National Indigenous History Month - Adult and Teen Non-Fiction

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Braiding sweetgrass

Braiding sweetgrass

Kimmerer, Robin Wall, author
2020

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. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

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Everything you wanted to know about Indians but were afraid to ask

Everything you wanted to know about Indians but were afraid to ask

Treuer, Anton, author
2021

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.

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Halfbreed

Halfbreed

Campbell, Maria, 1940- author
2019


Heart berries : a memoir

Heart berries : a memoir

Mailhot, Terese Marie, author
2018

Guileless and refreshingly honest, Terese Mailhot's debut memoir chronicles her struggle to balance the beauty of her Native heritage with the often desperate and chaotic reality of life on the reservation. Hometown: The Seabird Island Band, B.C.

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A history of my brief body

A history of my brief body

Belcourt, Billy-Ray, author
2020

Billy-Ray Belcourt's debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. From there, it expands to encompass the big and broken world around him, in all its complexity and contradictions. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place.

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The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America

The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America

King, Thomas, 1943-, author
2012

At once a "history" and the complete subversion of a history--this is a critical and personal meditation that Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be "Indian" in North America. Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.

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Inconvenient skin = Nyêhtâwan wasakay

Inconvenient skin = Nyêhtâwan wasakay

Koyczan, Shane L., 1976- author
2020


Indigenous writes : a guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit issues in Canada

Indigenous writes : a guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit issues in Canada

Vowel, Chelsea, author
2016

"In Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel initiates myriad conversations about the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. An advocate for Indigenous worldviews, the author discusses the fundamental issues--the terminology of relationships; culture and identity; myth-busting; state violence; and land, learning, law and treaties--along with wider social beliefs about these issues. She answers the questions that many people have on these topics to spark further conversations at home, in the classroom, and in the larger community-- Provided by publisher.

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A knock on the door : the essential history of residential schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

A knock on the door : the essential history of residential schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, author.
2016

"It can start with a knock on the door one morning. It is the local Indian agent, or the parish priest, or, perhaps, a Mounted Police officer The officials have arrived and the children must go." So began the school experience of many Indigenous children in Canada for more than a hundred years, and so begins the history of residential schools prepared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Between 2008 and 2015, the TRC provided opportunities for individuals, families, and communities to share their experiences of residential schools and released several reports based on 7,000 Survivor statements and 5 million documents from government, churches, and schools, as well as a solid grounding in secondary sources. A Knock on the Door, published in collaboration with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), gathers material from the TRC reports to present the essential history and legacy of residential schools and inform the journey to reconciliation that Canadians are now embarked upon. An afterword introduces the holdings and opportunities of the NCTR, home to the archive of recordings and documents collected by the TRC.

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The power of style : how fashion and beauty are being used to reclaim cultures

The power of style : how fashion and beauty are being used to reclaim cultures

Allaire, Christian, 1992- author
2021

"Style is not just the clothes on our backs--it is self-expression, representation, and transformation. As a fashion-obsessed Ojibwe teen, Christian Allaire rarely saw anyone that looked like him in the magazines or movies he looked to for inspiration. Now the Fashion and Style Writer for Vogue, he is working to change that--because clothes are never just clothes. Men's heels are a statement of pride in the face of LGTBQ+ discrimination, while ribbon shirts honor Indigenous ancestors and keep culture alive. Allaire takes the reader through boldly designed chapters to discuss additional topics like cosplay, make up, hijabs, and hair, probing the connections between fashion and history, culture, politics, and social justice."-- Provided by publisher.

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Richard Wagamese selected : what comes from spirit

Richard Wagamese selected : what comes from spirit

Wagamese, Richard, author
2021

"Richard Wagamese, one of Canada's most celebrated Indigenous authors and storytellers, was a writer of breathtaking honesty and inspiration. Always striving to be a better, stronger person, Wagamese shared his journey through writing, encouraging others to do the same. Following the success of Embers, which has sold almost seventy thousand copies since its release in 2016, this new collection of Wagamese's non-fiction works, with an introduction by Drew Hayden Taylor, brings together more of the prolific author's short writings, many for the first time in print, and celebrates his ability to inspire. Drawing from Wagamese's essays and columns, along with preserved social media and blog posts, this beautifully designed volume is a tribute to Wagamese's literary legacy."-- Provided by publisher.

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Seven fallen feathers : racism, death, and hard truths in a northern city

Seven fallen feathers : racism, death, and hard truths in a northern city

Talaga, Tanya, author
2017

Over the span of ten years, seven high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave their reserve because there was no high school there for them to attend. Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest, and struggle with, human rights violations past and present against aboriginal communities.

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Siksikaitsitapi

Siksikaitsitapi

Many Guns, Alayna
2022



Stories of Métis women : tales my Kookum told me

Stories of Métis women : tales my Kookum told me

Oster, Bailey, author, editor
2021

"This book is a collection of stories about culture, history, and nationhood as told by Métis women. In this era of reconciliation, Stories of Métis Women explains the story of the Métis Nation from a their own perspective. The UN has declared this "The Decade of Indigenous Languages" and Stories of Métis Women is one of the few books available in English and Michif, which is an endangered language."

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Sôhkêyihta : the poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe

Sôhkêyihta : the poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe

Halfe, Louise Bernice, 1953-, author
2018

Since 1990, Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe's work has stood out as essential testimony to Indigenous experiences within the ongoing history of colonialism and the resilience of Indigenous storytellers. Sôhkêyihta includes searing poems, written across the expanse of Halfe's career, aimed at helping readers move forward from the darkness into a place of healing. Halfe's own afterword is an evocative meditation on the Cree word sôhkêyihta: Have courage. Be brave. Be strong. She writes of coming into her practice as a poet and the stories, people, and experiences that gave her courage and allowed her to construct her "lair." She also reflects on her relationship with nêhiyawêwin, the Cree language, and the ways in which it informs her relationships and poetics. The introduction by David Gaertner situates Halfe's writing within the history of whiteness and colonialism that works to silence and repress Indigenous voices. Gaertner pays particular attention to the ways in which Halfe addresses, incorporates, and pushes back against silence, and suggests that her work is an act of bearing witness - what Kwagiulth scholar Sarah Hunt identifies as making Indigenous lives visible. Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe is nêhiyaw poet raised on the Saddle Lake Reserve in Alberta. She served as poet Laureate in Saskatchewan for two years. David Gaertner is a settler scholar of German descent and an instructor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program at the University of British Columbia.

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We all go back to the land : the who, why, and how of land acknowledgements

We all go back to the land : the who, why, and how of land acknowledgements

Keeptwo, Suzanne, 1959- author.
2021

"Land Acknowledgements often begin academic conferences, cultural events, government press conferences, and even hockey games. They are supposed to be an act of Reconciliation between Indigenous people in Canada and non-Indigenous Canadians, but they have become so routine and formulaic that they have sometimes lost meaning. Seen more and more as empty words, some events have dropped Land Acknowledgements altogether. Métis artist and educator Suzanne Keeptwo wants to change that. She sees the Land Acknowledgement as an opportunity for Indigenous people in Canada to communicate their worldview to non-Indigenous Canadians--a worldview founded upon Age Old Wisdom about how to sustain the Land we all want to call home. For Keeptwo, the Land Acknowledgement is a way to teach and a way to learn: a living, evolving record of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people in Canada and the Land that for millennia they held in pristine condition. As Keeptwo says: "Everything comes back to the Land--as our common denominator and most perfect unifier for Reconciliation." This is an indispensable guide to getting the contemporary Land Acknowledgement right."-- Provided by publisher.

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Why Indigenous literatures matter

Why Indigenous literatures matter

Justice, Daniel Heath.
2018

"It's about Indigenous literatures and underscores their significance to Indigenous peoples in the realm of the political, the creative, and the intellectual. It challenges readers to examine their assumptions about Indigenous literatures and at the same time asserts the emotional connections of our shared humanity and the transformative power of story."-- Provided by publisher.

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