#native lit

[jooliefiveash]

So I made these recommended reading lists for a final this term and thought I’d share them!

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Native lit for Adults:

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

There, There by Tommy Orange

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

The Beadworkers by Beth Piatote

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience by Helen Knott

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson

The Only Good Indian by Stephen Graham Jones

YA Native Lit:

Standing Strong by Gary Robinson

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States For Young People, by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Children’s Book Native lit:

Birdsong by Julie Flett

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Tradition by Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez

The Forever Sky by Thomas Peacock and Annette S. Lee

Nimoshom and his Bus by Penny M. Thomas and Karen Hibbard

Fall in Line, Holden! By Daniel W. Vandever

Native Comics and Graphic Novels:

Prism Stalker vol 1 by Sloane Leong

Moonshot vol 1-3 edited by Hope Nicholson

Golden Kamuy series by Satoru Noda

Deer Woman: An Anthology edited by Elizabeth Lapensée

Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection edited by Matt Dembicki

Native films:

Reel Injun (2009)

The Lesser Blessed (2012)

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)

The Rider (2017)

Mekko (2015)

Native music:

Navajo Country Music by Dirt Rhodes

Wovoka by Redbone

At the Party With My Brown Friends by Black Belt Eagle Scout

A Tribe Called Red by A Tribe Called Red

Baby Blue by Mourning Coup

[vital-information]

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

[swinky-rat]

Slaughter High (My Heart Is A Chainsaw chapter 3 summary):

Haha, jk jade survives but missed like 7 weeks of school. When she arrives at school she realizes that she was last week's news. She went to the bathroom to put some eyeliner on, and her hair is now blue. So this goth baddie is doing her thing. Then this girl approaches her and Jade doesn't really know how to feel about her or how to respond to her. To Jade's benefit, this girl is like a solid 5’11, but we find out her name is Letha and they are kind of friends, or maybe later in the book they will be besties or something.  At the end of the chapter, it shows the essay Jade writes to Mr. Holmes talking about how final girls are strong girlbosses. 

[sleepydeerling]

“Stand tall, no matter height, how dark your skin

Your spirit is all colors within

You are made of the finest woven light

From the iridescent love that formed your mothers, fathers

Your grandparents all the way back on the spiral road–

There is no end to this love

It has formed your bodies

Feeds your bright spirits

And no matter what happens in these times of breaking–

No matter dictators, the heartless, and liars

No matter– you are born of those

Who kept ceremonial embers burning in their hands

All through the miles of relentless exile

Those who sang the path through massacre

All the way to sunrise

You will make it through—“ - For Earth’s Grandsons by Joy Harjo

[ebookporn]

Native Lit is more than a marketing term

Its use is just another fence, and we’re busting them down.

“When art ends up on a reservation, it dies,” he replied. “Art needs to be in conversation with other art, all the time. … Everybody just thinks like somehow we’re only in conversation with other Native art. And that’s not true at all.”

[meowification]

Sometimes I Feel Like All Indians

For Kelly Morgan

ever do is die

Her brother was thrown out the window

by Black men he was drinking with

His cousin was stabbed near the store

She got shot

Nobody knows where he ended up

She hasn’t heard from her brother in 17 years

He killed himself when his wife left

Her son was hit by a car of drunk whites

Her uncle went off a cliff in the dark

Her grandmother died in the hospital

because they gave her the wrong medicine

Her baby was born addicted & died

My brother died as a baby

Her mother died of an overdose

She doesn’t know how her mother died

but no one has seen her for a long time

She was put in foster care because her parents died in a car wreck

I close my eyes & keep praying

sometimes there’s nothing to do

but brush back the tears

& keep on folding the laundry

[vital-information]

“She would scream the thought if you could scream thoughts. Maybe you can. Maybe that’s what she’s doing to make herself believe there’s reason to hope despite there maybe being no reason to hope. Opal wants Jacquie and the boys to see it on her face too, this belief despite everything, which is maybe what faith is.”

- Tommy Orange, There There

[revision-and-blog]

"Wait, wait!" says Coyote. "Who shot Nasty Bumppo?" 

"Who cares?" I says.

"Maybe Old Coyote shot him," says Coyote. 

"Anything's possible," I says. 

"Maybe there was more than one gunman," says Coyote.

"Anything's possible," I says.

"Maybe," says Coyote, "it was a conspiracy."

--Green Grass, Running Water, Thomas King