On January 20th, 2025, an executive order banning all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs called for the elimination of various heritage month celebrations, including Native American Heritage Month, which has occurred every November in our country since President George H.W. Bush’s establishment of it in 1990.
This month and year round, Spokane Public Library continues to uplift and celebrate the stories of First Nations, American Indians, and indigenous communities here in the northwest and across the intercontinental United States, Canada, and Americas. Here are several American Indian Nations in the Inland Northwest (with links to their websites), along with other organizations doing meaningful work for tribal sovereignty and more, followed by a list of recently published books by Native writers and illustrators available for checkout from Spokane Public Library.
Inland Northwest American Indian Nations: Spokane Tribe | Coeur d’Alene Tribe | Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation | Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes: The Flathead Indian Reservation is home to three tribes, the Bitterroot Salish, Upper Pend d’Oreille, and the Kootenai | Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation: Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla | The Kalispel Tribe of Indians | The Twelve Bands of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation: Chelan, Chief Joseph Band of Nez Perce, Colville, Entiat, Lakes, Methow, Moses-Columbia, Nespelem, Okanogan, Palus, San Poil, Wenatchi | Nez Perce Tribe, Nimiipuu People
Organizations: Elk Soup Spokane | Salish School of Spokane | Native American Rights Fund | Association on American Indian Affairs | First Nations Development Institute
Events: Native American Beginner Beadwork Workshop, Saturday, November 8, 1-3, Shadle Park Library
Kids
Of the Sun: A Poem for the Land’s First Peoples, written by Xelena González; art by Emily Kewageshig
A lyrical celebration of Indigenous and First Nations children, our cherished connection to the land, and our ancestral right to belong, by a member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation.
I Am My Name, written by Na’kuset (Cree Nation) & Judith Henderson; Illustrated By Onedove
An evocative autobiographical picture book about Cree activist Na’kuset’s life as a young girl taken from her home along with thousands of other indigenous children during the 1960s, and the journey of discovery that leads her to reclaim her life and culture.
This Land, written by Ashley Fairbanks; illustrated by Bridget George
This engaging story about native lands, by an Anishinaabe writer and artist, invites kids to trace history and explore their communities.
To Walk the Sky: How Iroquois Steelworkers Helped Build Towering Cities by Patricia Morris Buckley
With impactful and illuminating prose, Patricia Morris Buckley (Mohawk) tells the soaring story of the remarkable skywalkers, whose bravery and tragedies are warmly captured in moving watercolors by award-winning artist E. B. Lewis (Lenni-Lenape).
Chooch Helped, written by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz
A Cherokee girl introduces her younger brother to their family’s traditions, begrudgingly!
Young Adults
Find Her by Ginger Reno
Find Her explores the crisis of missing Indigenous women from the perspective of a sensitive young Cherokee girl who yearns to find her mother, while also navigating a chilling town mystery, a new friendship, and a family in need of healing.
Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Set at a classic drive-in restaurant that seems to exist in every Native community, this anthology unites the stories of teens from all kinds of backgrounds through the shared theme of Native joy, with stories and poems reflecting hope, healing, humor, love, friendship, romance, and joy.
Sisters In The Wind by Angeline Boulley
From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms. Angeline Boulley is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Adults
We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat
Drawing from five years of on-the-ground reporting, We Survived the Night paints a profound and unforgettable portrait of contemporary Indigenous life, alongside an intimate and deeply powerful reckoning between a father and a son. The author is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and a descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie.
Turtle Island Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America by Sean Sherman
Uncover the stories behind the foods that have linked the natural environments, traditions, and histories of Indigenous peoples across North America for millennia through more than 100 ancestral and modern recipes from three-time James Beard Award-winning Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman.
Waiting for The Long Night Moon: Stories by Amanda Peters
In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place–from contact with the first European settlers, to the forced removal of Indigenous children, to the present-day fight for the right to clean water. The author is of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry.
Small Ceremonies: A Novel by Kyle Edwards
https://catalog.spokanelibrary.org/catalog/Record/3f0d7851-6850-432b-ad73-dd9507ee49a8Check It Out
A poignant and heart-wrenching coming-of-age story that follows the friendships, hopes, fears, and struggles of a group of Native high school students from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s North End, illuminating what it’s like to grow up in the heart of an Indigenous city. Kyle Edwards grew up on the Lake Manitoba First Nation and is a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation.
The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight To Save A River And A Way Of Life by Amy Bowers Cordalis
The Yurok Tribe and an Indigenous family share a moving multigenerational story of their fight to undam the Klamath river-the largest river restoration project in history-and save the planet.
To the Moon and Back: A Novel by Eliana Ramage
A Reese’s Book Club Pick. In this dazzlingly powerful story of family, ambition and belonging, one young woman’s obsessive quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut irrevocably alters the fates of the people she loves most. Ramage is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
The El: A Novel by Theodore C. Van Alst
Van Alst’s vivid debut chronicles a momentous day in the life of a Chicago gang in 1979. The author is an enrolled member of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians and is the co-editor of the wonderful anthology, Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology.
