Indigenous People's Literature

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Ella Cara Deloria’s 1988 novel, Waterlily, is an examination of the Dakota Native American way of life. The novel follows a Dakota camp circle called White Ghost—a group composed of several families that live and travel together. While the novel provides perspectives from many different characters, the author places the greatest focus on Blue Bird and her daughter Waterlily. At the novel’s outset, Blue Bird gives birth to Waterlily by a river while her camp... Read Waterlily Summary

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“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a short story by Sherman Alexie, an American writer and member of both the Spokane and Coeur-d’Alene nations. First published in The New Yorker in 2003, the story also featured in Alexie’s 2004 collection Ten Little Indians. Although largely realistic in its depiction of issues like homelessness and the legacy of Native American genocide, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” contains references to and elements of fairy tale... Read What You Pawn I Will Redeem Summary

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Wind From an Enemy Sky is a 1978 historical fiction novel by D’Arcy McNickle. It tells the story of the fictional Little Elk tribe in the northwestern United States and their attempts to navigate the advancement of white colonization on their lands. McNickle based the story on his life as a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation. The novel was McNickle’s last and was published posthumously. While it never... Read Wind from an Enemy Sky Summary

James Welch’s novel, Winter in the Blood, is a seminal text in the field of Indigenous American literature. The novel was published in 1974 during the Native American Renaissance, a period that began in the late 1960s, when works by Indigenous Americans in the United States gained wider publication. Welch is a preeminent figure of the movement and received praise for representing Indigenous Americans in realistic ways that acknowledge cultural divisions.In the novel, Welch uses... Read Winter In The Blood Summary

Wisdom Sits in Places (University of New Mexico Press, 1996) is a non-fiction book of essays by American ethnographer and anthropologist Keith Basso. In the book, Basso explores the role of place-names, or toponyms, in the language and culture of the Western Apache. In doing so, he sets forth an argument that the way of life of the Western Apache can only be understood by examining their sense of place, and he makes the case... Read Wisdom Sits in Places Summary

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Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit is a collection of twenty-one nonfiction essays examining modern Native American life. The collection is told entirely from the author-narrator’s point of view and concerns many of her own experiences growing up within the Laguna Pueblo community. Silko weaves her own personal experiences and observations with the stories told to her by other people, both ancient stories concerning Pueblo mythology and familial stories depicting the actions of her... Read Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit Summary