LibGuides: American Indian &amp; Indigenous Studies: Books & eBooks

eBooks

Locating eBooks in OneSearch

After submitting a search, use the filters on the left side under "Available at Cal State LA" to narrow your search to Full-Text Online, and Books under Resource Type (you may have to click show more to see books).

Under "Full text available at," click the link to access the book. Check the user options- some books have unlimited access, but others can only be used by one person at a time and may require you to check back after the other reader has left the book.

Request Books (CSU+)

CSU+

You can request physical books be sent to the library from other Cal State campuses and libraries around the country. This service also includes digital access to single book chapters and electronic articles from institutions sent to you as PDFs. CSU+ is a free service and students and faculty may request as many items as you like!

In OneSearch, use the drop-down to expand your results to CSU Collections and Beyond
For items that are listed as "request from another library," log into your library account using your MyCalStateLA info to request the book
You will be notified by email when the item is ready for pick up
If you get a cancellation email, try our back-up service Interlibrary Loan.

Resources for American Indian Literature

American Indians in Children's Literature
Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016.

Selected AI Fiction in the Library

Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling
Call Number: Available at LAPL
ISBN: 9780399148996
Publication Date: 2002-06-10
Louise White Elk dreams of both belonging and escape, and of discovering love and freedom on her own terms. But she is a red-haired, tough, and beautiful temptation, and at least three men, each more dangerous than the other, want to control and possess her: Police Officer Charlie Kicking Woman, who struggles between worlds; charismatic but scary Baptiste, who refuses to yield to anyone; and Harvey Stoner, who owns nearly everything. On the reservation, danger looms everywhere, rising out of fear and anger, deprivation, hunger, and poverty. But just as often for Louise, and for those she loves, danger arises from longing and desire. And from making a choice. Perma Red is a love-crossed saga about a young woman coming of age under perilous circumstances, and about the consequences of her often contradictory desires.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781534437692
Publication Date: 2020-10-13
From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Resistance Reborn comes the "engrossing and vibrant" (Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Riot Baby) first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic. A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial even proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man's mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.
Dwellings by Linda Hogan
Call Number: Level 2 North BD581 .H573 2007
ISBN: 9780393037845
Publication Date: 1995-08-01
A first collection of essays by a Chickasaw poet and novelist considers such subjects as bats, bees, porcupines, wolves, and caves while regarding the earth as humankind's universal home.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger; Rovina Cai (Illustrator)
Call Number: Level 3 North PZ7.1.L588 El 2020
ISBN: 9781646140053
Publication Date: 2020-08-25
A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin's ghost and vows to unmask the murderer. Elatsoe--Ellie for short--lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals--most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered. Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started? A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year.
Emire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
Call Number: Level 3 North PR9199.4.D56 E47 2019
ISBN: 9780735277182
Publication Date: 2019
From the author of the YA-crossover hit The Marrow Thieves, a propulsive, stunning and sensuous novel inspired by the traditional Métis story of the Rogarou - a werewolf-like creature that haunts the roads and woods of Métis communities. A messed-up, grown-up, Little Red Riding Hood.
I Am Where I Come From by Andrew Garrod (Editor); Robert Kilkenny (Editor); Melanie Benson Taylor (Editor); K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Foreword by)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781501708022
Publication Date: 2017-04-25
I Am Where I Come From presents the autobiographies of thirteen Native American undergraduates and graduates of Dartmouth College, ten of them current and recent students.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781982136475
Publication Date: 2020-07-14
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781534413511
Publication Date: 2018-06-26
New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Black Wolves While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters--and it is up to one young woman to unravel the mysteries of the past before they destroy the future. Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine. Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology. As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive. Welcome to the Sixth World.

Selected AI Menoirs in the Library

Abandon Me by Melissa Febos
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781632866592
Publication Date: 2017-02-28
A fierce and dazzling personal narrative that explores the many ways identity and art are shaped by love and loss. In her critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart, Melissa Febos laid bare the intimate world of the professional dominatrix, turning an honest examination of her life into a lyrical study of power, desire, and fulfillment. In her dazzling Abandon Me, Febos captures the intense bonds of love and the need for connection -- with family, lovers, and oneself. First, her birth father, who left her with only an inheritance of addiction and Native American blood, its meaning a mystery. As Febos tentatively reconnects, she sees how both these lineages manifest in her own life, marked by compulsion and an instinct for self-erasure. Meanwhile, she remains closely tied to the sea captain who raised her, his parenting ardent but intermittent as his work took him away for months at a time. Woven throughout is the hypnotic story of an all-consuming, long-distance love affair with a woman, marked equally by worship and withdrawal. In visceral, erotic prose, Febos captures their mutual abandonment to passion and obsession -- and the terror and exhilaration of losing herself in another. At once a fearlessly vulnerable memoir and an incisive investigation of art, love, and identity, Abandon Me draws on childhood stories, religion, psychology, mythology, popular culture, and the intimacies of one writer's life to reveal intellectual and emotional truths that feel startlingly universal.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
ISBN: 9781571313560
Publication Date: 2015
GENRE: Non-fiction; Nature Writing; Nature Essays
PAGES: 410
DESCRIPTION: 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.
Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780816532360
Publication Date: 2015-05-15
In the spring, the bear returns to the forest, the glacier returns to its source, and the salmon returns to the fresh water where it was spawned. Drawing on the special relationship that the Native people of southeastern Alaska have always had with nature, Blonde Indian is a story about returning. Told in eloquent layers that blend Native stories and metaphor with social and spiritual journeys, this enchanting memoir traces the author's life from her difficult childhood growing up in the Tlingit community, through her adulthood, during which she lived for some time in Seattle and San Francisco, and eventually to her return home. Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women--many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges, including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty. The author's personal journey, the symbolic stories of contemporary Natives, and the tales and legends that have circulated among the Tlingit people for centuries are all woven together, making Blonde Indian much more than the story of one woman's life. Filled with anecdotes, descriptions, and histories that are unique to the Tlingit community, this book is a document of cultural heritage, a tribute to the Alaskan landscape, and a moving testament to how going back--in nature and in life--allows movement forward.
Bad Indians by Deborah A. Miranda
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781597142335
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
"In this beautiful and devastating book, part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir, Deborah Miranda tells both the stories of her Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen family and the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems. Reassembling the shards of her people's past, she creates a work of literary art that is wise, angry, and playful all at once, one that will break your heart and teach you to see the world anew"--Back cover.
The tao of raven: an Alaska native memoir by Ernestine Hayes
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780295745725
Publication Date: 2017
"In her first book, Blonde Indian, Ernestine Hayes powerfully recounted the story of coming back to Juneau and to her Tlingit home after many years of wandering. The Tao of Raven takes up the next and in some ways more interesting question: once the exile returns, then what? Using motifs from the story Raven and the Box of Daylight to deepen her narration and reflection, Hayes expresses an ongoing frustration and anger at the obstacles and prejudices still facing Alaska Natives in their own land, but also recounts her own story of attending and completing college in her fifties and becoming a professor and a writer. Now seventy years old and thinking very much of the generations who will come after her, Hayes speaks for herself but also has powerful things to say about the possibilities and complications of her Native community

Print Books

Books in the library are organized according to the Library of Congress classification system. Each book has a unique call number. They are organized so that similar subjects are next to each other on the shelf. When you find a book that you want in the library's catalog, write down the call number and location.

For example, you would read the call number below like this:

F
839.5
.M347
2013

Main Subject (F = History of the Americas)
Read in alphabetical order
A → B → BF → C → CM → CZ → D…

Sub-Subject (800 = History of California)
Read as whole numbers
10 → 25 → 476 → 1489 → 2000 → 4821…

Code for Author’s Last Name (.M347 = Kevin Mendoza)
Read the letter alphabetically and the number as a decimal (each number place individually)
.L6726 comes before .L72 (i.e. L6 before L7)

Publication Year (2013)
Read in chronological order
1875 → 1915 → 1965 → 2001 → 2012 → 2019…