Indigenous People's Literature

... Read The Seed Keeper Summary

... Read The Sentence Summary

... Read The Shawl Summary

... Read The Thanksgiving Play Summary

... Read The Things She's Seen Summary

This study guide refers to the 2009 House of Anansi Press edition of Wade Davis’s The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. The Wayfinders collects a series of five Massey Lectures that Davis delivered in Canada in 2009. Davis is a Colombian-Canadian anthropologist and ethnobotanist, and the Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. This position, as well as his long anthropological career, has allowed Davis to spend time with many of the... Read The Wayfinders Summary

The Way to Rainy Mountain by Navarre Scott Momaday was first published in 1969. Momaday is a member of the Kiowa nation, a PhD-holding literary scholar, and a prominent American writer largely credited with initiating the Native American Literary Renaissance. On his father’s side, Momaday traces his family to Guipahgo (Lone Wolf), the last Principal Chief of the Kiowas, and this lineage features prominently in the book’s storytelling. The book is a work of creative... Read The Way to Rainy Mountain Summary

The Whale Rider is a 1987 novel by New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera. A film adaptation was made in 2002 that would go on to win several awards. Throughout the novel, Ihimaera juxtaposes the migration of a herd of whales with the Maori tribe’s search for a male heir. The Whale Rider comprises four major sections, as well as a prologue, epilogue, and glossary. Each section of text is named after one of the seasons... Read The Whale Rider Summary

... Read The World on Turtle's Back Summary

... Read They Don't Love You Like I Love You Summary

... Read The Yield Summary

... Read This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona Summary

... Read This Morning I Pray for My Enemies Summary

Three Day Road is a harrowing war narrative that details the interconnected lives of several Cree Indians during World War One. Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack are best friends who have lived as bush Indians for most of their lives. They live with Xavier’s aunt, Niska, who has taught Xavier how to live in the old ways. Xavier, in turn, has shown Elijah. One day, the boys hear about a great war taking place in... Read Three Day Road Summary

Through Black Spruce, published in 2008, is Canadian author Joseph Boyden’s second novel. His first, Three Day Road (2005), is a work of historical fiction based on the life of Xavier Bird. Through Black Spruce focuses on Xavier’s son, Will Bird, and his granddaughter, Annie Bird. Boyden uses storytelling as a narrative framework to share the Bird family’s story. Annie and Will narrate alternating chapters, telling stories about their past year as the reader also... Read Through Black Spruce Summary

The novel opens with Sound of Running Feet, a young Nez Perce girl and the daughter of Chief Joseph. She runs into a white settler and his wife in a familiar meadow near her village. She challenges the settler and reports the incident to her father, who tells her that white settlers are coming in droves. Chief Joseph is a thoughtful and respectable chief but not a war chief—he is worried about his people.Soon, the... Read Thunder Rolling in the Mountains Summary

Tracks, by Louise Erdrich, appeared as the third in a tetralogy of works beginning with Love Medicine, continuing with The Beet Queen, and ending with The Bingo Palace. All of these novels center on the history of the Chippewa or Ojibwe tribe located in and around the fictional town of Argus, North Dakota. In Tracks, Erdrich reaches back into the early twentieth century to retell the great losses the Chippewa tribe experienced. When disease and... Read Tracks Summary

... Read Trail of Lightning Summary

... Read Truth and Bright Water Summary

In the 1993 novella Two Old Women by Velma Wallis, the harsh Alaskan climate and rigidity of tribal life set the stage for a life-changing journey marked by perseverance and passion. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, two elderly women find themselves in the fight of their lives, a fight they rise to with beauty and determination. The story of these two women, Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak, has come to reverberate through the ages. Part of an... Read Two Old Women Summary