Native Reads Bookshop

Just finished this beautiful work of story and art! Thank you, Oscar Hokeah for offering this work and a glimpse into our world and your life! I could hear them all talking to me in their Cherokee and Kiowa and Mexican accents! Wado for that too! Doyuosda, Chooj!

If y’all haven’t gotten your copy of this bestseller, do it now at…
https://bookshop.org/a/6872/9781643753911

Looking for large print? Check out our large print book list at https://bit.ly/3sl1kQK!

Great! Who’s next?!

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Cleveland will officially change their team name to the Guardians!

Cleveland was the first team to begin the process of eliminating harmful mascots and team names. It’s proof that eliminating the use of Native American imagery in sports is possible. Both Cleveland and are proof that it’s not a matter of IF mascots can change, it’s WHEN.

The Kansas City , Atlanta , and Chicago must recognize change is inevitable!

Fans, of the , , and must urge these franchises to stand on the right side of history.

to .

There’s a lot of talk about spaceflight today, so it’s a good time to learn about Mary G. Ross (Cherokee) — the first known Native American female engineer and another “Hidden Figure” of the U.S. space program. The great-great-granddaughter of Cherokee Chief John Ross, she helped develop operational requirements for the spacecraft, which later became a vital part of the Apollo program. She also contributed to NASA’s Planetary Flight Handbook, the agency’s comprehensive guide to space travel.

Ms. Ross is featured in Native Women Changing Their Worlds by Patricia J. Cutright (Cheyenne River Sioux). This book profiles 12 Native American and First Nations women who overcame unimaginable hardships — racial and gender discrimination, abuse and extreme poverty — only to rise to great heights in the fields of politics, science, education and community activism.

Click https://bit.ly/3hRt6AI to order your copy today!

As the world gears up for the Summer Olympics, we remember Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox), the first Native American Olympic gold medalist. He won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, one in the pentathlon and one in the decathlon — and he won the decathlon competing in a pair of ill-fitting, mismatched shoes he found in the garbage, after someone stole his! However, the International Olympic Committee stripped away his medals and records when they found out he had played minor league baseball prior to the 1912 games. In 1982, the IOC reinstated him in the records books, but only as a “co-champion.” Today, efforts are underway to restore Jim Thorpe as the sole champion in the pentathlon and decathlon events at the 1912 Olympic Games.

There’s so much more to learn about this outstanding athlete, and here’s a great place to start: Jim Thorpe: Original All American by Joseph Bruchac (Nulhegan Abenaki). Check it out today at https://bit.ly/3xLRNUG.

“Merciless Indian savages” and “inhabitants of our frontiers”: This is how the Declaration of Independence refers to the original peoples of this land, so there’s no denying that this country is built on stolen land and wholesale violence against Indigenous peoples. These are the foundations that continue to prop up the United States, along with the colonial project that is still very much in progress even now, 245 years after those words were written. It’s time to start facing the truth of *truly savage* land theft and genocide. It’s time to start healing these deep wounds. It’s time for .

So much brilliance!

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People don’t tune in until something is on fire huh. We burn with brilliance tho 🔥

Thank you 🧲

“Reminder: Learn about Indigenous brilliance and success as much as you learn about Indigenous suffering and trauma. (This is a rephrasing of an older post that originally said “teach” instead of learn.)

Honestly I had a long ass caption typed out, but it basically comes down to this:

For my Indigenous relations - I see you. I’m rooting for you, always. Our joy is an act of resistance. Keep taking up space in all the places that our ancestors weren’t allowed to. Keep existing unapologetically. In the words of the lovely - “Our images matter, our stories matter, our joy matters.”

For non-Indigenous folks, you have a responsibility to educate yourself on the history of Indigenous peoples being harmed by colonialism, and the oppressive structures that continue to exist in today’s society. It’s also important to educate yourself on the entirety of Indigenous existence. Government and religious forces tried to exterminate us, but we’re still here. Our brilliance and success is in spite of colonialism, not because of it.”

Image ID: on a textured off white background green text reads, “REMINDER: LEARN ABOUT INDIGENOUS BRILLIANCE AND SUCCESS AS MUCH AS YOU LEARN ABOUT INDIGENOUS SUFFERING AND TRAUMA. “

This , Anya Montiel (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian) interviewed Native people from various tribal communities about being Two-Spirit and how they celebrate that identity. Click to read the article and meet some incredible members of the Two Spirit community!

www.smithsonianmag.com

A good history lesson on Victory Day…

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On June 25th, we celebrate the triumph of the Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other tribes who bravely defended their people, sacred lands, and way of life from invaders in 1876.

The anniversary marks what has been called the Battle of Little Bighorn, Battle of Greasy Grass, or Custer’s Last Stand. We honor the bravery of Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull) and others who defeated Lt. Col. George Custer and US forces.

The victory is important to celebrate and to recognize descendants who continue to fight to protect their traditions, lands, and rights 145 years later.

Attn: fans! We’ve added a Young Adult section to our ever-growing book lists featuring titles by Native authors. Check it out at https://bit.ly/3zZaPZc today!

Happy Summer Solstice!
We give thanks to Mother Earth for the abundance of gifts she gives to sustain us throughout the year.

⚡️ BREAKING NEWS ⚡️
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) has won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (Gila River Indian Tribe) has won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry!

Get your copies at https://bit.ly/3cAXYT2 and https://bit.ly/3gqAQYK!

The 2S in 2SLGBTQIA+ stands for Two Spirit, a contemporary term used to express a traditional lifeway. Prior to European colonization, many Indigenous tribes recognized individuals who embodied both male and female, and therefore had the gift of both perspectives. They fulfilled sacred social and ceremonial roles in their tribes, often serving as mediators, medicine people, knowledge keepers, healers, and adoptive parents to orphaned children.

Today, many Native communities are working to reinstate these important individuals to their traditional, honored place. Part of that effort is putting 2S first in the abbreviation. In this way, we acknowledge that Two Spirit people have always been here, long before gender and sexual diversity were othered.

To learn more, keep following Native Reads and click https://bookshop.org/lists/two-spirit for a booklist.

We are in mourning for the 215 lost children whose remains were uncovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, and we stand in love and solidarity with our Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc relatives. We are in mourning, but we are not surprised. Indigenous peoples across the U.S. and Canada know the truth that has been hidden from mainstream history for far too long — that for decades, our precious children were taken from our homes and forced into residential and boarding schools where they were stripped of their cultures; their languages; and often their dignity, their humanity, and their lives.

If this information is new to you, we encourage you to learn more. Visit https://bookshop.org/lists/indian-boarding-schools for a book list. We also hope you’ll support organizations that are addressing the Indian Boarding School Era and the impacts it continues to have on individuals, families, and communities today. Follow Seeding Sovereignty kakichihiwewin project and National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition to learn how.

Why is there such a fuss about non-Native people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween? Why is it called a traditional Indian fry bread taco? What's it like for natives who don't look Native? Why are Indians so often imagined rather than understood? If you’ve ever wanted to ask these kinds of questions, today’s featured title is for you!

Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask (Young Readers Edition) by Anton Treuer (Ojibwe) does exactly what its title says for young readers, in a style consistently thoughtful, personal, and engaging. Click below to check it out!

Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween? to Why is it called a 'traditional Indian fr...

⭐️ ⭐️ GIVEAWAY ⭐️ ⭐️
It’s the last day to enter for a chance to win a $50 digital gift card to Native Reads Bookshop! Head over to our Instagram to enter today!

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day

Wear red tomorrow, May 5, to raise awareness about our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit relatives.
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Every day we remain committed to stopping the epidemic of our . We know the violence extractive industry brings to our land is also violence against our bodies.

Join us in wearing red on the 5th and tag us in our photos so we can amplify your voice.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! We celebrate and give thanks for our wonderfully diverse AAPI relatives, and we stand in solidarity against all hate and violence targeting AAPI minds, bodies, and communities. Follow and to learn more and to support efforts to .

⭐️ ⭐️ GIVEAWAY ⭐️ ⭐️
We’ve reached 500 followers on Instagram! We want to say yakoke, wado, wopila, mvto, miigwetch, ahéhee’, kutâputush, pinagigi, neaese, t̕igʷicid čəɬ ti, niá:wen — and all the thank yous in all our beautiful Native languages!

To celebrate, we’re giving away a $50 digital gift card to Native Reads Bookshop. Head over to our Instagram to enter today!

April is ! All month long, we’re featuring books of poetry by Native American poets. Our current featured title is Nature Poem by Tommy “Teebs” Pico (Kumeyaay).

Nature Poem follows Teebs — a young, q***r, American Indian (or NDN) poet — who can't bring himself to write a nature poem. For the reservation-born, urban-dwelling hipster, the exercise feels stereotypical, reductive, and boring. He hates nature. He prefers city lights to the night sky. He'd slap a tree across the face.

Over the course of the book, we see him confronting the assimilationist, historical, colonial-white ideas that collude NDN people with nature. The closer his people were identified with the "natural world," he figures, the easier it was to mow them down like the underbrush.

But Teebs gradually learns how to interpret constellations through his own lens, along with human nature, sexuality, language, music, and Twitter. Even while he reckons with manifest destiny and genocide and centuries of disenfranchisement, he learns how to have faith in his own voice.

Nature Poem Nature Poem follows Teebs--a young, q***r, American Indian (or NDN) poet--who can't bring himself to write a nature poem. For the reservation-born, urban-dwelling hipster, the exercise feels stereotypical, reductive, and boring. He hates nature. He prefers city lights to the night sky. He'd slap a t...

Today is UNESCO ! Reading is a wonderful way to get to know the people, places, and cultures outside your own community — and we encourage everyone to start at home. What do you know about the Indigenous peoples whose land you occupy? Are they strangers to you? Visit Native Reads Bookshop and start learning today!
https://bookshop.org/shop/NativeReads

“We are the land … that is the fundamental idea embedded in Native American life … the Earth is the mind of the people as we are the mind of the earth. The land is ... not a means of survival, a setting for our affairs … It is rather a part of our being, dynamic, significant, real. It is our self …” - Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo)

April is ! All month long, we’re featuring books of poetry by Native American poets. Our current featured title is The Woman Who Married a Bear by Tiffany Midge (Standing Rock Sioux).

Winner of the Kenyon Review Earthworks Prize for Indigenous Poetry, Tiffany Midge deftly weaves Plains Indian myths into the present day and seeks to define love, the nature of desire, and identity in the twenty-first century. The book includes a series of poems, each titled Considering Wakantanka, that connect the themes throughout the book. The Woman Who Married a Bear showcases the wholly individual voice of a talented poet.

Woman Who Married a Bear: Poems Winner of the Kenyon Review Earthworks Prize for Indigenous Poetry, Tiffany Midge deftly weaves Plains Indian myths into the present day and seeks to define love, the nature of desire, and identity in the twenty-first century. The book includes a series of poems, each titled Considering Wakantanka,....