Native American Book List

Carla & Little Flowermoving bookNative American Book List
We get a lot of requests for assistance with school reports and assignments. Unfortunately, as much as we’d like to, we are just not able to provide personal assistance on each report. What we can do is offer the following advice:  Start Early!!

Check out the web pages on our site first! Then visit your local school library, public library, and college libraries. They have a great selection of Native American books. Talk to the librarians about your project; they can also give you different ideas. Many libraries also have computers that will connect you to the world wide web. If you wish to buy books like the ones below, please contact us and for a variety of Native written books please visit Oyate.

Great News:  When the Shadbush Blooms is available again as a paperback!  At booksellers, online, in bulk for schools from Lee & Low. Waníshi (thank you) for your help! 

When the Shadbush Blooms is available for purchase as a signed/dedicated from us at www.whentheshadbushblooms.net.  See our webpage When the Shadbush Blooms to see the free video and for activities, a Teacher/Parent Guide & more!

Books about the Lenape / Delaware people that are interesting and helpful are:

Elementary School

Dickon Among the Lenape (sub title – The Indians of New Jersey) by M. R. Harrington.
A Coloring Book of the First Americans – Lenape Indian drawings by Wm. S. Bock.
When the Shadbush Blooms (2020) by Carla Messinger & Sue Katz.  See link on the left for book information and Activity Page.
A Native American Thought of It: Amazing Inventions & Innovations by Rocky Landon with David MacDonald
1621 A New look at Thanksgiving, National Geographic, Catherine O’Neill Grace & Margaret Bruchac with Plimoth Plantation.  GOOD RESOURCE – visuals and descriptions.

High School / Adult

The Victory With No Name – The Native American Defeat of the First American Army by Colin G. Calloway
A Lenape Among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman by Dawn G. Marsh   A GREAT BOOK!!
William Penn’s Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians by William Penn.
Indian Paths of Pennsylvania by Paul A. W. Wallace.
A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania by Dr. George P. Donehoo.
Walking Purchase Hoax of 1737 by Ray Thompson.
The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania by C. Hale Sipe.
The Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania by C. Hale Sipe.
A Delaware – English Lexicon by Zeisberger & Whritenour.  East Coast vocabulary.
The Lenape and Their Legends, With Text & Symbols By Daniel G. Brinton
The White Deer and Other Lenape Stories, Edited by John Bierhorst
Legends of the Delaware Indians & Picture Writing by Richard C. Adams
Mythology of the Lenape by John Bierhorst.
Teedyuscung: King of the Delawares by Anthony F.C. Wallace.
Red Men on the Brandywine by C.A. Weslager

Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians by Gladys Tantaquidgeon.
Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes by E. Barrie Kavasch  This book is not just a recipe collection, but a passport to foraging and to surviving close to nature. It will tell you how to prepare familiar foods such as stuffed clams and corn chowder, but also how to fix clover soup, purslane salad and more.  When to harvest, what to harvest, and recipes from the East Coast Native Peoples.

A Nation of Women – Gender and Colonial Encounters Among the Delaware Indians Gunlög Fur
Colonialism in the Margins: Cultural Encounters in New Sweden and Lapland by Gunlög Fur   Visit our Women Authors web page!

Projectile Point Typology for Pennsylvania and the Northeast by Gary L. Fogelman.

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.  Winner of the 2015 American Book Award! An essential historical reference.

Into the American Woods: Negotiations on the Pennsylvania Frontier by James H. Merrell.
The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire by Francis Jennings.
The Crucible of War: 7 Years War & the Fate of the British Empire in British North American 1754-1766 by Fred Anderson
At The Crossroads: Indians & Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700-1763 by Jane T. Merritt
The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America by Scott Weidensaul
Dark & Bloody Ground: The American Revolution Along the Southern Frontier by Richard D. Blackmon
Gods of War, Gods of Peace by Russell Bourne
Our Savage Neighbors: How the Indian War Transformed Early America by Peter Silver Excellent book!

Teen – Fiction

March Toward the Thunder by Joseph Bruchac. An Abenaki boy joins Union in Civil War battle. Fiction for older youth/young adult. Good teaching resource.
The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac – Fiction about Abenaki youth, good for teens.

Arts & Crafts

Indian Handcrafts: How to Craft Dozens of Practical Objects Using Traditional Indian Techniques by C. Keith Wilbur, MD
The Woodland Indians: An Illustrated Account of the Lifestyles of America’s First Inhabitants by C. Keith Wilbur, MD

Teachers/Leaders/Parents

Rethinking Columbus: Teaching About the Anniversary of Columbus’s Arrival In America. A general reference for teachers.
Books Without Bias: Through Indian Eyes, Edited by Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale. A Great resource for teachers, librarians, Group Leaders and parents.
Oyate Press – book reviews.  See webpage.

Other Books For Schools

Let the River Run Silver Again! How One School Helped Return the American Shad to the Potomac River — And How You Too Can Help Protect and Restore Our Living Waters

Other Books of Interest

The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins.  How Native Americans changed football! Very good reading.  National Bestseller.
Duty Calls at Home: Pennsylvania Responds to the Great War, 1914-1918.  History of the National Guard in WWI, with a section on the involvement of the Carlisle Indian School.

No One Ever Asked Me, The World War II Memoirs of an Omaha Indian Soldier, Hollis D. Stabler.  Edited by Victoria Smith.
Indians by William Brandon.  This is an excellent book with information from earliest Spanish Contact with Timueua in Florida to the period just before the Civil War.  Lots to learn.

Spirited Encounters: American Indians Protest Museum Policies and Practices by Karen Coody Cooper.  Good resource for educators, museum & historical society staff. Visit our Authors web page!

NEW  Cherokee Women in Charge: Female Power and Leadership in American Indian Nations of Eastern North America by Karen Cody Cooper. You can purchase from www.mcfarlandpub.com  While it is mostly about Cherokee women as an example, the middle of the book visits early tribal women up and down the coast. It speaks of Mayan women, women in the Caribbean, etc.

Ancient North America: The Archeology of a Continent, 4th edition by Brian M.Fagan

Wilderness Empire, A Narrative by Allan W Eckert is a novel about the French and Indian war. It is well written and contains a wealth of factual material about that conflict.Autumn of the Black Snake by William Hogeland  is an excellent history of the Northwest Territory from 1791 to 1795.  It includes a lot of material from the views of Blue Jacket and Little Turtle.  Native resistance to Euro-American invasion of their homeland.  It ends with Mad Anthony Wayne forcing peace on American terms after his victory at the battle of fallen Timbers.

The Reason for Flowers: Their History, Culture, Biology and How They Change Our Lives by Stephen Buchman
Native American Ethnobotany by Daniel E. Moerman – covers 4,029 plants, with 44,681 uses! The definitive book on Native American plants!

The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions by Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin.

Now That the Buffalo Is Gone: A Study of Today’s American Indians by Alvin M. Josephy, Jr  1982  A history of the injustice & persecution perpetrated by Europeans & Euro-Americans on Native Americans  from Coronado to Wounded Knee.  The awakening of Native people & their fight to regain their rights from fishing on the Columbia, to protecting the resources on reservations & to gain just compensation from companies exploiting those resources.

Civil War

Between Two Fires by Laurence Hauptman
Trial By Fire by Page Smith
Lincoln & Little Crow by Scott Berg

Civil War Women

Women at Gettysburg  — 1st Edition by Eileen F. Conklin – Biographies of 40 women who served, nursed, or aided the soldiers after Gettysburg. Participation of women during the war was critical, if not essential to the survival of many men.  Very good.  Nothing about Native Americans but a good book for Women’s Studies & Civil War enthusiasts.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Roberts
Capitol Dames by Cokie Roberts

Others

The Unequaled Self, An Autobiography of Samuel Pepys by Claire Tomalin
Audubon, the Making of an America by Richard Rhodes