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When I was eight
Buffalo Bird Girl : a Hidatsa story
Nanabosho & Porcupine
Native athletes in action!
Sacred wilderness
The chichi hoohoo bogeyman
As long as the river flows
The displacement of native peoples
Sitting Bull : Lakota warrior and defender of his people
First laugh : welcome, baby!
Giving thanks : a Native American good morning message
A boy called Slow : the true story of Sitting Bull
For indigenous eyes only : a decolonization handbook
Beloved child : a Dakota way of life
Black Elk
What
Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué rico! : Americas
Sacagawea
The creator
Birch Coulie : the epic battle of the Dakota War
Native writers : voices of power
House of purple cedar
Sharing the skies : Navajo astronomy
"All the real Indians died off" : and 20 other myths about Native Americans
Sky dancers
Dreaming in Indian : contemporary Native American voices
Songs from the loom : a Navajo girl learns to weave
Hidden roots
We are grateful : otsaliheliga
Wild berries = Pikaci-mīnisa
Saltypie : a Choctaw journey from darkness into light
Jingle dancer
Cell traffic : new and selected poems
The Dakota prisoner of war letters = Dakota Kaŝkapi Okicize Wowapi
How I became a ghost : a Choctaw Trail of Tears story #1
The birchbark house
Hungry Johnny
If I ever get out of here : a novel with paintings
Iktomi and the ducks and other Sioux stories
SkySisters
Not my girl
My name is not easy
Bears make rock soup and other stories
Kiki
Walking on earth & touching the sky : poetry and prose by Lakota youth at Red Cloud Indian School
Moccasin thunder : American Indian stories for today
Navajo long walk : the tragic story of a proud people
Me funny : a far-reaching exploration of the humor, wittiness and repartee dominant among the First Nations people of North America, as witnessed, experienced and created directly by themselves, and with the inclusion of outside but reputable sources necessarily familiar with the indigenous sense of humour as seen from an objective perspective
Native women of courage
Buffalo song
Songs of Shiprock Fair
The woman who outshone the sun : the legend of Lucia Zenteno = La mujer que brillaba aún más que el sol : la leyenda de Lucía Zenteno
An indigenous peoples
Killer of enemies #1
The people shall continue
Lincoln and the indians : Civil War policy and politics
Itse selu : Cherokee harvest festival
You don
Dance in a buffalo skull
Mission to space
An infinity of nations : how the native New World shaped early North America
Custer died for your sins : an Indian manifesto
Lana
Home to Medicine Mountain
The dance boots
The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian
Trail of the dead #2
A man called Raven
All our relations : native struggles for land and life
The blue roses
Eagle song
Follow the blackbirds
Taku wadaka he? = (What do you see?)
Native defenders of the environment
The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven
God is red : a native view of religion
Muskrat will be swimming
Grandmother Spider brings the sun : a Cherokee story
Mni sota makoce : the land of the Dakota
In the footsteps of Crazy Horse
Before Columbus : the Americas of 1491
The Mishomis book : the voice of the Ojibway
I am not a number
A broken flute : the Native experience in books for children

Access the MN American Indian Collection Literature collection here.

A large selection of fiction and non-fiction works written by Native authors and focusing on Native American culture has been added to our collection, which is made possible by a project of the Minnesota Office of Indian Education using federal funding, Library Service and Technology Act [LS 00-17-0024-17].

The collection boasts works such as “Buffalo Song” by Joseph Bruchac, “The Birchbark House” by Louise Erdrich and more, and offers something for all age groups from childhood to adulthood.

To access the full collection of works, library customers can search our catalog for “MN American Indian Literature” using the keyword search and quotation marks. While the collection was originally designed for use by educators teaching grades K-12, the materials have been wildly popular for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Click here to access the American Indian Literature Resources for Educators: An Annotated Bibliography. This document includes the MN English Language Arts Standards for K-12, the grade level served, the title and author of the recommended book, and an annotation.

A printable version of the American Indian book list is also available.

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