Native Women
Books:
Ackerman, Lillian. A Necessary Balance: gender and power among Indians of the Columbia
Plateau. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2003.
“In the past, many Native American cultures have treated women and men as equals. In
A Necessary Balance, Lillian A. Ackerman examines the balance of power and
responsibility between men and women within each of the eleven Plateau Indian tribes
who live today on the Colville Indian Reservation in north-central Washington State.
Ackerman analyzes tribal cultures over three historical periods lasting more than a
century--the traditional past, the farming phase when Indians were forced onto the
reservation, and the twentieth-century industrial present. Ackerman examines gender
equality in terms of power, authority, and autonomy in four social spheres: economic,
domestic, political, and religious.” –From the Press
Aleshire, Peter. Warrior Woman: The Story of Lozen, Apache Warrior and Shaman. New York:
St. Martins Press, 2001.
“Warrior Woman is the story of Lozen, sister of the famous Apache warrior Victorio, and
warrior in her own right. Hers is a story little discussed in Native American history
books. Instead, much of what is known of her has been passed down through generations
via stories and legends.” –From the Press
Alfred, Agnes, and Martine J. Reid, ed., Daisy Sewid-Smith, Translator. Paddling to Where I
Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004.
“The Kwakwakawakw people and their culture have been the subject of more
anthropological writings than any other ethnic group on the Northwest Coast. Until now,
however, no biography had been written by or about a Kwakwakawakw woman.
Paddling to Where I Stand presents the memoirs of Agnes Alfred (c.1890-1992), a nonliterate noble Qwiqwasutinuxw woman of the Kwakwakawakw Nation and one of the last
great storytellers among her peers in the classic oral tradition… Paddling to Where I
Stand is more than another anthropological interpretation of Kwakwaka’wakw culture. It
is the first-hand account, by a woman, of the greatest period of change she and her people
experienced since first contact with Europeans, and her memoirs flow from her urgently
felt desire to pass on her knowledge to younger generations.” From the Press
Bohaker, Heidi. "Forum: The Middle Ground Revisited - Nindoodemag: The Significance of
Algonquian Kinship Networks in the Eastern Great Lakes Region, 1600-1701," William and
Mary Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 1 (Jan, 2006), p. 23.
Brown, Jennifer S.H. Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country.
Vancouver: UBC Press, 1980.
“The North American fur trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a vividly
complex and changing social world. Strangers in Blood fills a major gap in fur trade
literature by systematically examining the traders as a group -- their backgrounds, social
patterns, domestic lives and families, and the problems of their offspring.” –From the
Press
Carter, Sarah. Capturing Women: The Manipulation of Cultural imagery in Canada’s Prairie
West. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997.
“The late 1800s was a critical era in the social history of the Canadian Prairies during
which racial tensions between white settlers and the Native population grew and colonial
authority was perceived to be increasingly threatened. As a result white settlers began to
erect social and spatial barriers to segregate themselves from the indigenous population.
In Capturing Women Sarah Carter examines popular representations of women that
emerged at the time, arguing that stereotypical images of Native and European women
were created and manipulated to establish boundaries between Native peoples and white
settlers and to justify repressive measures against the Native population.” –From the
Press
Crow Dog, Mary and Richard Erdoes. Lakota Woman. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.
“Mary Brave Bird gave birth to a son during the 71-day siege of Wounded Knee in 1973,
which ended with a bloody assault by U.S. marshalls and police. Seventeen years old at
the time, she married fellow activist Leonard Crow Dog, medicine man and spiritual
leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Written with Erdoes ( Lame Deer ;
Seeker of Visions ), her searing autobiography is courageous, impassioned, poetic and
inspirational. Her girlhood, a vicious circle of drinking and fighting, was marked by
poverty, racism and a rape at 14. She ran away from a coldly impersonal boarding school
run by nuns where, she reports, Indian students were beaten to induce them to give up
native customs and speech. The authors write of AIM's infiltration by FBI agents, of
Mary Crow Dog helping her husband endure prison, of Indian males' macho attitudes.
The book also describes AIM's renewal of spirituality as manifested in sweat lodges,
peyote ceremonies, sacred songs and the Ghost Dance ritual.” –From Publishers Weekly
Cruickshank, Julie in collaboration with Sidney, Angela; Smikth, Kitty; and Ned, Annie. Life
Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Elders. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1990 . American Indian Lives Series.
“Of Athapaskan and Tlingit ancestry, Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith, and Annie Ned lived
in the southern Yukon Territory for nearly a century. They collaborated with Julie
Cruikshank, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University
of British Columbia, to produce this unique kind of autobiography.” –From the Press
Deloria, Ella Cara. Waterlily, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988.
“When Blue Bird and her grandmother leave their family’s camp to gather beans for the
long, threatening winter, they inadvertently avoid the horrible fate that befalls the rest of
the family. Luckily, the two women are adopted by a nearby Dakota community and are
eventually integrated into their kinship circles. Ella Cara Deloria’s tale follows Blue Bird
and her daughter, Waterlily, through the intricate kinship practices that created unity
among her people.” –From the Press
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: A Novel. New York: Henry Holt, 1988.
Fitzgerald, Judith, Michael Oren Fitzgerald, and Janine Pease. The Spirit of Indian Women.
World Wisdom, 2005.
“One of the great callings of art is to excavate a lost part of our culture, and the
Fitzgeralds answer this summons handsomely here in a compact exploration of Native
American women's spirituality. Focusing on the nomadic Plains tribes, the book pairs
writings and oratory alongside stunning photographs, most of which have never been
published before. The editors hold fast to those individuals who received their (oral)
training from the "old timers," people who knew the pre-reservation way of life that
honored women as the complementary, spiritual equals of their husbands. A section on
the role of Indian women offers mostly male voices on that topic, while "Celestial
Femininity" preserves tribal tales that delve into divine femininity, and "Intercessors with
the Sacred" highlights traditional tribal stories that champion the sacred roles of women.
In "Women's Voices," happily encompassing half of the book, we read the exquisite
thoughts and feelings of bygone women from a lost time in American history. In portrait
after portrait, the souls of the women haunt the frontiers of the human spirit with a
staunch beauty that is both refined and raw. The wisdom in these faces is alone well
worth the price of the book.” –From Publichers Weekly
Fowler, Loretta. Wives and Husbands: Gender and Age in Southern Arapaho History. Norman,
OK: University of Oklahoma, 2010.
“In Wives and Husbands, distinguished anthropologist Loretta Fowler deepens readers
understanding of the gendered dimension of cultural encounters by exploring how the
Arapaho gender system affected and was affected by the encounter with Americans as
government officials, troops, missionaries, and settlers moved west into Arapaho country.
Fowler examines Arapaho history from 1805 to 1936 through the lens of five cohorts,
groups of women and men born during different year spans. Through the life stories of
individual Arapahos, she vividly illustrates the experiences and actions of each cohort
during a time when Americans tried to impose gender asymmetry and to undermine the
Arapahos' hierarchical age relations.” – From the Press
Gray, Charlotte. Flint & Feather : the Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake.
Toronto: HarperPerennial Canada, 2002.
“In Flint & Feather, Charlotte Gray explores the life of this nineteenth-century daughter
of a Mohawk chief and English gentlewoman, creating a fascinating portrait of a young
woman equally at home on the stage in her “Indian” costume and in the salons of the rich
and powerful. Uncovering Pauline Johnson’s complex and dramatic personality, Flint &
Feather is studded with triumph and tragedy, mystery and romance—a first-rate
biography blending turn-of-the-century Canadian history and the vibrant story of a
woman whose unforgettable voice still echoes through the years.” –From the Press
Green, Rayna. "The Pocahontas Perplex: The Image of Indian Women in American Culture,"
Massachusetts Review, vol. 16 (1975), p. 4.
Greer, Allan. Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekawitha and Jesuits. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005.
“With this richly crafted study, Allan Greer has written a dual biography of Tekakwitha
and Chauchetiere, unpacking their cultures in Native America and in France. He
examines the missionary and conversion activities of the Jesuits in Canada, and explains
the Indian religious practices that interweave with converts' Catholic practices. He also
relates how Tekakwitha's legend spread through the hagiographies and to areas of the
United States, Canada, Europe, and Mexico in the centuries since her death. The book
also explores issues of body and soul, illness and healing, sexuality and celibacy, as
revealed in the lives of a man and a woman, from profoundly different worlds, who met
centuries ago in the remote Mohawk village of Kahnawake.” –From the Press
Harris, LaDonna and H. Henrietta Stockel. LaDonna Harris: a Comanche life. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
“This book is the unforgettable story of a Comanche woman who has become one of the
most influential, inspired, and determined Native Americans in politics. LaDonna Harris
was born on a Comanche allotment in southern Oklahoma in the 1930s. From her earliest
years, she was immersed in a world of resistance, reform, and political action. As the
wife of Senator Fred R. Harris, LaDonna was actively involved in political advising,
campaigning, and networking.” –From the Press
Hayes, Ernestine. Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir. University of Arizona. Sun Tracks
Series. 2007.
“In the spring, the bear returns to the forest, the glacier returns to its source, and the
salmon returns to the fresh water where it was spawned. Drawing on the special
relationship that the Native people of southeastern Alaska have always had with nature,
Blonde Indian is a story about returning. Told in eloquent layers that blend Native stories
and metaphor with social and spiritual journeys, this enchanting memoir traces the
author’s life from her difficult childhood growing up in the Tlingit community, through
her adulthood, during which she lived for some time in Seattle and San Francisco, and
eventually to her return home. Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes
encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the
dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women—
many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges,
including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty. The author’s personal
journey, the symbolic stories of contemporary Natives, and the tales and legends that
have circulated among the Tlingit people for centuries are all woven together, making
Blonde Indian much more than the story of one woman’s life. Filled with anecdotes,
descriptions, and histories that are unique to the Tlingit community, this book is a
document of cultural heritage, a tribute to the Alaskan landscape, and a moving testament
to how going back—in nature and in life—allows movement forward.” –From the Press
Hedge Coke, Allison. Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press. American Indian Lives Series. 2004.
“A name creates life patterns,” Allison Adelle Hedge Coke writes, “which form and
shape a life; my life, like my name, must have been formed many times over then handed
to me to realize.” Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer is Hedge Coke’s narrative of that
realization, the award-winning poet and writer’s searching account of her life as a mixedblood woman coming of age off-reservation, yet deeply immersed in her Cherokee and
Huron heritage. In a style at once elliptical and achingly clear, Hedge Coke describes her
schizophrenic mother and the abuse that often overshadowed her childhood; the torments
visited upon her, the rape and physical violence; and those she inflicted on herself, the
alcohol and drug abuse. Yet she managed to survive with her dreams and her will, her
sense of wonder and promise undiminished.” –From the Press
Hogan, Linda. Mean Spirit: A novel. New York: Collier Macmillan Canada, 1990.
“Set in Oklahoma during the oil boom of the early 1920s, this brooding and profoundly
moving first novel focuses on two doomed Osage Indian families, the Blankets and the
Grayclouds. The brutal murder of Grace Blanket, owner of oil-rich land, witnessed in
horror by her young daughter Nola and Nola's friend Rena Graycloud, is only the first of
a series of violent events designed to coerce the tribes and put their lands into the hands
of the oil barons. Justice is slow and ambiguous. When Stace Red Hawk, a policeman
with the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, finds his inquiries blocked and his efforts
frustrated by evasive and corrupt federal officials, he travels from Washington, D.C., to
Oklahoma to investigate firsthand. Soon, like many of the Indian families depicted here,
Stace is torn between the glitter of 20th-century life and the pull of sacred traditions.
Hogan, a poet, professor and member of the Chickasaw tribe, mines a rich vein of Indian
customs and rituals, and approaches her characters with reverence, bringing them to life
with quick, spare phrases. Her absorbing novel pays elegiac tribute to the slow and
irrevocable breakup of centuries of culture.” –From Publishers Weekly
Hogan, Linda. Woman Who Watches over the World: A Native Memoir. New York: Norton,
2001.
“Following critical praise for her other works, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated
novel Mean Spirit, Hogan offers a memoir rich with the texture of her life as a Chickasaw
Indian. Each chapter weaves together her personal and often tragic experiences as the
daughter of an army sergeant with Native history, myths, legends, earth, and
contemporary life. Although she is often depicting painful events, her voice resonates
calm. For example, an unsettling discussion of her pubescent love affair with an adult
man while her family is stationed in Germany introduces exploitation and abuse. This is
followed by the strong and tranquil chapter "Water: A Love Story," in which she crosses
the ocean on her return to America. She is a "child held up by water" as she travels "away
from a broken human past." Even the chapter titles emit an otherworldly quality: "Fire,
Dreams and Visions: The Given-Off Light," "Silence Is My Mother," and "Bones, and
Other Precious Gems." Words, after all, "are the defining shape of a human spirit." A
very good book that goes a long way toward explaining Native Americans today; for all
academic and public libraries.” - Sue Samson, Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Horne, Esther Burnette and McBeth, Sally. Essie's Story: The Life and Legacy of a Shoshoni
Teacher. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. American Indian Lives Series.
“This is the spirited story of Esther Burnett Horne, an accomplished and inspiring
educator in Indian boarding schools. Born in 1909, Horne attended Haskell Indian
Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, and often visited relatives on the Shoshone Wind River
Reservation in Wyoming. Motivated by teachers like Ella Deloria and Ruth Muskrat
Bronson, Horne devoted her life to educating other Indian children. She began teaching at
the Wahpeton Indian School in Wahpeton, North Dakota, in 1930 and has remained
active in education to the present day.” –From the Press
Hungry Wolf, Beverly. The Ways of My Grandmothers. New York: Morrow, 1980.
“A young Native American woman creates a hauntingly beautiful tribute to an age-old
way of life in this fascinating portrait of the women of the Blackfoot Indians. A
captivating tapestry of personal and tribal history, legends and myths, and the wisdom
passed down through generations of women, this extraordinary book is also a priceless
record of the traditional skills and ways of an ancient culture that is vanishing all too fast.
Including many rare photographs, The Ways of My Grandmothers is an authentic
contribution to our knowledge and understanding of Native American lore -- and a classic
that will speak to women everywhere.” –From the Press
Joe, Rita. Song of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi'Kmaq Poet. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press. American Indian Lives Series, 1996.
“Here is the enlightening story of an esteemed and eloquent Mi’kmaq woman whose
message of “gentle persuasion” has enriched the life of a nation. Rita Joe is celebrated as
a poet, an educator, and an ambassador. In 1989, she accepted the Order of Canada “on
behalf of native people across the nation.” In this spirit she tells her story and, by her
example, illustrates the experiences of an entire generation of aboriginal women in
Canada.” –From the Press
Johnston, Carolyn. Cherokee Women in Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 18381907. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.
“Explains how traditional Cherokee women's roles were destabilized, modified,
recovered, and in some ways strengthened during three periods of great turmoil…
Carolyn Johnston (who is related to John Ross, principal chief of the Nation) looks at
how Cherokee women navigated these crises in ways that allowed them to retain their
traditional assumptions, ceremonies, and beliefs and to thereby preserve their culture. In
the process, they both lost and retained power. The author sees a poignant irony in the
fact that Europeans who encountered Native societies in which women had significant
power attempted to transform them into patriarchal ones and that American women
struggled for hundreds of years to achieve the kind of equality that Cherokee women had
enjoyed for more than a millennium.” –From the Press
Kelm, Mary-Ellen and Lorna Townsend, eds. In the Days of Our Grandmothers: A Reader in
Aboriginal Women's History in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
“From Ellen Gabriel to Tantoo Cardinal, many of the faces of Aboriginal people in the
media today are women. In the Days of Our Grandmothers is a collection of essays
detailing how Aboriginal women have found their voice in Canadian society over the past
three centuries. Collected in one volume for the first time, these essays critically situate
Aboriginal women in the fur trade, missions, labour and the economy, the law, sexuality,
and the politics of representation.” –From the Press
Klein, Laura F. and Lillian A. Ackerman. Women and Power in Native North America. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.
“Since the colonization of indigenous peoples in North America, the roles of Native
women within their societies have been concealed or, at best, misunderstood. By
examining gender status, and particularly power, in ten culture areas, this volume, edited
by Laura F. Klein and Lillian A. Ackerman, seeks to draw away the curtain of silence
surrounding the lives of Native North American women.” –From the Press
Kugel, Rebecca and Lucy Eldersveld Murphy. Native Women's History in Eastern North
America before 1900: A Guide to Research and Writing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
2007.
“How can we learn more about Native women’s lives in North America in earlier
centuries? This question is answered by this landmark anthology, an essential guide to the
significance, experiences, and histories of Native women. Sixteen classic essays—plus
new commentary—many by the original authors—describe a broad range of research
methods and sources offering insight into the lives of Native American women. The
authors explain the use of letters and diaries, memoirs and autobiographies, newspaper
accounts and ethnographies, census data and legal documents. This collection offers
guidelines for extracting valuable information from such diverse sources and assessing
the significance of such variables as religious affiliation, changes in women’s power after
colonization, connections between economics and gender, and representations (and
misrepresentations) of Native women.” –From the Press
Leacock, Eleanor. "Montagnais Women and the Jesuit Program for Colonization," in Women and
Colonization: Anthropological Perspectives. Etienne, Montana and Eleanor Leacock, Eds. New
York: Praeger Publishers, 1980.
Linderman, Frank. Pretty-Shield: Medicine Woman of the Crow. New York: John Day Co.,
1972, originally 1932.
“Pretty-shield, the legendary medicine woman of the Crows, remembered what life was
like on the Plains when the buffalo were still plentiful. A powerful healer who was
forceful, astute, and compassionate, Pretty-shield experienced many changes as her
formerly mobile people were forced to come to terms with reservation life in the late
nineteenth century. Pretty-shield told her story to Frank Linderman through an interpreter
and using sign language. The lives, responsibilities, and aspirations of Crow women are
vividly brought to life in these pages as Pretty-shield recounts her life on the Plains of
long ago. She speaks of the simple games and dolls of an Indian childhood and the work
of the girls and women—setting up the lodges, dressing the skins, picking berries,
digging roots, and cooking. Through her eyes we come to understand courtship, marriage,
childbirth and the care of babies, medicine-dreams, the care of the sick, and other facets
of Crow womanhood.” –From the Press
Lurie, Nancy Oestreich, ed. Mountain Wolf Woman: The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961.
“From pony to airplane, from medicine dance to Christian worship, Mountain Wolf
Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder is the life story of a Winnebago woman, told in her
own words to her adopted kinswoman, Nancy Lurie. This retelling of more than seventyfive years of Native American life is both a candid and compelling account of how one
woman lived through a period of cultural crisis. Mountain Wolf Woman tells of her
childhood in Wisconsin, her brief stay at a mission school, her marriage to "Bad Soldier,"
and her religious experiences with peyote. Her struggle to maintain her family against
many hardships---odds that would have defeated a less vigorous and self-confident
person---underscores her perseverance and tenacity. Whether she is describing her
wanderings as a child or her misfortunes later in life, Mountain Wolf Woman sets forth
her views in honest and perceptive terms, adding all the more power to her narrative.” –
From the Press
Mankiller, Wilma. Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women.
Anniversary Edition ed. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2011.
“Nineteen prominent Native artists, educators, and activists share their candid and often
profound thoughts on what it means to be a Native American woman in the early 21st
century. Their stories are rare and often intimate glimpses of women who have made a
conscious decision to live every day to its fullest and stand for something larger than
themselves.” –From the Press.
Mankiller, Wilma Pearl. Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. New York: St. Martins Press, 1993.
“In this spiritual, moving autobiography, Wilma Mankiller, former Chief of the Cherokee
Nation and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, tells of her own history
while also honoring and recounting the history of the Cherokees. Mankiller's life unfolds
against the backdrop of the dawning of the American Indian civil rights struggle, and her
book becomes a quest to reclaim and preserve the great Native American values that form
the foundation of our nation. Now featuring a new Afterword to the 2000 paperback
reissue, this edition of Mankiller completely updates the author's private and public life
after 1994 and explores the recent political struggles of the Cherokee Nation.” –From the
Press
Maracle, Lee. I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism. Vancouver, B.C.:
Press Gang Publishers, 1996.
“In I Am Woman: A Native Perspective On Sociology And Feminism, Lee Maracle goes
to a deeply personal place, and emerges with an examination of the conditions of
contemporary Native women. Beginning with memories of her own childhood and
education, moving through an insider's account of First Nations activism and
motherhood, Maracle's analysis is both wide-ranging and visionary. I Am Woman is
uncompromising in its exploration of colonialism, past and present. I Am Woman brings
together the impacts of racism, sexism and nationalist oppression. I Am Woman provides
and insightful and persuasive contribution towards an understanding of the political and
cultural factors in the feminist struggle for equality and respect. A valued and accessible
work that would enhance every personal, academic or community library women's
studies collection.” –Midwest Book Review
Markstrom, Carol A. Empowerment of North American Indian Girls: Ritual Expressions at
Puberty. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
“Empowerment of North American Indian Girls is an examination of coming-of-ageceremonies for American Indian girls past and present, featuring an in-depth look at
Native ideas about human development and puberty. Many North American Indian
cultures regard the transition from childhood to adulthood as a pivotal and potentially
vulnerable phase of life and have accordingly devised coming-of-age rituals to affirm
traditional values and community support for its members. Such rituals are a positive and
enabling social force in many modern Native communities whose younger generations
are wrestling with substance abuse, mental health problems, suicide, and school dropout.”
–From the Press
Margaret B. Blackman. During My Time: Florence Edenshaw Davidson, a Haida Woman.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982.
“This book is the first life history of a Northwest Coast Indian woman. Florence
Davidson, daughter of noted Haida carver and chief Charles Edenshaw, was born in
1896. As one of the few living Haida elders knowledgeable bout the culture of a bygone
era, she was a fragile link with the past. Living in Masset on the Queen Charlotte Islands,
some fifty miles off the northwest coast of British Columbia, Florence Davidson grew up
in an era of dramatic change for her people. On of the last Haida women to undergo the
traditional puberty seclusion and an arranged marriage, she followed patterns in her life
typical of women of her generation.” –From the Press
Mihesuah, Devon. Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
“Mihesuah first examines how American Indigenous women have been perceived and
depicted by non-Natives, including scholars, and by themselves. She then illuminates the
pervasive impact of colonialism and patriarchal thought on Native women’s traditional
tribal roles and on their participation in academia. Mihesuah considers how relations
between Indigenous women and men across North America continue to be altered by
Christianity and Euro-American ideologies. Sexism and violence against Indigenous
women has escalated; economic disparities and intratribal factionalism and “culturalism”
threaten connections among women and with men; and many women suffer from
psychological stress because their economic, religious, political, and social positions are
devalued.” –From the Press
Miller, Jay, Ed. Morning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press. American Indian Lives Series.
"An exciting story that transports the reader to another time and place... Anyone
interested in American Indian history, culture, religion, and literature should read this
informative volume that was produced at such great cost. Mourning Dove literally gave
her life to do this work, and Jay Miller has painstakingly edited it to share the words and
wisdom of Humishuma with the non-Salish world."oAmerican Indian Culture and
Research Journal. "Mourning Dove's evocation of the complexities of tribal life is
irresistible, full of acutely remembered conversations, ceremonies, and events."oLibrary
Journal. "The accounts of guardian spirit quest, of seeking medicinal power, of winter
dancing, seancind rite, and the sweatlodge unite cultural knowledge and personal
experience in a compelling way. The perspective on history through the experience of her
family is immensely valuable as well."oDell Hymes, Canadian Journal of Native Studies.
"[This] autobiography artfully weaves tribal history, Salishan traditions, and a wealth of
information of the female life cycle with the story of [Christine] Quintasket's own
childhood and coming of age on the Colville Reservation in Washington. Mourning Dove
is a rare and important study of the Interior Salish people during the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. Miller, by providing thoughtful editing and constructive
footnotes, have given new life to Mourning Dove's narrative."oWestern Historical
Quarterly.
Morning Dove, and Sho-po-tan, and Lucullus Virgil McWhorter. Cogewea, The Half Blood: A
depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
“One of the first known novels by a Native American woman, Cogewea (1927) is the
story of a half-blood girl caught between the worlds of Anglo ranchers and full-blood
reservation Indians; between the craven and false-hearted easterner Alfred Densmore and
James LaGrinder, a half-blood cowboy and the best rider on the Flathead; between book
learning and the folk wisdom of her full-blood grandmother. The book combines
authentic Indian lore with the circumstance and dialogue of a popular romance; in its
language, it shows a self-taught writer attempting to come to terms with the rift between
formal written style and the comfort-able rhythms and slang of familiar speech.” –From
the Press
Niethammer, Carol. I'll Go and Do More: Annie Dodge Wauneka, Navajo Leader and Activist.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001. American Indian Lives Series.
“I'll Go and Do More is the story of Annie Dodge Wauneka (1918–97), one of the bestknown Navajos of all time. A daughter of the popular Navajo leader Chee Dodge,
Wauneka spent most of her early years herding sheep and raising nine children. After her
father's death, she entered politics and was often the only woman on the Navajo Tribal
Council during the quarter century that she served. Wauneka became a forceful and
articulate advocate for Indian health care, education, and other issues, working both on
the reservation and in the halls of Congress to improve the lives of the Navajos.” –From
the Press
Natelie Zemon Davis, "Iroquois Women, European Women,” in Women, “Race,” and Writing in
the Early Modern Period. London: Routledge, 1994.
Lewis, Randolph. Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision of a Native Filmaker. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press. American Indian Lives Series. 2006.
“Incorporating history, politics, and film theory into a compelling narrative, Randolph
Lewis explores the life and work of a multifaceted woman whose career was flourishing
long before Native films such as Smoke Signals reached the screen. He traces
Obomsawin’s path from an impoverished Abenaki reserve in the 1930s to bohemian
Montreal in the 1960s, where she first found fame as a traditional storyteller and singer.
Lewis follows her career as a celebrated documentary filmmaker, citing her courage in
covering, at great personal risk, the 1991 Oka Crisis between Mohawk warriors and
Canadian soldiers. We see how, since the late 1960s, Obomsawin has transformed
documentary film, reshaping it for the first time into a crucial forum for sharing
indigenous perspectives. Through a careful examination of her work, Lewis proposes a
new vision for indigenous media around the globe: a “cinema of sovereignty” based on
what Obomsawin has accomplished.” –From the Press
Osburn, Katherine. Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 18851934. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
“After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, the Southern Ute Agency was the
scene of an intense federal effort to assimilate the Ute Indians. The Southern Utes were to
break up their common land holdings and transform themselves into middle-class
patriarchal farm and pastoral families. In this assimilationist scheme, women were to
surrender the considerable autonomy they enjoyed in traditional Ute society and become
housebound homemakers, the “civilizers” of their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons.
Southern Ute Women shows that these women accommodated Anglo ways that benefited
them but refused to give up indigenous culture and ways that gave their lives meaning
and bolstered personal autonomy. In spite of federal policies that stripped women of
many legal rights, Southern Ute women demanded participation in political, economic,
and legal decisions that affected their lives and insisted on retaining control over their
marital and sexual behavior.” –From the Press
Perdue, Theda. Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1815. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1998.
“Theda Perdue examines the roles and responsibilities of Cherokee women during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time of intense cultural change. While building on
the research of earlier historians, she develops a uniquely complex view of the effects of
contact on Native gender relations, arguing that Cherokee conceptions of gender persisted
long after contact. Maintaining traditional gender roles actually allowed Cherokee
women and men to adapt to new circumstances and adopt new industries and practices.”
–From the Press
Perdue, Theda. Sifters: Native American Women's Lives. Oxford University Press, 2001.
“In this edited volume, Theda Perdue, a nationally known expert on Indian history and
southern women's history, offers a rich collection of biographical essays on Native
American women. From Pocahontas, a Powhatan woman of the seventeenth century, to
Ada Deer, the Menominee woman who headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1990s,
the essays span four centuries. Each one recounts the experiences of women from vastly
different cultural traditions--the hunting and gathering of Kumeyaay culture of Delfina
Cuero, the pueblo society of San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez, and the powerful
matrilineal kinship system of Molly Brant's Mohawks. Contributors focus on the ways in
which different women have fashioned lives that remain firmly rooted in their identity as
Native women. Perdue's introductory essay ties together the themes running through the
biographical sketches, including the cultural factors that have shaped the lives of Native
women, particularly economic contributions, kinship, and belief, and the ways in which
historical events, especially in United States Indian policy, have engendered change.” –
From the Press
Pesantubbee, Michelene E. Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World: the clash of cultures in the
Colonial Southeast. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
Peterson, Susan. Maria Martinez: Five Generations of Potters. Washington: Renwick Gallery,
Smithsonian Institute, and Government Print Office, 1978.
Red Shirt, Delphine. Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 2002. American Indian Lives Series.
“Told in their own words, Turtle Lung Woman’s Granddaughter is the unforgettable
story of several generations of Lakota women who grew up on the open plains of
northern Nebraska and southern South Dakota. Delphine Red Shirt has delicately woven
the life stories of her mother, Lone Woman, and Red Shirt’s great-grandmother, Turtle
Lung Woman, into a continuous narrative that succeeds triumphantly as a moving, epic
saga of Lakota women from traditional times in the mid–nineteenth century to the
present. Especially revealing are Turtle Lung Woman’s relationship with her husband,
Paints His Face with Clay, her healing practice as a medicine woman, Lone Woman’s
hardships and celebrations growing up in the early twentieth century, and many
wonderful details of their domestic lives before and during the early reservation years.” –
From the Press
Robinson, Eden. Monkey Beach. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
“Jimmy Hill's fishing boat is lost at sea, and while his older sister, Lisa, waits for word,
her thoughts drift to their childhood in Kitamaat, a small Haisla Canadian Indian
community off the coast of British Columbia. Skipping back and forth between the 20year-old Lisa's anxious vigil and the story of her upbringing, this lyrical first novel by
half-Haisla short story writer Robinson (Traplines) sings with honesty. As a child, Lisa is
a feisty kid, a fighter. Her heroes are her Uncle Mick, a Native rights activist who teaches
her to sing "Fuck the Oppressors," and her grandmother Ma-ma-oo, who instructs her in
Haisla ways. Popular culture and tradition go hand in hand in Kitamaat, where a burnt
offering to the dead is likely to be a box of Twinkies, and Lisa's sensible, hard-working
parents try to give their children the best of both worlds. Jimmy, a straight arrow, shows
early promise as a swimmer and trains for the Olympics. Lisa, meanwhile, is thrown off
course by the tragic death of Uncle Mick and joins a gang of tough boys in junior high. A
few years later, she runs away to Vancouver and a life of drugs and alcohol. Startled at
last out of her downward spiral by the spirits that have visited her since she was a little
girl, she comes home just in time to watch as her brother's life falls apart and he
inexplicably takes a job as a deckhand. Eventually, she sets out alone to meet her parents
near the spot where Jimmy's boat was last seen. Lisa is an unsentimental, ferocious,
funny and utterly believable protagonist; Robinson's narrative is engrossing but fiercely
uncompromising, avoiding easy resolution. Fans of writers like Lois Anne Yamanaka and
Sherman Alexie, who blurbs the book, will appreciate this gritty, touching story.” –From
Publishers Weekly
Roscoe, Will. Zunie Man-Woman. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991.
“The Zuni Man-Woman focuses on the life of We'wha (1849-96), the Zuni who was
perhaps the most famous berdache (an individual who combined the work and traits of
both men and women) in American Indian history. Through We'wha's exceptional life,
Will Roscoe creates a vivid picture of an alternative gender role whose history has been
hidden and almost forgotten.” –From the Press
Rountree, Helen C. "Powhatan Indian Women: The people John Smith barely saw" in
Ethnohistory, vol. 45, no. 1 (Winter, 1998).
Sarris, Greg. Mabel Mckay: Weaving the Dream. Berkley: University of California Press, 1997.
“A world-renowned Pomo basket weaver and medicine woman, Mabel McKay expressed
her genius through her celebrated baskets, her Dreams, her cures, and the stories with
which she kept her culture alive. She spent her life teaching others how the spirit speaks
through the Dream, how the spirit heals, and how the spirit demands to be heard. Greg
Sarris weaves together stories from Mabel McKay's life with an account of how he tried,
and she resisted, telling her story straight--the white people's way. Sarris, an Indian of
mixed-blood heritage, finds his own story in his search for Mabel McKay's. Beautifully
narrated, Weaving the Dream initiates the reader into Pomo culture and demonstrates
how a woman who worked most of her life in a cannery could become a great healer and
an artist whose baskets were collected by the Smithsonian. Hearing Mabel McKay's life
story, we see that distinctions between material and spiritual and between mundane and
magical disappear. What remains is a timeless way of healing, of making art, and of
being in the world.” –From the Press
Shoemaker, Nancy. Negotiators of Change: Historical Perspectives on native American Women.
New York: Routledge, 1995.
“Negotiators of Change covers the history of ten tribal groups including the Cherokee,
Iroquois and Navajo -- as well as tribes with less known histories such as the Yakima,
Ute, and Pima-Maricopa. The book contests the idea that European colonialization led to
a loss of Native American women's power, and instead presents a more complex picture
of the adaption to, and subversion of, the economic changes introduced by Europeans.
The essays also discuss the changing meainings of motherhood, women's roles and
differing gender ideologies within this context.” –From the Press
Snell, Alma Hogan. Grandmother's Grandchild: My Crow Indian Life. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 2000. American Indian Lives Series.
“Grandmother's Grandchild is the remarkable story of Alma Hogan Snell, a Crow
woman brought up by her grandmother, the famous medicine woman Pretty Shield. Snell
grew up during the 1920s and 1930s, part of the second generation of Crows to be born
into reservation life. Like many of her contemporaries, she experienced poverty, personal
hardships, and prejudice and left home to attend federal Indian schools.” –From the Press
Summers, Wynne L. Women Elders’ Life Stories of the Omaha Tribe: Macy, Nebraska, 20042005. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
“Eleanor Baxter, Alice Saunsoci, and Hawate (Wenona Caramony) are female elders of
the Omaha Tribe in Macy, in the northeast corner of Nebraska. All three grew up on the
Omaha reservation, moved away in later life, and held careers outside the reservation.
Yet all returned to their community, bringing the skills they learned in the “white world”
and the knowledge they gained as children from their own elders to contribute to the
well-being of the Omaha people. Eleanor Baxter was formerly the Omaha tribal chair, the
first woman to serve in this capacity, and continues to be politically active; Alice
Saunsoci is a language teacher at the Nebraska Indian Community College; and Hawate
assists the Omaha community as an educator and language teacher. With a balanced
focus on traditional culture and modern success, each of these three women guides the
tribe in her own way toward a better understanding of what it means to be Omaha. In this
poetic account, Wynne L. Summers presents these women’s lives in their own voices,
giving agency to their experiences both on and off the reservation.” –From the Press
Sunseri, Lina. Being Again of One Mind: Oneida Woman and the Struggle for Decolonization.
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010.
“Being Again of One Mind combines the narratives of Oneida women of various
generations with a critical reading of feminist literature on nationalism to reveal that
some Indigenous women view nationalism in the form of decolonization as a way to
restore traditional gender balance and well-being to their own lives and communities.” –
From the Press
Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
“Famous in American legend as the Indian woman who saved and then married Captain
John Smith of Jamestown, Pocahontas has often been a symbol of the capitulation of
Native America to British colonialism. Historian Townsend, working from a very
fragmentary record, gives Pocahontas a fiercely independent life, within her own nation
and outside it. In this often pedantic and speculative biography, Townsend traces
Pocahontas’s life from her childhood and youth (when her strength and athletic ability
rivaled the best of either sex) to her eventual marriage to John Rolfe and her move to
England. Townsend presents her as shrewd in working for her people’s best interests, and
self-assured and confident of her abilities to construct her own identity in a world
dominated by powerful and imperialistic others. Unfortunately, a paucity of information
results in too many conditional statements ("we can never really know," etc.); many
readers will prefer genuine gaps.” –From Publishers Weekly
Turner, Erin H. Wise Women: From Pocahontas to Sarah Winnemucca, Remarkable Stories of
Native American Trailblazers. TwoDot, 2009.
“The story of Pocahontas saving John Smith is justly famous, as is the cross-country
journey of Sacajawea with the Corps of Discovery, and Sarah Winnemucca earned fame
by being a champion of her people as the old ways of life were disappearing. But there
are lesser known stories of the Native American women who shaped their cultures and
changed the course of American history—stories that have all too often been overlooked.
Under the extreme circumstances that faced indigenous peoples over the centuries, brave
and intelligent Native American women often put their safety and the lives of their
families at risk by taking on the roles of peacemakers, diplomats, and spokeswomen for
their people. Wise Women brings together their amazing stories. Encompassing states
from Florida to Alaska and many different tribes, it preserves the legacies of wise women
who were caught between two cultures, and yet worked tenaciously to preserve the
traditions of their tribes and to teach others.” –From the Press
Udall, Luise. Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press, 1969.
“An energetic Hopi woman emerges from a traditional family background to embrace the
more conventional way of life in American today. Enchanting and enlightening—a rare
piece of primary source anthropology.” –From the Press
Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.
“Beginning with the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670, the fur trade
dominated the development of the Canadian west. Although detailed accounts of the furtrade era have appeared, until recently the rich social history has been ignored. In this
book, the fur trade is examined not simply as an economic activity but as a social and
cultural complex that was to survive for nearly two centuries. The author traces the
development of a mutual dependency between Indian and European traders at the
economic level that evolved into a significant cultural exchange as well. Marriages of fur
traders to Indian women created bonds that helped advance trade relations. As a result of
these "many tender ties," there emerged a unique society derived from both Indian and
European culture.” –From the Press
Wachowich, Nancy. Saqiyuq: Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women. Montreal: McGillQueen's University Press, 1999.
“A grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter take us on a remarkable journey in which
the cycles of life - childhood, adolescence, marriage, birthing and child rearing - are
presented against the contrasting experiences of three successive generations. Their
memories and reflections give us poignant insight into the history of the people of the
new territory of Nunavut… Nancy Wachowich became friends with Rhoda Katsak and
her family during the early 1990s and was able to record their stories before Apphia's
death in 1996. Saqiyuq will appeal to everyone interested in the Inuit, the North, family
bonds, and a good story.” –From the Press
Wagner, Sally Roesch. Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American
Feminists. Summertown, TN: Native Voices, Book Publishing Company, 2001.
“The compelling history of women's struggle for freedom and equality in this country and
documents the Iroquois influence on this broad social movement. The revolutionary
changes unleashed by the Iroquois/feminist relationship continue to shape our lives.” –
From the Press
Wallis, Velma. Two Old Women : An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival.
Fairbanks: Epicenter Press, 1993.
“This novel of two Native American women abandoned by their tribe in the Alaskan
Yukon won the 1993 Western State Book award.” –From Publisher’s Weekly
Zanjani. Sally. Sarah Winnemucca. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001. American
Indian Lives Series.
“This book is the triumphant and moving story of Sarah Winnemucca (1844–91), one of
the most influential and charismatic Native women in American history. Born into a
legendary family of Paiute leaders in western Nevada, Sarah dedicated much of her life to
working for her people. She played an instrumental and controversial role as interpreter
and messenger for the U.S. Army during the Bannock War of 1878 and traveled to
Washington in 1880 to obtain the release of her people from confinement on the Yakama
Reservation. She toured the East Coast in the 1880s, tirelessly giving speeches about the
plight of her people and heavily criticizing the reservation system. In 1883 she produced
her autobiography—the first written by a Native woman—and founded a Native school
whose educational practices were far ahead of its time. Sally Zanjani also reveals Sarah’s
notorious sharp tongue and wit, her love of performance, her string of failed
relationships, and at the end, possible poisoning by a romantic rival.” –From the Press
Zitkala-Sa. American Indian Stories. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985, originally
1921.
“American Indian Stories, first published in 1921, is a collection of childhood stories,
allegorical fiction, and an essay. One of the most famous Sioux writers and activists of
the modern era, Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) recalled legends and tales from oral
tradition and used experiences from her life and community to educate others about the
Yankton Sioux. Determined, controversial, and visionary, she creatively worked to bridge
the gap between her own culture and mainstream American society and advocated for
Native rights on a national level.” –From the Press
Updated and Annotations Compiled by: Meaghan Heisinger (2011)
Compiled by: H-AmIndain subscribers (2008)