the past and grapple with contemporary Native issues. These writers’ resilience and powerful voices will resonate.

"Impressive....Haunting....Enchanting...Every story in the book, which covers nearly a century of tradition, is interesting, written with intelligent passion." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Native American scholar, literary critic, poet, and novelist Paula Gunn Allen, who is herself a Laguna Pueblo-Sioux Indian, became increasingly aware in her academic career that the writings of Native Americans, especially women, have been marginalized by the Western literary canon. Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, including: Louise Erdrich, Mary TallMountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

Global warming takes away the ability for people to dream, and it is causing them to go crazy. The bone marrow from indigenous North American people holds the cure, but death will result when the marrow is taken.

Alaskans Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Donna and Amiq share their experiences in the early 1960s when they are forced to attend a Catholic boarding school where, despite different tribal affiliations, they come to find a sort of family and home.

Set in rural Oklahoma during the late 1980s, Where the Dead Sit Talking is a startling, authentically voiced and lyrically written Native American coming-of-age story.

A sixteen-year-old Native American girl witnesses the killing of her clan’s sacred animal, the Florida panther, by her spiritual mentor.

Cash and Wheaton--a strange partnership. He pulled her from her mother's wrecked car when she was three. Northern Minnesota, cold Indian Country. Wheaton kept an eye out. So there they are, staring at the unidentified dead Indian. Cash said he was Red Lake. Dreamed his cheap house on the reservation, mother and kids waiting. That's the place to start looking.

When a Native-owned business catches fire, two Native teen boys are arrested, though readers know the blaze was set by the white sheriff’s son. Through words and illustrations, this graphic novel reveals two systems of justice at work and demonstrates that a Native system of restorative justice has more to offer than incarceration.