On October 11th, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day to commemorate and honor the history and culture of Native communities. On October 8th, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a presidential proclamation formally recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a national holiday:
“For generations, Federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures,” President Biden wrote in the proclamation. “Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.”
Here are our title recommendations that reframe our understanding of US History and elevate Native voices for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
A groundbreaking Lakota author and activist chronicles her refusal to assimilate into 19th century white society and her mission to preserve her culture.
In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
The true crime story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it—an urgent work of literary journalism and social criticism.
These 30 varied and powerful short stories by Native American storytellers incorporate traditional oral tales into modern narratives. The writers, most of whom are new, featured in this collection represent a wide range of tribes and cultural backgrounds, and demonstrate the vibrancy and diversity of Native American writing.
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America from an award-winning Haudenosaunee writer
A daughter returns home to the Navajo reservation to confront her family’s troubled history and retrace her mother’s life—using both narrative and archive in this unforgettable and heart-wrenching memoir.
Tommy Orange’s shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to each other in ways they may not yet realize.
Debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory myth that our country is proudly founded by and for immigrants, and urges readers to embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States
