LibGuides: Celebrating Native American and Indigenous Heritage Month: Books

Original Fiction Books

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780063281097
Publication Date: 2023-08-08
From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried.
Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Call Number: Request from CSU+
ISBN: 9781950564071
Publication Date: 2020-09-08
Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. The experience introduces him to the beautiful and enigmatic Essie Stamper--a young Cherokee woman who is also working at the inn and dreaming of a better life. With World War II raging in Europe, the resort is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. A secret room becomes a place where Cowney and Essie can escape the white world of the inn and imagine their futures free of the shadows of their families' pasts.
A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781643755182
Publication Date: 2023-11-07
Written like a crooked Métis jig, A Grandmother Begins the Story follows five generations of women and bison as they reach for the stories that could remake their worlds and rebuild their futures.
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781953534187
Publication Date: 2022-07-05
In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty--with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight--breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family's unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.
There There by Tommy Orange
Call Number: Request from CSU+
ISBN: 9780525436140
Publication Date: 2019-05-07
There There is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America. Tommy Orange’s novel grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide.

True Stories, Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry

An Afro-Indigenous history of the United States by Mays, Kyle T.
Call Number: Free eBook Access
ISBN: 9780807011713
Publication Date: 2021
Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom, sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African enslavement and Indigenous removal or eradicate capitalism and colonialism, Mays show how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot white supremacy.
As Long As Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Call Number: Books - Level 2 North ; E98.S67 G55 2019
ISBN: 9780807073780
Publication Date: 2019-04-02
Through the unique lens of “Indigenized environmental justice,” Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long As Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.
Becoming Kin by Patty Krawec; Nick Estes (Foreword by)
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 1506478255
Publication Date: 2022-09-27
We find our way forward by going back. The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home." Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer.
Carry by Toni Jensen
Call Number: Request through CSU+
ISBN: 1984821180
Publication Date: 2020-09-08
A powerful, poetic memoir about what it means to exist as an Indigenous woman in America, told in snapshots of the author's encounters with gun violence.
Earth Keeper by N. Scott Momaday
Call Number: Request from CSU+
ISBN: 9780063009332
Publication Date: 2020-11-03
In this collection of essays and poems (most one page in length), Momaday reflects on his native ground and its influence on his people. A member of the Kiowa tribe who grew up on Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo reservations, he recalls stories of his childhood that have been passed down through generations, stories that reveal a profound and sacred connection to the American landscape and a reverence for the natural world. In doing so, Momaday offers an homage and a warning: the Earth is a sacred place of wonder and beauty; a source of strength and healing that must be protected before it's too late. We must all be keepers of the Earth.
Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780190673062
Publication Date: 2019-11-01
In November 1519, Hernando Cortes walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story - and the story of what happened afterwards - has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all,we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partiallytranslated, and rarely consulted by scholars.
Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hamalainen
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781631496998
Publication Date: 2022-09-20
There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus "discovers" a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing "New World" as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back, they cannot stop the onslaught. White imperialists are destined to rule the continent, and history is an irreversible march toward Indigenous destruction. Yet as with other long-accepted origin stories, this one, too, turns out to be based in myth and distortion.
Literatures, Communities, and Learning by Aubrey Jean Hanson
Call Number: Request through CSU+
ISBN: 9781771124492
Publication Date: 2020-08-11
Literatures, Communities, and Learning: Conversations with Indigenous Writers gathers nine conversations with Indigenous writers about the relationship between Indigenous literatures and learning, and how their writing relates to communities.
The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780300244052
Publication Date: 2023-04-25
The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America. Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century.
This Land Is Their Land by David J. Silverman
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781632869241
Publication Date: 2020-04-16
In March 1621, when Plymouth's survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief), Ousamequin (Massasoit), and Plymouth's governor, John Carver, declared their people's friendship for each other and a commitment to mutual defense. Later that autumn, the English gathered their first successful harvest and lifted the specter of starvation. Ousamequin and 90 of his men then visited Plymouth for the "First Thanksgiving." The treaty remained operative until King Philip's War in 1675, when 50 years of uneasy peace between the two parties would come to an end.
Unworthy Republic by Claudio Saunt
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780393541564
Publication Date: 2021-02-23
In May 1830, the United States launched an unprecedented campaign to expel 80,000 Native Americans from their eastern homelands to territories west of the Mississippi River. In a firestorm of fraud and violence, thousands of Native Americans lost their lives, and thousands more lost their farms and possessions. The operation soon devolved into an unofficial policy of extermination, enabled by US officials, southern planters, and northern speculators. Hailed for its searing insight, Unworthy Republic transforms our understanding of this pivotal period in American history.
We Are the Land by Damon B. Akins; William J. Bauer; William J. Bauer
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780520280496
Publication Date: 2021-04-20
Before there was such a thing as "California," there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make California. Rather, the lives and legacies of the people native to the land shaped the creation of California. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it.
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem by Kliph Nesteroff
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781982103033
Publication Date: 2021-02-16
In We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy's most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form.

Books for Children and Young Adults

Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
Call Number: Children's Books - Level 3 North 813 B83co
ISBN: 0142405965
Publication Date: 2006-07-06
Throughout World War II, in the conflict fought against Japan, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the U.S. effort, sending messages back and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. They braved some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with their code, they saved countless American lives. Yet their story remained classified for more than twenty years. But now Joseph Bruchac brings their stories to life for young adults through the riveting fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy who becomes a code talker.
Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud; Kalila J. Fuller (Illustrator)
Call Number: Children's Books - Level 3 North ; 305.897 T58fi
ISBN: 9780593093894
Publication Date: 2022-09-13
At four years old, Ria Thundercloud was brought into the powwow circle, ready to dance in the special jingle dress her mother made for her. As she grew up, she danced with her brothers all over Indian country. Then Ria learned more styles--tap, jazz, ballet--but still loved the expressiveness of Indigenous dance. And despite feeling different as one of the only Native American kids in her school, she always knew she could turn to dance to cheer herself up.
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard; Juana Martinez-Neal (Illustrator)
Call Number: Request through CSU+
ISBN: 9781626727465
Publication Date: 2019-10-22
Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate. Fry bread is time. It brings families together for meals and new memories. Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond. Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference.
Indigenous Ingenuity by Deidre Havrelock; Edward Kay
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780316413336
Publication Date: 2023-05-09
Corn. Chocolate. Fishing hooks. Boats that float. Recorded history and folklore. Lifesaving disinfectant. Forest-fire management. Our lives would be unrecognizable without these and countless other scientific discoveries and technological inventions from Indigenous North Americans. From transportation to civil engineering, hunting technologies to astronomy, and architecture to agriculture, Indigenous Ingenuity is an unforgettable introduction to STEM fields, featuring interactive activities, recipes, and science experiments. This groundbreaking book reframes many scientific discoveries through the lens of Indigenous knowledge and cultures. Readers of any age are invited to embrace the interconnectedness of all life and practice environmental responsibility.
Notable Native People by Adrienne Keene; Ciara Sana (Illustrator)
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781984857941
Publication Date: 2021-10-19
An accessible and educational illustrated book profiling 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, from NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota to Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell; Frane Lessac (Illustrator)
Call Number: Children's Books - Level 3 North 975.00497557 S713W
ISBN: 9781580897723
Publication Date: 2018-09-04
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. Written by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this look at one group of Native Americans is appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah.
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom; Michaela Goade (Illustrator)
Call Number: Children's Books - Level 3 North 813.6 L753W
ISBN: 9781250203557
Publication Date: 2020-03-17
Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all . . . When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth And poison her people's water, one young water protector Takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource.
Ancient Night by David Alvarez (Illustrator); David Bowles
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9781646142514
Publication Date: 2023-03-21
Ancient Night is a twist on two Nahuatl traditions: the rabbit which the Feathered Serpent placed on the moon, and Yaushu, the Lord Opossum who ruled the earth before humans came, and who stole fire from the gods to create the sun. Award-winning author David Bowles has written a poetic text - and carefully researched backmatter - to accompany David's lush illustrations and story.
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids by Cynthia L. Smith
Call Number: Request for pick-up
ISBN: 9780062869951
Publication Date: 2022-02-08
Native families from Nations across the continent gather at the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In a high school gym full of color and song, people dance, sell beadwork and books, and celebrate friendship and heritage. Young protagonists will meet relatives from faraway, mysterious strangers, and sometimes one another (plus one scrappy rez dog). They are the heroes of their own stories.

Requesting Books for Pick-up

If you have searched OneSearch for something specific and aren’t seeing it listed as being available in our library, follow these steps to request to have your item shipped to our library and made available for you to pick up through one of our loan services: CSU+ or Interlibrary Loan.

Tap the drop-down box that says, “Cal State LA Collections”
Select “CSU Collections and Beyond.”
Tap the magnifying glass icon to search
Sign into your Cal State LA account to ask for your item to be delivered to the library. Click “Sign in to view or request” below the book title.
Select “Get It” under the option to “Get a Physical Copy.”
If you’re signed into your account, an order form will pop up. Fill it out and make sure to specify where you want to pick up the item.
Keep an eye on your email. You will be notified when your order is fulfilled, and your item is ready for pick up.

A request may be canceled because the item is unavailable in CSU+. If this happens, check your cancellation email for an option to request the item through Interlibrary Loan. You can simply click the link in that email to process that request. If you haven’t used the ILL service before, you may be asked to create a new account before you can request items.

When you’re ready to return your physical items, simply drop them off at the front desk of library north or in a drop box outside.

Find More Books/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.

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