Native Voices

Native peoples of North America still face an uncertain future due to their unstable political, legal, and economic positions. Views of their predicament continue to be dominated by non-Indian writers. In response, a dozen Native American writers here reclaim their rightful role as influential "voices" in debates about Native communities. These scholars examine crucial issues of politics, law, and religion in the context of ongoing Native American resistance to the dominant culture. They particularly show how the writings of Vine Deloria, Jr., have shaped and challenged American Indian scholarship in these areas since 1960s. They provide key insights into Deloria's thought, while introducing some critical issues confronting Native nations. Collectively, these essays take up four important themes: indigenous societies as the embodiment of cultures of resistance, legal resistance to western oppression against indigenous nations, contemporary Native religious practices, and Native intellectual challenges to academia. Essays address indigenous perspectives on topics usually treated by non-Indians, such as role of women in Indian society, the importance of sacred sites to American Indian religious identity, and relationship of native language to indigenous autonomy. A closing essay by Deloria, in vintage form, reminds Native Americans of their responsibilities and obligations to one another and to past and future generations. This book argues for renewed cultivation of a Native American Studies that is more Indian-centered.

From the Native Trailblazers series comes a new book with the stories of twelve brave people who work tirelessly to save our environment. These are stories of courage, determination and resistance to multinational corporations and disastrous government policies that are harming the planet. Readers will learn about Grace Thorpe, who worked to keep Native reservations from becoming nuclear waste dumps; Tom Goldtooth, the director of the Indigenous Environmental Network; and Winona LaDuke, who works on a national level to raise public support and create funding for Native environmental groups. Read about the next generation of Native environmentalists, including Ben Powless, a founding organizer of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition; Melina Laboucan-Massimo, tar sands campaigner for Greenpeace Canada; and Teague Allston, an intern with the National Wildlife Federation tribal and public lands program.

Representatives of the Six Nation Iroquois delivered three position papers titled “The Haudenosaunee Address to the Western World” at a conference on “Discrimination Against the Indigenous Populations of the Americas” held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1977 hosted by Non-Governmental Organizations at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in 1977. This document is presented in its entirety. Contributions by John Mohawk, Chief Oren Lyons, and Jose Barreiro give added depth and continuity to this important work.

Book one of the Billy Buckhorn series introduces a Cherokee teen who uses his supernatural abilities to solve mysteries. In this first installment, Abnormal, Billy is struck by lightning while fishing with his friend Chigger. He survives the lightning strike but begins to experience an enhanced level of esp. Billy is labeled “abnormal” by one of his teachers after he uncovers an unsavory secret from the teacher’s past. What no one suspects is that the teacher is a shape-shifter who becomes an evil raven that gains strength from his victims’ fear. When Billy confronts the teacher, he must channel his own fear into anger in order to defeat the evil birdman.

This unique reader presents a broad approach to the study of American Indians through the voices and viewpoints of the Native Peoples themselves. Multi-disciplinary and hemispheric in approach, it draws on ethnography, biography, journalism, art, and poetry to familiarize students with the historical and present day experiences of native peoples and nations throughout North and South America–all with a focus on themes and issues that are crucial within Indian Country today. For courses in Introduction to American Indians in departments of Native American Studies/American Indian Studies, Anthropology, American Studies, Sociology, History, Women's Studies.

In Indian Voices, Alison Owings takes readers on a fresh journey across America, east to west, north to south, and around again. Owings's most recent oral history—engagingly written in a style that entertains and informs—documents what Native Americans say about themselves, their daily lives, and the world around them. Young and old from many tribal nations speak with candor, insight, and (unknown to many non-Natives) humor about what it is like to be a Native American in the twenty-first century. Through intimate interviews many also express their thoughts about the sometimes staggeringly ignorant, if often well-meaning, non-Natives they encounter—some who do not realize Native Americans still exist, much less that they speak English, have cell phones, use the Internet, and might attend powwows and power lunches. Indian Voices, an inspiring and important contribution to the literature about the original Americans, will make every reader rethink the past—and present—of the United States.

The revised edition adds two new and exciting young basketball players to the roster of outstanding Native athletes already included in the book. Shoni Schimmel, a tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon, has earned the nicknames “The Umatilla Thrilla” and “Showtime” in the world of women's basketball. To people in Indian Country, Shoni is an absolute hero. Kenny Dobbs, aka “The Dunk Inventor,” is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and has toured the globe with the National Basketball Association as a celebrity dunker for sold-out shows. The biographies of all thirteen athletes describe the hard work, determination and education it took to accomplish their dreams and become the champions they are.

Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming in Indian, #Not Your Princess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. Sometimes angry, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have been virtually invisible.