Native American Literature

Native American Literature

This list is intended for students interested in an introduction to Native American writing. For those new to this literature, I have provided a list of some widely taught texts about which scholars have begun to develop a significant corpus of criticism. Students interested in pursuing this field as a specialization in graduate school should consult reading lists such as the American Indian Studies Required Reading List from the University of Arizona's American Indian Studies Program. The Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures also offers a Guide to Native American Studies Programs in the United States and Canada.

This list is intended for students interested in an introduction to Native American writing. For those new to this literature, I have provided a list of some widely taught texts about which scholars have begun to develop a significant corpus of criticism. Students interested in pursuing this field as a specialization in graduate school should consult reading lists such as the American Indian Studies Required Reading List from the University of Arizona's American Indian Studies Program. The Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures also offers a Guide to Native American Studies Programs in the United States and Canada.

Primary Texts
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
   ----. Indian Killer.
   ----. Reservation Blues.
   ----. Ten Little Indians.
   ----. The Toughest Indian in the World.
   ----. The Business of Fancydancing.

Allen, Paula Gunn (ed.). Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women.
----. Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1900-1970.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Waterlily.

Endrezze, Anita. At the Helm of Twilight.

Erdrich, Louise. The Antelope Wife.
    ----. The Beet Queen.
    ----. The Bingo Palace.
    ----.The Birchbark House.
    ----. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country.
    ----. Four Souls.
    ----. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.
    ----. Love Medicine.
    ----. The Master Butchers Singing Club.
    ----. Original Fire.
    ----. The Painted Drum.
    ----.The Silent Game.
    ----. Tales of Burning Love.
    ----. Tracks.

Glancy, Diane. The Cold-and-Hunger Dance.
   ----. Designs of the Night Sky.
   ----. In-between Places.
   ----. The Mask Maker.
   ----. Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears.
   ----. Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajewea.

Harjo, Joy. A Map to the Next World: Poetry and Tales.
   ----.What Moon Drove Me To This?
   ----. She Had Some Horses.
   ----. Secrets from the Center of the World.
   ----. In Mad Love and War.
   ----. The Woman Who Fell from the Sky.

Harjo, Joy, and Gloria Bird (eds.). Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writings of North America.

Hogan, Linda. Book of Medicines.
   ----. Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World.
   ----. Mean Spirit.
   ----. Power.
   ----. Solar Storms.
   ----. The Woman Who Watches Over the World.

Katz, Jane (ed.). Messengers of the Wind: Native American Women Tell Their Life Stories.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water.
----. Medicine River.
----. Truth and Bright Water.

LaDuke, Winona. Last Standing Woman.

laFavor, Carole. Along the Journey River.

Lesley, Craig. Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories.

McAdams, Janet. The Island of Lost Luggage.

McNickle, D’Arcy. The Surrounded.

Miranda, Deborah. Indian Cartography.

Momaday, Scott. House Made of Dawn.
----. Ancient Child.
----. The Way to Rainy Mountain.

Mourning Dove, Cogewea.

Niatum, Duane (ed.) The Harper's Anthology of 20th-Century Native American Poetry.

Ortiz, Simon. From Sand Creek.
    ----. Men on the Moon.
    ----. Out There Somewhere.
    ----. Woven Stone.

Peyer, Bernard (ed.). The Singing Spirit: Early Short Stories by North American Indians.

Power, Susan. The Grass Dancer.
----. Roofwalker.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Almanac of the Dead.
    ----. Ceremony.
    ----. Garden in the Dunes.
    ----. Laguna Woman.
    ----. Sacred Water.
    ----. Storyteller.
   ----. Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit.

Swann, Brian, and Arnold Krupat. I Tell You Now: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers.

Tapahanso, Luci. Saanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing.

Vizenor, Gerald. Heirs of Columbus.

Walters, Anna Lee. Ghost Singer.

Welch, James. Fools Crow.
----. Winter in the Blood.

Zepeda, Ofelia. Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert.

General Works on Native American Culture and History*

Allen, Paula Gunn. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions.
----. Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-Busting, Border-Crossing, and Loose Canons.
----. Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepeneur, Diplomat.

Bataille, Gretchen, and Kathleen Sands. American Indian Women Telling Their Lives.

Berghofer, Robert, Jr. The White Man’s Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present.

Castile, George, and Robert Bee (eds.). State and Reservation.

Calloway, Colin G. New Directions in American Indian History, 1991.

Coleman, M.C. American Indian Children at School, 1850-1930, 1993.

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth. Why I Can’t Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice.

Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.

Deloria, Vine, Jr. (ed.). American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century.

Duran, Bonnie, at al. "Native Americans and the Trauma of History" in Studying Native America.

Green, Rayna. "The Pocahontas Perplex: Images of American Indian Women" in Massachusetts Review, 1975

Krupat, Arnold. Turn to the Native: Studies in Criticism and Culture.
----. The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon.

Ortiz, Simon (ed.). Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing.

Owens, Louis. Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel.
----. Mixed Blood Messages: Literature, Film, Family, Place.

Swann, Brian. Smoothing the Ground: Essays on Native American Oral Literature.

Swann, Brian, and Arnold Krupat. Recovering the Word: Essays on Native American Literature.

Shanley, Kathryn W. "'Writing Indian': American Indian Literature and the Future of Native American Studies" in Studying Native America.

Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492.
----. "Who Owns Our Past? The Repatriation of Native American Human Remains and Cultural Objects" in Studying Native America.

Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance.

Vizenor, Gerald (ed.). Narrative Chance: Postmodern Discourse on Native American Indian Literatures.

Warrior, Robert Allen. Tribal Secrets: Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions.

Weaver, Jace. That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native American Community.

White, Richard. "Using the Past: History and Native American Studies" in Studying Native America.

Wilson, James. The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America.

Wright, Ronald. Stolen Continents: The Americas Through Indian Eyes since 1492.

* There are scores and scroes of articles and books on individual authors.