Native American Peoples: A Journey of Self-Discovery
Book Collection
by Tracy Martin
April 2006
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Native American Peoples: A Journey of Self-Discovery
The importance of my book collection has been the result of a long overdue selfdiscovery. I thought I might simplify my explanation for having accumulated the collection by
simply saying I have an uncle in the used book business, but too many people around campus
know me too well. The truth is I am making up for lost time, not only in understanding myself
by learning about Native peoples, but also the value of reading. I have picked up books at yard
sales, used-book sales, pow-wows, museums, various university book stores, including Winona
State, as well as the usual places like Barnes and Noble. I have traded a fishing pole for books
and many of my close friends and some of my family members have been helping me along the
way by giving me books as gifts, for which I am very grateful. The reason for this book
collection is the result of both my experiences and my desire for knowledge in being a Native
American. These books have helped me understand myself, others, the past, the present and the
future. They have given me direction and a purpose in life.
Having grown up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, I learned that identifying myself as being Native
American was not cool, and, although it was difficult for me to escape, I largely shied away from
it. My parents divorced when my sister was three and I was four years old. When my father
remarried, none of our relatives from my Anishinaabe mother’s side of the family were allowed
to visit us, including our own mother. We continued to live in Chicago, and occasionally I
would see people who looked like me or I recognized as being like me, but the things I knew
about Native Americans were only the negative stereotypes. My father and stepmother had only
negative things to say about “Indians,” what I learned from school books was also negative, and
so, I grew up ashamed and fearful of my own people.
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I suppose I must have surprised a number of people throughout my life by my lack of
knowledge about who I am. Until the late ‘80s, I had no idea what tribe I was even from, or that
there were any distinctions between Native American tribes. Then, while living in Maine, I
became friends with a group of archaeologists, studying and working at the University of Maine
at Farmington, who were interested in Native American peoples. Shortly after meeting them I
started having a repeated dream, which caused me to look for my birthmother in 1991.
At first, I spoke to my grandmother who was living on the St. Croix reservation in
Wisconsin. She told me that it did not surprise her that I had these dreams because, she said, the
Anishinaabe are dream people and it runs very strong in our family. My grandmother gave me
my mother’s phone number in Chicago and since then we have gotten to know each other. It
seemed the more I learned, the more I needed to learn, and there is a lot that continues to go
unspoken. In 1997 I moved from Maine back to Illinois and since then have been getting to
know my family, but I really began acquiring these books in 2001 just prior to moving to
Winona.
I made a significant change in my life and it became important for me to learn about
Native American religion or spirituality. During the summer of 2001, I went on a trip for Habitat
for Humanity to the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. One day we went to the bookstore at
the Sinte Gleska University and I found numerous books on Native Americans, especially the
Lakota and Native American spirituality. I bought a couple books, Vine Deloria’s God is Red: A
Native View of Religion, and John Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks but realized there might be books
specifically about the Anishinaabe. Back at home in Illinois, I stopped by a friend’s to let her
know I was moving to Winona, and she said she was moving as well and wanted to know if I
wanted some books on Native Americans. Of course I said yes and received a Time-Life series
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called The American Indians and a half dozen or so others. Then I went up to the St. Croix
reservation to visit my mother and while there connected with a cousin. We wanted to do some
fishing, but she did not have a pole nor did she have the money to buy one, so I offered to give
her one of mine but she said, “How about we trade?” She gave me three books, Beet Queen,
Mishomis, and Dream On, in exchange for the rod and reel. We did not catch much. I went to
Indian Fest in Milwaukee that same summer and bought History of the Ojibwe People, and
Chippewa Customs. Now, when I go to the larger pow-wows I look for books I do not have.
Toward the end of the summer I moved to Winona to be around my sister who had just
moved here, and I decided to go back to school. Before coming to WSU, I had hardly read any
books since high-school, and I had only skimmed through my recently acquired ones. I read two
books just prior to starting at WSU in the spring of 2002. I had no specific direction except that I
wanted to help Native American children succeed in school and give back to the Native
American community because I receive scholarships and grant which partially pay for me to go
to school. My first semester I took English 111 and Professor Kavadlo recommended I consider
English as a major. I am a CALT major, which I have found to be challenging but interesting.
Needless to say I do not have much time for reading all the books I am acquiring, but I still
continue to pick them up when I can. Usually, when I come across books I do not have, I have to
choose only one or two over several because of my financial situation as a student. My favorites
tend to be fiction by Native American authors and Native American spirituality over books about
Native Americans by Non-Native authors or histories which tend to be emotionally difficult to
read.
I especially like to see Native American authors when they come to the university and
usually will get one of their books, which they often sign. I have some books from having taken
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the Native American Literature class and always check out the books that English department
professors are using for their classes like Indian Killer, Lakota Woman and Ceremony, and if I
can, I buy them. I have acquired even more books through working for a group of professors:
the Original Peoples of the Land Learning Community.
Throughout the time I have been accumulating this collection, I have been learning about
other Native American peoples, their experiences, ways of life, traditions, values, religions,
writing styles, humor and sorrows. I have learned why the negative stereotypes continue to exist
and, through understanding what Native Americans have historically survived, has been
empowering to me. Native American authors are important today because they are rewriting our
history from their perspective. The knowledge the collection provides me is not only useful to
me in the present, but it will help me in teaching, inspiring and empowering Native American
children in the future. I have my sight set on a few more books already and who knows what
will be written in the future.
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Poetry:
Chrystos. Dream On. Vancouver: Press Gang, 1991.
Deloria, Ella Cara. Waterlily. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1988.
Louis, Adrian C. Bone & Juice. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2001.
Tohe, Laura. No Parole Today. Albuquerque: West End Press, 2002.
---. Tseyi’ Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon Chelly. Tucson: U of Arizona P,
2005.
Young Bear, Ray A. The Rock Island Hiking Club: Poems by Ray A. Young Bear. Iowa City: U
of Iowa P, 2001.
Autobiographies and Biographies:
Crow Dog, Mary. Lakota Woman. New York: Harper, 1990.
Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1972.
Razor, Peter. While the Locust Slept: A Memoir. St. Paul: MN Historical Society, 2001.
Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk. Completing the Circle. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1995.
Fiction:
Alexie, Sherman. Indian Killer. New York: Warner, 1996.
Cogan, Priscilla. Winona’s Web. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Craven, Margret. I Heard the Owl Call My Name. New York: Dell, 1973.
Erdrich, Louise. The Beet Queen. New York: Henry Holt, 1986.
---. Love Medicine. New York: Harper, 1993.
Hillerman, Tony. Skinwalkers. New York: Harper and Row, 1986.
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Howe, LeAnne. Shell Shaker. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 2001.
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. New York: Bantam, 1993.
LaDuke, Winona. Last Standing Woman. Stillwater: Voyager Press, 1997.
Rosco, Will, ed. Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1988.
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin, 1977.
Summer Rain, Mary. Spirit Song: The Visionary Wisdom of No-Eyes. West Chester: Donning,
1987.
Wallis, Velma. Bird Girl and the Man who Followed the Sun: An Athabaskan Indian Legend
from Alaska. New York: Harper, 1997.
Welch, James. Fools Crow. New York: Viking, 1986.
---. The Heartsong of Charging Elk. New York: Anchor, 2001.
Ethnologies, Histories and Cultural Analyses:
Allen, Paula Gunn, ed. Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary
Writing by Native American Women. New York: Fawcett, 1989.
Benai, Edward Benton. The Mishomis Book. Hayward: Indian Country Comm., 1988.
Berkhofer Jr., Robert F. The White Man’s Indian: Images of the American Indian from
Columbus to the Present. New York: Random, 1978.
Bettelyoun, Susan Bordeaux and Josephine Waggoner. With My Own Eyes: A Lakota Woman
Tells Her People's History. Emily Levine, ed. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1998.
Black Elk. The Sacred Pipe : Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala
Sioux. Ed. Joseph Epes Brown. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1971.
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Blaisdell, Bob, ed. Great Speeches by Native Americans. New York: Dover, 2000.
Broker, Ignatia. Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative. St. Paul: MN Historical Society,
1983.
Bruchac, Joseph. The Native American Sweat Lodge: History and Legends. Freedom, ME:
Crossing Press, 1993.
Champagne, Duane. Native America: Portrait of the Peoples. Detroit: Visible Ink, 1994.
Cleary, Linda Miller and Thomas Peacock. Collected Wisdom: American Indian Education.
Boston: Allyn, 1998.
Deloria, Jr., Vine. God is Red: A Native View of Religion. Golden CO: Fulcrum, 1992.
Densmore, Frances. Chippewa Customs. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1979.
Eastman, Charles A. Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1918.
Erdoes, Richard and Alfonso Ortiz, eds. American Indian Myths and Legends. New York:
Pantheon, 1984.
Frazier, Ian. On the Rez. New York: Picador, 2000.
Hungry Wolf, Beverly. The Ways of My Grandmothers. New York: Quill, 1982.
Johnston, Basil. Ojibwe Ceremonies. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1982.
---. The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibwe. St. Paul: MN Historical
Society, 1995.
Karol, Joseph S., ed. Everyday Lakota: An English-Sioux Dictionary for Beginners. St. Francis,
SD: Rosebud Educational Society, 1971.
Kilpatric, Jaquelyn. Celluloid Indians: Native Americans and Film. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P,
1994.
LaDuke, Winona. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge: South End
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Press, 1999.
---. Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming. Cambridge: South
End, 2005.
Lake, Medicine Grizzly Bear. Native Healer. New York: Harper, 1991.
Laubin, Reginald and Gladys Laubin. The Indian Tipi: Its History, Construction, and Use. 2nd
ed. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1977.
Lobo, Susan and Kurt Peters, eds. American Indians and the Urban Experience. Walnut Creek:
Altamira Press, 2001.
Loew, Patty. Indian Nations of Wisconsin. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 2001.
Macfarlan, Allan and Paulette Macfarlan. Handbook of American Indian Games. New York:
Dover, 1958.
Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Viking, 1983.
McGaa, Ed. Native Wisdom: Perceptions of the Natural Way. Minneapolis: Four Directions,
1995.
Mihesuah, Devon A., ed. Natives and Academics: Research and Writing about American
Indians. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1998.
---, and Angela Cavender Wilson, eds. Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming
Scholarship and Empowering Communities. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2004.
Nabokov, Peter, ed. Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from
Prophesy to the Present, 1492-1992. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Peacock, Thomas and Marlene Wisuri. Ojibwe Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look in All Directions.
Afton, MN: Afton Historical Society, 2002.
St. Pierre, Mark and Tilda Long Soldier. Walking in the Sacred Manner: Healers, Dreamers and
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Pipe Carriers: Medicine Women of the Plains Indians. New York: Touchstone, 1995.
Sandoz, Marie. Cheyenne Autumn. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1953.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwia. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. New
York: U of Otago P, 1999.
Standing Bear, Luther. Land of the Spotted Eagle. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1933.
Summer Rain, Mary. Earthway: A Native American Visionary’s Path to Total Mind, Body, and
Spiritual Health. New York: Pocket Books, 1990.
Tedlock, Dennis and Barbara Tedlock, eds. Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion
and Philosophy. New York: Liveright, 1975.
Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. Lincoln: U of
Nebraska P, 1994.
Warren, William W. History of the Ojibwe People. St. Paul: MN Historical Society, 1984.
Weatherford, Jack. Indian Givers: How the Indians of America Transformed the World. New
York: Fawcett, 1988.
White Lance, Francis. Why the Black Hills are Sacred: A Unified Theory of the Lakota
Sundance. Rapid City: Ancestors Inc., 2004.
Wilson, James. The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America. New York: Atlantic
Monthly, 1998.
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Tracy Martin
Tmmartin2627@winona.edu