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Big Chief Harrison and the Mardi Gras Indians
By Al Kennedy. 2010
Big Chief of the Guardian of the Flames, philosopher, family man, and advocate for education, Donald Harrison took center stage…
in life. He demanded a well-deserved respect from his peers. An African American pushing through the Depression and the Civil Rights movement, he educated himself by reading scores of books while developing an acute understanding of philosophy and a love for jazz music. Out of a desire to give back to his community, Harrison and his wife, Herreast, founded the Guardians Institute, a cultural arts center for New Orleans youths.Born in 1937, Donald Harrison quickly immersed himself into the culture of the Mardi Gras Indians despite his father's disapproval. He served a brief stint in the U.S. Army and returned to New Orleans to start a family, work a series of odd jobs, and pursue his education. Harrison continued to mask as an Indian and endorse literacy programs until his death in 1998. This revealing biography presents a peek into the life of a remarkable man and chronicles his journey to become the Big Chief of an internationally recognized Mardi Gras Indian tribe and a staunch supporter of education. Based on more than seventy interviews with friends, family, and such notable musicians as Clyde Kerr, Jr., this biography exposes the man and complex mind beneath the colorful plumes. This illuminating book, which also provides insight into the secretive world of the Mardi Gras Indians, will captivate jazz aficionados, New Orleanians, and those who simply love the city.
Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
By Angela Sterritt. 2023
NATIONAL BESTSELLER: A Globe and Mail and Toronto Star Bestseller "A remarkable life story. . . Angela Sterritt is a…
formidable storyteller and a passionate advocate."—Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves "Sterritt's story is living proof of how courageous Indigenous women are."—Tanya Talaga, author of Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations Unbroken is an extraordinary work of memoir and investigative journalism focusing on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, written by an award-winning Gitxsan journalist who survived life on the streets against all odds. As a Gitxsan teenager navigating life on the streets, Angela Sterritt wrote in her journal to help her survive and find her place in the world. Now an acclaimed journalist, she writes for major news outlets to push for justice and to light a path for Indigenous women, girls, and survivors. In her brilliant debut, Sterritt shares her memoir alongside investigative reporting into cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism led to a society where Sterritt struggled to survive as a young person, and where the lives of Indigenous women and girls are ignored and devalued. Growing up, Sterritt was steeped in the stories of her ancestors: grandparents who carried bentwood boxes of berries, hunted and trapped, and later fought for rights and title to that land. But as a vulnerable young woman, kicked out of the family home and living on the street, Sterritt inhabited places that, today, are infamous for being communities where women have gone missing or been murdered: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and, later on, Northern BC's Highway of Tears. Sterritt faced darkness: she experienced violence from partners and strangers and saw friends and community members die or go missing. But she navigated the street, group homes, and SROs to finally find her place in journalism and academic excellence at university, relying entirely on her own strength, resilience, and creativity along with the support of her ancestors and community to find her way. "She could have been me," Sterritt acknowledges today, and her empathy for victims, survivors, and families drives her present-day investigations into the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women. In the end, Sterritt steps into a place of power, demanding accountability from the media and the public, exposing racism, and showing that there is much work to do on the path towards understanding the truth. But most importantly, she proves that the strength and brilliance of Indigenous women is unbroken, and that together, they can build lives of joy and abundance.
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors
By Stephen E. Ambrose. 1996
A New York Times bestseller from the author of Band of Brothers: The biography of two fighters forever linked by history…
and the battle at Little Bighorn. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages. Both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.
Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases
By Cory Franklin. 2015
An inside look at one of the nation's most famous public hospitals, Cook County, as seen through the eyes of…
its longtime Director of Intensive Care, Dr. Cory Franklin. Filled with stories of strange medical cases and unforgettable patients culled from a thirty-year career in medicine, Cook County ICU offers readers a peek into the inner workings of a hospital. Author Dr. Cory Franklin, who headed the hospital’s intensive care unit from the 1970s through the 1990s, shares his most unique and bizarre experiences, including the deadly Chicago heat wave of 1995, treating some of the first AIDS patients in the country before the disease was diagnosed, the nurse with rare Munchausen syndrome, the first surviving ricin victim, and the famous professor whose Parkinson’s disease hid the effects of the wrong medication. Surprising, darkly humorous, heartwarming, and sometimes tragic, these stories provide a big-picture look at how the practice of medicine has changed over the years, making it an enjoyable read for patients, doctors, and anyone with an interest in medicine.
The Chiefs of Council Bluffs: Five Leaders of the Missouri Valley Tribes
By Gail Geo. Holmes. 2012
A look into the lives of five indigenous American tribal chiefs who lead their people as European settlers traveled into…
the region. Two centuries ago, the fierce winds of change were sweeping through the Middle Missouri Valley. French, Spanish and then American traders and settlers had begun pouring in. In the midst of this time of tumult and transition, five chiefs rose up to lead their peoples: Omaha Chief Big Elk, the Pottawatamie/Ottawa/Chippewa Tribe&’s Captain Billy Caldwell, Ioway Chief Wangewaha (called Hard Heart), Pawnee Brave Petalesharo and Ponca Chief Standing Bear. Historian Gail Holmes tells the story of their leadership as the land was redefined beneath them.
The Medicine of Memory: A Mexica Clan in California
By Alejandro Murguía. 2002
An American Book Award winner&’s creative memoir &“traces his own family's history, as well as the long story of Hispanics…
in America . . . Spirited writing&” (Library Journal). People who live in California deny the past, asserts Alejandro Murguía. In a state where what matters is keeping up with the current trends, fads, or latest computer gizmo, no one has the time, energy, or desire to reflect on what happened last week, much less what happened ten years ago, or a hundred. From this oblivion of memory, he continues, comes a false sense of history, a deluded belief that the way things are now is the way they have always been. In this work of creative nonfiction, Murguía draws on memories—his own and his family&’s reaching back to the eighteenth century—to (re)construct the forgotten Chicano-indigenous history of California. He tells the story through significant moments in California history, including the birth of the mestizo in Mexico, destruction of Indian lifeways under the mission system, violence toward Mexicanos during the Gold Rush, Chicano farm life in the early twentieth century, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, Chicano-Latino activism in San Francisco in the 1970s, and the current rebirth of Chicano-Indio culture. Rejecting the notion that history is always written by the victors, and refusing to be one of the vanquished, he records, and draws us into, his own California history.
The Yellow on the Broom: The Early Days Of A Traveller Woman
By Betsy Whyte. 2013
This classic memoir of a Scottish woman&’s traditional nomadic family offers an intimate glimpse at girlhood in a bygone way…
of life. A rare firsthand account of Scotland&’s indigenous traveler culture, The Yellow on the Broom has earned its place as a modern classic of Scottish literature. Here, Betsy Whyte vividly recounts the story of her childhood in flowing prose reminiscent of oral storytelling. Through the 1920s and 30s, she and her family spent much of the year traveling from town to town, working odd jobs while maintaining their centuries-old language and a culture. Whyte&’s people were known by many names—mist people, summer walkers, tinkers, and gypsies. As their way of life became increasingly marginalized, they faced greater hardship, suspicion and prejudice. Together with her second memoir, Red Rowans and Wild Honey, Whyte&’s story is a thought-provoking account of human strength, courage, and perseverance.
It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People
By Michael Simpson, Rueben George. 2023
A personal account of one man’s confrontation with colonization that illuminates the philosophy and values of a First Nation on…
the front lines of the fight against an extractive industry, colonial government, and threats to the life-giving Salish Sea.It Stops Here is the profound story of the spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence of a nation taking action to reclaim their lands, waters, law, and food systems in the face of colonization. In deeply moving testimony, it recounts the intergenerational struggle of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to overcome colonial harms and the powerful stance they have taken alongside allies and other Indigenous nations across Turtle Island against the development of the Trans Mountain Pipeline—a fossil fuel megaproject on their unceded territories.In a firsthand account of the resurgence told by Rueben George, one of the most prominent leaders of the widespread opposition to the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, It Stops Here reveals extraordinary insights and revelations from someone who has devoted more than a decade of his life to fighting the project. Rueben shares stories about his family’s deep ancestral connections to their unceded lands and waters, which are today more commonly known as Vancouver, British Columbia and the Burrard Inlet. He discloses how, following the systematic cultural genocide enacted by the colonial state, key leaders of his community, such as his grandfather, Chief Dan George, always taught the younger generations to be proud of who they were and to remember the importance of their connection to the inlet.Part memoir, part call to action, It Stops Here is a compelling appeal to prioritize the sacred over oil and extractive industries, while insisting that settler society honour Indigenous law and jurisdiction over unceded territories rather than exploiting lands and reducing them to their natural resources.
Becoming a Matriarch
By Helen Knott. 2023
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to…
craft a new space.Helen Knott’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy.Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada
By Harold R. Johnson. 2019
An urgent, informed, intimate condemnation of the Canadian state and its failure to deliver justice to Indigenous people by national…
bestselling author and former Crown prosecutor Harold R. Johnson."The night of the decision in the Gerald Stanley trial for the murder of Colten Boushie, I received a text message from a retired provincial court judge. He was feeling ashamed for his time in a system that was so badly tilted. I too feel this way about my time as both defence counsel and as a Crown prosecutor; that I didn't have the courage to stand up in the court room and shout 'Enough is enough.' This book is my act of taking responsibility for what I did, for my actions and inactions." --Harold R. JohnsonIn early 2018, the failures of Canada's justice system were sharply and painfully revealed in the verdicts issued in the deaths of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine. The outrage and confusion that followed those verdicts inspired former Crown prosecutor and bestselling author Harold R. Johnson to make the case against Canada for its failure to fulfill its duty under Treaty to effectively deliver justice to Indigenous people, worsening the situation and ensuring long-term damage to Indigenous communities. In this direct, concise, and essential volume, Harold R. Johnson examines the justice system's failures to deliver "peace and good order" to Indigenous people. He explores the part that he understands himself to have played in that mismanagement, drawing on insights he has gained from the experience; insights into the roots and immediate effects of how the justice system has failed Indigenous people, in all the communities in which they live; and insights into the struggle for peace and good order for Indigenous people now.
It’s All about the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence
By Taiaiake Alfred. 2023
Illuminating the First Nations struggles against the Canadian state, It’s All about the Land exposes how racism underpins and shapes…
Indigenous-settler relationships. Renowned Kahnawà:ke Mohawk activist and scholar Taiaiake Alfred explains how the Canadian government’s reconciliation agenda is a new form of colonization that is guaranteed to fail. Bringing together Alfred’s speeches and interviews from over the past two decades, the book shows that Indigenous peoples across the world face a stark choice: reconnect with their authentic cultures and values or continue following a slow road to annihilation. Rooted in ancestral spirit, knowledge, and law, It’s All about the Land presents a passionate argument for Indigenous Resurgence as the pathway toward justice for Indigenous peoples.
Becoming a Matriarch
By Helen Knott. 2023
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to…
craft a new space.Helen Knott&’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy.Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People
By Michael Simpson, Rueben George. 2023
A personal account of one man&’s confrontation with colonization that illuminates the philosophy and values of a First Nation on…
the front lines of the fight against an extractive industry, colonial government, and threats to the life-giving Salish Sea.It Stops Here is the profound story of the spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence of a nation taking action to reclaim their lands, waters, law, and food systems in the face of colonization. In deeply moving testimony, it recounts the intergenerational struggle of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to overcome colonial harms and the powerful stance they have taken alongside allies and other Indigenous nations across Turtle Island against the development of the Trans Mountain Pipeline—a fossil fuel megaproject on their unceded territories.In a firsthand account of the resurgence told by Rueben George, one of the most prominent leaders of the widespread opposition to the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, It Stops Here reveals extraordinary insights and revelations from someone who has devoted more than a decade of his life to fighting the project. Rueben shares stories about his family&’s deep ancestral connections to their unceded lands and waters, which are today more commonly known as Vancouver, British Columbia and the Burrard Inlet. He discloses how, following the systematic cultural genocide enacted by the colonial state, key leaders of his community, such as his grandfather, Chief Dan George, always taught the younger generations to be proud of who they were and to remember the importance of their connection to the inlet.Part memoir, part call to action, It Stops Here is a compelling appeal to prioritize the sacred over oil and extractive industries, while insisting that settler society honour Indigenous law and jurisdiction over unceded territories rather than exploiting lands and reducing them to their natural resources.
Geronimo (The Lamar Series in Western History)
By Robert M. Utley. 2012
Renowned for ferocity in battle, legendary for an uncanny ability to elude capture, feared for the violence of his vengeful…
raids, the Apache warrior Geronimo captured the public imagination in his own time and remains a figure of mythical proportion today. This thoroughly researched biography by a renowned historian of the American West strips away the myths and rumors that have long obscured the real Geronimo and presents an authentic portrait of a man with unique strengths and weaknesses and a destiny that swept him into the fierce storms of history. Historian Robert Utley draws on an array of new sources and his own lifelong research on the Mountain West and white-Indian conflicts of the late nineteenth century to create an updated, accurate, and highly exciting narrative of Geronimo's life. Utley unfolds the story through the alternating perspectives of whites and Apaches, and he arrives at a more nuanced understanding of Geronimo's character and motivation than ever before. What it was like to be a warrior-in-training, why Indians as well as whites feared Geronimo, how Geronimo maintained his freedom, and why he finally surrendered--the answers to these questions and many more fill the pages of this irresistable volume.
True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change
By Jody Wilson-Raybould. 2022
NATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom the #1 bestselling author of 'Indian' in the Cabinet, a groundbreaking and accessible roadmap to advancing true reconciliation…
across Canada.There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? It is clear that people from all over the country want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. We just need to know how to get started. This book provides that next step. For Wilson-Raybould, what individuals and organizations need to do to advance true reconciliation is self-evident, accessible, and achievable. True Reconciliation is broken down into three core practices—Learn, Understand, and Act—that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments. The practices are based not only on the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples in their relentless efforts to effect transformative change and decolonization, but also on the deep understanding and expertise about what has been effective in the past, what we are doing right, and wrong, today, and what our collective future requires. Fundamental to a shared way of thinking is an understanding of the Indigenous experience throughout the story of Canada. In a manner that reflects how work is done in the Big House, True Reconciliation features an “oral” history of these lands, told through Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices from our past and present. The ultimate and attainable goal of True Reconciliation is to break down the silos we’ve created that prevent meaningful change, to be empowered to increasingly act as “inbetweeners,” and to take full advantage of this moment in our history to positively transform the country into a place we can all be proud of.
The Black Hawk War was the final conflict east of the Mississippi River between American Indian communities and the United…
States regular troops and militia. Exploring the museums, wayside markers and parks relating to that struggle is not just a journey of historic significance through beautiful natural scenery. It is also an amazing convergence of legendary personalities, from Abraham Lincoln to Jefferson Davis. Follow the fallout of the war from the Quad Cities on the Illinois/Iowa border, through the "Trembling Lands" along the Kettle Morraine and into the Driftless Area of southern Wisconsin. Pairing local insight with big-picture perspective, Ben Strand charts an overlooked quadrant of America's frontier heritage.The gripping, forgotten tale of Ira Hayes—a Native American icon and World War II legend who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima but…
spent the latter half of his life haunted by being a war hero. IRA HAYES tells the story of Ira Hamilton Hayes from the perspective of a Native American combat veteran of the Vietnam generation. Hayes, along with five other Marines, was captured in Joe Rosenthal&’s iconic photograph of raising the stars and stripes on Mount Suribachi during the battle for the Japanese Island of Iwo Jima. The photograph was the inspiration and model for the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington. Between the time he helped raise that flag and his death—and beyond—he was the subject of more newspaper columns than any other Native person. He was hailed as a hero and maligned as a chronic alcoholic unable to take care of himself. IRA HAYES explores these fluctuating views of Ira Hayes. It reveals that they were primarily the product of American misconceptions about Native people, the nature of combat, and even alcoholism. Like most surviving veterans of combat, Ira did not think of himself as a heroic figure. There can be no doubt that Ira suffered from PTSD, which is a compound of survivor&’s guilt, the shock of seeing death, especially of one&’s friends, and the isolation brought on by feeling that no one could understand what he had been through. Ira&’s life has been a subject of two motion pictures and a television drama. All these dramas sympathize with him, but ultimately fail to see his binge drinking as his way of temporarily escaping the melancholy, the rage he felt, his sense of betrayal, and the sheer boredom of peacetime. IRA HAYES breaks apart the complexities of Ira&’s short life in honor of all Native veterans who have been to war in the service of the United States. This is equally their story.
Manifestation Wolverine: The Collected Poetry of Ray Young Bear
By Ray Young Bear. 2015
The definitive collection from a groundbreaking Native American poet whose work traces the fault lines between past and present, real…
and surreal, comedy and tragedy to unveil a transcendent new vision of the world Hailed by the Bloomsbury Review as "the nation's foremost contemporary Native American poet" and by Sherman Alexie as "the best poet in Indian Country," Ray Young Bear draws on ancient Meskwaki tradition and modern popular culture to create poems that provoke, astound, and heal. This indispensable volume, which contains three previously published collections--Winter of the Salamander (1979), The Invisible Musician (1990), and The Rock Island Hiking Club (2001)--as well as Manifestation Wolverine, a brilliant series of new pieces inspired by animistic beliefs, a Lazy-Boy recliner, and the word songs Young Bear sang to his children, is a testament to the singularity of the poet's talent and the astonishing range of his voice.
Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life
By David Treuer. 2012
A prize-winning writer offers “an affecting portrait of his childhood home, Leech Lake Indian Reservation, and his people, the Ojibwe”…
(The New York Times). A member of the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota, David Treuer grew up on Leech Lake Reservation, but was educated in mainstream America. Exploring crime and poverty, casinos and wealth, and the preservation of native language and culture, Rez Life is a strikingly original blend of history, memoir, and journalism, a must read for anyone interested in the Native American story. With authoritative research and reportage, he illuminates issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the policies that have disenfranchised and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension that marks the historical relationship between the US government and the Native American population. Ultimately, through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges, he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of modern Native American life. “Treuer’s account reads like a novel, brimming with characters, living and dead, who bring his tribe’s history to life.” —Booklist “Important in the way Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was when it came out in 1970, deeply moving readers as it schooled them about Indian history in a way nothing else had.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “[A] poignant, penetrating blend of memoir and history.” —People
Lakota Woman
By Richard Erdoes, Mary Crow Dog. 1990
Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation…
in South Dakota. Rebelling against the aimless drinking, punishing missionary school, narrow strictures for women, and violence and hopeless of reservation life, she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies. Mary eventually married Leonard Crow Dog, the American Indian Movement's chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance.Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national best seller and winner of the American Book Award. It is a unique document, unparalleled in American Indian literature, a story of death, of determination against all odds, of the cruelties perpetuated against American Indians, and of the Native American struggle for rights. Working with Richard Erdoes, one of the twentieth century's leading writers on Native American affairs, Brave Bird recounts her difficult upbringing and the path of her fascinating life.