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November is Indigenous Heritage Month!

Pierce Library invites you to join us in celebrating Indigenous Heritage Month!

Every November, we celebrate Indigenous Heritage Month, or as it is commonly referred to, Native American Heritage Month or American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. "National American Indian Heritage Month" was first proclaimed in 1990 under President George H.W. Bush and is a time to honor and celebrate the diverse constellation of cultures, traditions, and stories of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and affiliated Island communities. Throughout the year, but especially during the month of November, it is important to recognize the achievements of Native people and raise awareness around both the historical and modern challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples, as well as the creative forms of resistance and resilience shown in the face of those challenges. 

Native people have differing preferences when it comes to terminology. While the terms Native American and American Indian are widely used in the U.S. and are generally considered acceptable, many people feel that these terms reflect settler ideologies, which is why we have chosen to use the term Indigenous here. Whenever possible, it is best to use the name of someone's Indigenous nation or tribe, such as Tataviam, Tongva, Chumash, etc. 

We encourage you to learn about the Native nations who have existed and continue to exist on the lands we inhabit, especially the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and neighboring Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe. Please see our Land Acknowledgement for more information.

Nonfiction

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk
A Coalition of Lineages: The Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians by Duane Champagne & Carole E. Goldberg

eBook Available

We Are the Land: A History of Native California by Damon B. Akins & William J. Bauer

eBook Available

Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
California Through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History by William J. Bauer

eBook Available

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal
Flutes of Fire: An Introduction to Native California Languages by Leanne Hinton
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec
Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes
Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker

eBook Available

Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America by Michael Witgen

eBook Available

The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I by William C. Meadows
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

eBook Available

In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now edited by Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Jaida Grey Eagle, & Casey Riley
Indigenous Memory, Urban Reality: Stories of American Indian Relocation and Reclamation by Michelle Jacobs

eBook Available

Native Foodways: Indigenous North American Religious Traditions and Foods edited by Michelene E. Pesantubbee & Michael J. Zogry

eBook Available

Native Agency: Indians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs by Valerie Lambert

eBook Available

Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment by Michael McNally
Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism edited by Bronwyn Carlson

eBook Available

Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economic Table by Carol Anne Hilton

eBook Available

Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture by Chip Colwell
We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremonies by Cutcha Risling Baldy

eBook Available

We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition by Sarah Hernandez

eBook Available

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Committed: Remembering Native Kinship In and Beyond Institutions by Susan Burch

eBook Available

The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez
Mascot Nation: The Controversy over Native American Representations in Sports by Andrew C. Billings & Jason Edward Black

eBook Available

Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California by Kaitlin Reed

eBook Available

Knowing Native Arts by Nancy Marie Mithlo

eBook Available

Memoirs & Biographies

Poet Warrior: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
Wilma Mankiller: How One Woman United the Cherokee Nation and Helped Change the Face of America
The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir by Ernestine Hayes

eBook Available

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

eBook Available

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby

eBook Available

Genocidal Love: A Life After Residential School by Bevann Fox

eBook Available

Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Susan Devan Harness

eBook Available

The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir by Augie Merasty

eBook Available

Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers by Elissa Washuta & Theresa Warburton

eBook Available

Life Among the Qallunaat by Mini Aodla Freeman

eBook Available

Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf: A Memoir by Raymond C. Kaquatosh

eBook Available

Fiction

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Coming Soon

There There by Tommy Orange

eBook Available

LaRose by Louise Erdrich
Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction edited by Jonny Appleseed

Coming Soon

Poetry

Blood Snow by dg nanouk okpik
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful by Abigail Chabitnoy

eBook Available

Whereas by Layli Long Soldier
Weweni: Poems by Margaret Noodin

eBook Available

Dissolve by Sherwin Bitsui

eBook Available

The Woman Who Married a Bear: Poems by Tiffany Midge

eBook Available

When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz
Electric Snakes by Adrian C. Louis

eBook Available


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