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Indigenous Education K-12
Indigenous Young Adult Fiction
Use Omni to Find both print and ebooks:
There is an extensive collection of print Indigenous Children's Literature at both the Education Library (Thunder Bay) and the Education Library (Orillia). You can locate these titles through Omni using title keywords, author names or with these subject headings. Some children's books are also available as ebooks. You can also find ebooks with Omni by applying the filter "Available Online" to your search results:
To locate Indigenous Young Adult/ Teen fiction, use the following subject headings in "Advanced Search":
Native peoples - Canada - juvenile fiction
Ojibwa Indians - juvenile fiction
Indians of North America - Canada - juvenile fiction
Cree Indians - juvenile fiction
Metis - juvenile fiction
Indians of North America - juvenile fiction
EBook Databases:
Through the library you have access to several ebook databases.
For example, go to TumblebookCloud and search for books or graphic novels using the "TumbleSearch" option on the top left. For example search "Native American" as a keyword to retrieve a list of titles for that topic (Canadian titles are also listed here)
Booklists:
These lists can help you to identify Teen / Young Adult books. Find a title and check Omni for availability through the libraries:
- #IndigenousReads Young Adult Reading List (Government of Canada)
- 20 Canadian books for kids and teens to read for National Indigenous History Month (CBC)
- American Indian Youth Literature Award (American Indian Library Association)
- Best Books Lists (AICL) (American Indian Library Association)
- National Indigenous History Month Reading List (The Canadian Children's Book Centre)
- Native American Authors and Illustrators in Children’s and Young Adult Books
Listed below is a selection of fiction titles available:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineBudding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Algonquin Sunset by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineAnokì and his sister Pangì Mahingan have grown up, and now face a decision that will change their lives forever. Twelve years after Mahingan was wounded battling for his life against the Haudenosaunee warrior known as Ö:nenhste Erhar (Corn Dog), we rejoin his family and learn what fate held for him. Now, his children, Anokì and Pangì Mahingan, along with their twin cousins Makwa and Wàbek, are grown and have adult responsibilities. Still living with their Algonquin family, they have become a formidable fighting unit with the addition of three Mi´kmaq warriors, E´s, Jilte´g, and the fierce Elue´wiet Ga´qaquj. However, there is danger in the land of the setting sun, and nothing is more dangerous than what the family is going to encounter from the fierce enemy of their new Anishinaabe allies: the Lakȟóta.
Annie Muktuk and Other Stories by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineI woke up with Moses Henry's boot holding open my jaw and my right eye was looking into his gun barrel. I heard the slow words, "Take. It. Back." I know one thing about Moses Henry; he means business when he means business. I took it back and for the last eight months I have not uttered Annie Mukluk's name.In strolls Annie Mukluk in all her mukiness glory. Tonight she has gone traditional. Her long black hair is wrapped in intu'dlit braids. Only my mom still does that. She's got mukluks, real mukluks on and she's wearing the old-style caribou parka. It must be something her grandma gave her. No one makes that anymore. She's got the faint black eyeliner showing off those brown eyes and to top off her face she's put pretend face tattooing on. We all know it'll wash out tomorrow. -- from "Annie Muktuk"When Sedna feels the urge, she reaches out from the Land of the Dead to where Kakoot waits in hospital to depart from the Land of the Living. What ensues is a struggle for life and death and identity. In "Kakoot" and throughout this audacious collection of short stories, Norma Dunning makes the interplay between contemporary realities and experiences and Inuit cosmology seem deceptively easy. The stories are raucous and funny and resonate with raw honesty. Each eye-opening narrative twist in Annie Muktuk and Other Stories challenges readers' perceptions of who Inuit people are.
Bearskin Diary by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineTaken from the arms of her mother as soon as she was born, Sandy was only one of over twenty thousand Aboriginal children scooped up by the federal government between the 1960s and 1980s. Sandy was adopted by a Ukrainian family and grew up as the only First Nations child in a town of white people. Ostracized by everyone around her and tired of being different, at the early age of five she tried to scrub the brown off her skin. But she was never sent back into the foster system, and for that she considers herself lucky. From this tragic period in her personal life and in Canadian history, Sandy does not emerge unscathed, but she emerges strong--finding her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties Scoop had tried to deny. Those very roots allow Sandy to overcome the discrimination that she suffers every day from her co-workers, from strangers and sometimes even from herself" -- from back cover
The Birchbark House by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineOmakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. For as long as Omakayas can remember, she and her family have lived on the land her people call the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. Although the chimookoman, white people, encroach more and more on their land, life continues much as it always has. Every summer the family builds a new birchbark house; every fall they go to ricing camp to harvest and feast; they move to the cedar log house before the first snows arrive, and celebrate the end of the long, cold winters at maple-sugaring camp. In between, Omakayas fights with her annoying little brother, Pinch, plays with the adorable baby, Neewo, and tries to be grown-up like her beautiful older sister, Angeline. But the satisfying rhythms of their lives are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever. Set on an island in Lake Superior in 1847, and filled with fascinating details of traditional Ojibwa life, The Birchbark House is a breathtaking novel by one of America's most gifted and original writers.
The Education of Augie Merasty by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineThis memoir offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school.
Flight by Call Number: Audiobook also available online through TumbleBookCloudFlight is the hilarious and tragic story of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a charged search for his true identity. With powerful, swift prose, Flight follows the troubled teenager as he learns that violence is not the answer.
The journey begins as he’s about to commit a massive act of violence. At the moment of decision, he finds himself shot back through time to resurface in the body of an FBI agent during the civil rights era. It’s only the first stop. He continues traveling back to inhabit the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Bighorn and then ride with an Indian tracker in the 1800s before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. During these furious travels through time, his refrain grows: “Who’s to judge?” and “I don’t understand humans.” When finally the young warrior comes back to his own life, he is transformed by all he has seen.
Hawk by Call Number: Available in Print and Online2018 Red Maple Award -- Shortlisted * 2017 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award -- Winner, Young Adult Category *CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2016) When a First Nations teen rescues a fish-hawk from a tailings pond in Alberta's oil sands, he has no idea that soon they will both be fighting for their lives. As a cross-country runner, Adam aims to win gold in the upcoming provincial championship. But when he is diagnosed with leukemia, he finds himself in a different race, one that he can't afford to lose. He reclaims the name Hawk, given to him by his grandfather, and begins to fight, for his life and for the land of his ancestors and the creatures that inhabit it. With a little help from his grandfather and his friends, he might just succeed.
Indian Horse by Named a "Best Novel of the Decade" by Literary Hub Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother--and then his home itself. Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and undeniably gifted. His intuition and vision are unmatched. His speed is remarkable. Together they open doors for him: away from the school, into an all-Ojibway amateur circuit, and finally within grasp of a professional career. Yet as Saul's victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism and the hatred--the harshness of a world that will never welcome him, tied inexorably to the sport he loves. Spare and compact yet undeniably rich, Indian Horse is at once a heartbreaking account of a dark chapter in our history and a moving coming-of-age story.
Keeper'n Me by "In Keeper’n Me, my first novel, a young Ojibway man comes home to the reservation and needs to discover what it means to be Ojibway. He does this with the help of an old man, Keeper, who introduces him, and you, to the philosophical and spiritual foundations of the Ojibway world. He does this gently and with much healing humor. It's a hard story. It's about becoming lost and being ashamed of who you were created to be. But it's also about coming home - to a community, a history, a way of being and yourself. Written in 1992 and published in 1994 by Doubleday, it's taught regularly in universities and I believe it's because it's because of it's uncompromising generosity. You feel what it's like to be Ojibway in this novel, and you feel what it's like to come home after a long, arduous journey."--R. Wagamese website.
Little Voice by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineLife has been tough for Ray since her father died in a logging accident. Kids at school make fun of her, and she thinks her mother is too busy to need her. Then Ray gets the chance she has always wanted: to spend the summer with her grandma, an elder and healer in a northern Ontario community. Helping Grandma - canoeing, camping, fishing, berrypicking - Ray begins to learn a new way of life. Grandma's wisdom, love, and humour help Ray to understand herself better.
The Marrow Thieves by Shortlisted for 2018 CBC Canada Reads Winner of 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text) Winner of 2017 Kirkus Prize Nominated for 2018 Forest of Reading - White Pine Awards A Globe and Mail Best Book Shortlisted for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award Shortlisted for the Indigenous Literature Award Longlisted for the Sunburst Award Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.My Name is Seepeetza by
Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineWhen she is six years old, Seepeetza is sent to spend several years at an Indian residential school in the interior of British Columbia.
On Thin Ice by The story of Ashley Anowiak, a gifted northern youth struggling to understand her spiritual connection to polar bears while seeking answers about her culture, climate and environment seem to be crumbling all around her.
Strangers by When Cole Harper returns to Wounded Sky First Nation, he finds his community in chaos: a series of murders, a mysterious illness ravaging the population and reemerging questions about Cole's role in the tragedy that drove him away ten years ago. With the aid of an unhelpful spirit, a disfigured ghost and his two oldest friends, Cole tries to figure out his purpose and unravel the mysteries he left behind a decade ago. Will he find the answers in time to save his community?
Those Who Run in the Sky by This teen novel, written by Iqaluit-based Inuit author Aviaq Johnston, is a coming-of-age story that follows a young shaman named Pitu as he learns to use his powers and ultimately finds himself lost in the world of the spirits. After a strange and violent blizzard leaves Pitu stranded on the sea ice, without his dog team or any weapons to defend himself, he soon realizes that he is no longer in the word that he once knew. The storm has carried him into the world of the spirits, a world populated with terrifying creatures---black wolves with red eyes, ravenous and constantly stalking him; water-dwelling creatures that want nothing more than to snatch him and pull him into the frigid ocean through an ice crack. As well as beings less frightening, but equally as incredible, such as a lone giant who can carry Pitu in the palm of her hand and keeps caribou and polar bears as pets. After stumbling upon a fellow shaman who has been trapped in the spirit world for many years, Pitu must master all of his shamanic powers to make his way back to the world of the living, to his family, and to the girl that he loves.
Three Feathers by Explores the power and grace of restorative justice in one Northern community and the cultural legacy that can empower future generations. Three young men--Flinch, Bryce and Rupert--have vandalized their community. They are sent by its Elders to live nine months on the land as part of the circle sentencing process. There, the young men learn to take responsibility for their actions and acquire the humility required to return home. But will they be forgiven for what they have done?
The Night Wanderer by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineA mesmerizing blend of Gothic thriller and modern coming-of-age novel, The Night Wanderer is unlike any other vampire story. Nothing ever happens on the Otter Lake reservation. But when 16-year-old Tiffany discovers her father is renting out her room, she's deeply upset. Sure, their guest is polite and keeps to himself, but he's also a little creepy. Little do Tiffany, her father, or even her astute Granny Ruth suspect the truth. The mysterious Pierre L'Errant is actually a vampire, returning to his tribal home after centuries spent in Europe. But Tiffany has other things on her mind: her new boyfriend is acting weird, disputes with her father are escalating, and her estranged mother is starting a new life with somebody else. Fed up and heartsick, Tiffany threatens drastic measures and flees into the bush. There, in the midnight woods, a chilling encounter with L'Errant changes everything . . . for both of them.
Wenjack by "An Ojibwe boy runs away from a North Ontario Indian School. He realizes too late just how far away home is. Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest who comment on his plight, cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering him a type of comfort on his difficult journey back to the place he was so brutally removed from."--Publisher's description.
Indigenous Graphic Novels
7 Generations: a plains cree saga by
Compilation of four previously published graphic novels: Stone, Scars, Ends/Begins, The pact.
" ... follows one Plains Cree family from the early 19th century to the present day ... explores the life of Stone, a young Cree warrior, the smallpox epidemic of 1870, the residential school system of the 20th century and its familial legacy"--Page [4] of cover.
The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Call Number: Available in Print and Online"A powerful and historically accurate graphic portrayal of Indigenous resistance to the European colonization of the Americas, beginning with the Spanish invasion under Christopher Columbus." "Other events depicted include the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Inca insurgency in Peru from the 1500s to the 1780s; Pontiac and the 1763 Rebellion & Royal Proclamation; Geronimo and the 1860s Seminole Wars; Crazy Horse and the 1877 War on the Plains; the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s; 1973's Wounded Knee; the Mohawk Oka Crisis in Quebec in 1990; and the 1995 Aazhoodena/Stoney Point resistance."--back cover.
Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws by This series is set in 1750’s colonized North America and features the comical adventures of two brothers, Rabbit and Bear Paws. Using Traditional Native Teachings and humour, the stories are based on THE SEVEN FIRES PROPHECIES and THE SEVEN GRANDFATHERS (from rabbitandbearpaws.com)
Teachers Guides are also available for the 6 novels.
Crying for a Vision by One of the title's in Scholastic's Timeline Series. With adventures that take place throughout history—and into the future, Timeline is packed with heroes and villains that will capture the imaginations of both boys and girls. (From http://education.scholastic.ca/category/TIMELINE)
Darkness Calls by Call Number: ED LIB KIT 428.6 SANGuided Reading Pack - includes 20 copies. A young man living on a reservation struggles with his individuality and feels separated from his peers. The young man ultimately becomes involved in a battle for his life as he slips into depression and begins to think about taking his own life. Two characters of Cree legend, Wesakecak and Wintiko, take the form of hero and villain in the battle of good versus evil for the young man's life.
Falling Star by One of the title's in Scholastic's Timeline Series. With adventures that take place throughout history—and into the future, Timeline is packed with heroes and villains that will capture the imaginations of both boys and girls. (From http://education.scholastic.ca/category/TIMELINE)The Life of Helen Betty Osborne by
"In the early hours of November 13, 1971, Helen Betty Osborne, a young Aboriginal woman living in La Pas, was walking home alone when she was abducted by four young white men, sexually assaulted, and then viciously beaten and stabbed with a screwdriver. Despite the horrific nature of her murder, and the identities of her killers being known to many in The Pas, no arrests were made until 1986, and the subsequent trial resulted in only one conviction."--pub. desc.
Louis Riel : a comic-strip biography by "This award-winning Canadian bestseller tells the story of the charismatic, and perhaps mad, nineteenth century Métis leader, whose struggle to win rights for his people led to violent rebellion on the nation's western frontier"-- Back cover.
The Outside Circle by Pete, a young Aboriginal gang member, is sent to jail for killing his mother's boyfriend during a fight. While there, he realizes that he has become a negative influence on his younger brother and decides to turn his life around with the help of traditional Aboriginal healing circles and ceremonies.
Sugar Falls by Call Number: Available in Print and OnlineA school assignment to interview a residential school survivor leads Daniel to Betsy, his friend's grandmother, who tells him her story. Abandoned as a young child, Betsy was soon adopted into a loving family. A few short years later, at the age of 8, everything changed. Betsy was taken away to a residential school. There she was forced to endure abuse and indignity, but she remembers her fathers words - words that gave her the resilience, strength, and determination to survive.
Surviving the City Vol 1 by Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape - they're so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez's grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can't stay with her anymore. With the threat of a group home looming, Dez can't bring herself to go home and disappears. Miikwan is devastated, and the wound of her missing mother resurfaces. Will Dez's community find her before it's too late? Will Miikwan be able to cope if they don't?
Surviving the City Vol 2: From the Roots Up by Dez's grandmother has passed away. Grieving, and with nowhere else to go, she's living in a group home. On top of everything else, Dez is navigating a new relationship and coming into her identity as a Two-Spirit person. Miikwan is crushing on the school's new kid Riel, but doesn't really understand what Dez is going through. Will she learn how to be a supportive ally to her best friend? Elder Geraldine is doing her best to be supportive, but she doesn't know how to respond when the gendered protocols she's grown up with that are being thrown into question. Will Dez be comfortable expressing her full identity? And will her community relearn the teachings and overcome prejudice to celebrate her for who she is?
Tales from the Bay : true stories from the Archives of the Hudson's Bay Company ; comic book classroom set"Tales from the Bay: True Stories from the Archives of the Hudson's Bay Company is a teaching/learning resource for Canadian students in grades 7 to 11. The full package contains this teacher's guide and class set of 30 comic books. Three stories are featured each highlighting a different time period and a main character who contributed to Canadian history in a unique fashion."-p.3.3
Trickster by All cultures have tales of the trickster-a crafty creature or being who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. He disrupts the order of things, often humiliating others and sometimes himself. In Native American traditions, the trickster takes many forms, from coyote or rabbit to raccoon or raven. The first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales, Trickster brings together Native American folklore and the world of comics.
In Trickster, more than twenty Native American tales are cleverly adapted into comic form. Each story is written by a different Native American storyteller who worked closely with a selected illustrator, a combination that gives each tale a unique and powerful voice and look. Ranging from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish, these tales bring tricksters back into popular culture in a very vivid form.
