American Indian

On March 14, 1889, Susan La Flesche received her medical degree - becoming the first Native American doctor in US history. She earned her degree 31 years before women could vote and 35 years before Indians could become citizens in their own country. This is the story of an Indian woman who effectively became the chief of an entrenched patriarchal tribe, the story of a woman who crashed through thick walls of ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice and then spent the rest of her life using a unique bicultural identity to improve the lot of her people.

In this exquisite collection of children’s folktales, Zitkála-Šá shares the legends that were handed down to her through generations of Yankton storytellers. These tales display the wide range of insights and observations that accrue to such stories through repeated iteration, but they also benefit from the sharp ear and finely tuned sensibility of Zitkála-Šá as a writer. Her characters seem to speak to us—often crying out to us—in the same tones that Zitkála-Šá must once have heard.

Charles Eastman is unique among Indian writers, whether storytellers or oral historians. He was raised traditionally, as a Woodland Sioux, by his grandmother, from 1858 to 1874, until he was 15. He thus gained a thorough first-hand knowledge of the lifeways, language, culture, and oral history. His father (thought to have been hanged at Mankato, Minnesota) reappeared and insisted he receive the white man's education.

The Fetterman Massacre of 1866 marked the tragic opening to one of the longest and most dramatic wars in history. Told from the perspective of the gruff Seamus Donegan, this historically accurate tale describes the massacre in vivid detail. At the end of the Civil War, a tremendous stream of soldiers and settlers began moving westward along the Bozeman Trail, cutting deep into sacred Sioux hunting grounds. For Red Cloud and his warriors, a bloody fight to retain their ancestral homeland proved inevitable.

The war gets its name from British colonists’ two primary enemies: the French settlers and the Native Americans who sided with them. The title is a bit misleading, however, as the British also had Native Americans on their side at various points of the war. The conflict goes by "The Seven Years’ War" in Europe because it took place from 1756 to 1763. Britain’s victory solidified the future of the English-speaking North America we know today. However, it also led to the massacre of countless Native peoples throughout North America.

The Pawnee Indians were a fierce, proud, and determined people who called themselves the "men of men". Though there are many Native American tribes to learn about, the Pawnees were unique in many ways; they were a peace-loving, agricultural people with permanent settlements in what is now Nebraska. They dedicated themselves to their gods, the stars, and even arranged their villages according to important star clusters.

Arguably the last Indians living in Central Florida in 1883 were all massacred because the chief's favorite squaw loved White Man Cow. John asked the President of the United States to send soldiers to remove the Indians. John didn't think his request was out of line; after all the government had earlier been moving Indians to the "Indians Territory" (now Oklahoma) for years. But the President wouldn't do it. So John had to do it. He killed every man, woman and child. This is the story of why he did it.

Some of these plans were intended to wipe out Native Americans entirely while some others were meant to curtail efforts of Native Americans, push them away, keep them in controlled environments, completely subjugated, while forcing them to cede nearly all of their lands, at the most minimal of prices, keeping them forever subservient to and dependent upon their white "masters."

In 1903, over 300 Indian children from across America lived at the Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School in a remote, isolated valley in Montana. Among the children were a handful of teenage girls, many who had only lived in tepees. They quickly learned to play basketball and resoundingly crushed all opponents, including men's and women's university teams. After the games, the girls recited Shelley and Longfellow, played mandolins and violins, sang, danced, and pantomimed.

For Anjali, playing the tabla is something that comes naturally—she loves feeling the drum beneath her fingers and getting lost in the music. She doesn't care that some people say it's an instrument for boys. But she does care when her skills make others treat her differently. Anjali starts downplaying her talent, and even messes up on purpose. When her teacher announces a music contest, Anjali can’t deny her dreams of playing the tabla.

Longfellow's great narrative poem has been unjustly neglected in recent years though it gives a sympathetic portrait especially of Hiawatha, reared by Nokomis, daughter of the Moon, and his bride Minehaha.

Toda una tradicion de novelas de aventuras en el oeste estadounidense, entre los indios pieles rojas, que aun perdura en nuestros dias en la literatura y en el cine, fue la iniciada por Fenimore Cooper, un distinguido escritor de ese pais, que a principios del siglo XIX escribio una serie de novelas, que siguen entre las mas destacadas del genero y de las cuales El ultimo de los mohicanos es no solo la mas conocida sino la mejor.

It’s 1806. A young republic just three decades old - the United States of America - is about to make a great push westward, across the Mississippi, into a wild, beautiful, and dangerous land. A territory of towering mountains and violent waters, of icy glaciers and searing deserts. The great northwest. It is a time and a place where fortunes will be made, destinies will be revealed, and legends will rise.

Como indio borrado, el Güero es uno más de los nuevos olvidados en un mundo inmerso en la violencia. El caos reina en todo lo que le rodea, incluso en su propio núcleo familiar: ya no soporta el llanto del Cabrito, el hijo de su hermana, las ojeras de su madre,el olor de su padre. Entre los recuerdos de su niñez,cuando vendía serpientes de madera con su hermana la Leidi, los consejos de su tío Absalón y las voces de unos fantasmas que le hablan del pasado de su ciudad y de sus ancestros, el Güero debe lidiar con el paso a la adultez y los sentimientos dominados por la ira.

On the morning of November 29, 1864, Colonel John Chivington led 700 militiamen in a surprise attack against Cheyenne leader Black Kettle's camp at Sand Creek. Chivington was a fire and brimstone Methodist minister who had publicly advocated indiscriminately killing Native American children because "nits makes lice."

Laxmi never paid much attention to the tiny hairs above her lip. But one day while playing farm animals at recess, her friends point out that her whiskers would make her the perfect cat. She starts to notice body hair all over - on her arms, legs, and even between her eyebrows. With her parents' help, Laxmi learns that hair isn't just for heads, but that it grows everywhere, regardless of gender.

This audio study guide for Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel K. Richter includes detailed summary and analysis of each chapter and an in-depth exploration of the book’s multiple symbols, motifs, and themes such as cultural accommodation, racial antagonism, and the influence of resources and materials on historical events. Featured content also includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay questions, and discussion topics.

The Apache of the American Southwest have achieved almost legendary status for their fierceness and their tenacity in fighting the US Army. Names like Nana, Cochise, and Geronimo are synonymous with bravery and daring, and the tribe had that reputation long before the Americans arrived. Indeed, among all the Native American tribes, the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans learned the hard way that the warriors of the Apache were perhaps the fiercest in North America. Based in the Southwest, the Apache fought all three in Mexico and the American Southwest.

Since the Battle of the Little Bighorn, George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry have become associated with a relatively insignificant battle during America’s Indian Wars, but one that has become one of the country’s most mythologized events and continues to fascinate Americans more than 140 years later. That’s because the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought in June 1876, was one of the US military’s biggest debacles. Eventually, Custer and the 7th Cavalry’s “Last Stand” would become a symbol for American heroism in the face of overwhelming odds.

“Als wir noch jenseits des Großen Wassers wohnten, gab es zwölf Stämme, die zu den Cherokee-Indianern gehörten ...“ So beginnt die traditionelle Geschichte des Stammes, die zum Fest des Großen Mondes, dem Neujahrsfest, rezitiert und den jungen Cherokee bei Zusammenkünften gelehrt wurde. Sie wurde von Cornsilk alias William Eubanks, einem Zeitungsschreiber im Indian Territory, 1896 aufgezeichnet, basierend auf der ursprünglichen Erzählung in der Sprache der Cherokee, wie sie George Sahkiyah „Soggy“ Sanders, ebenfalls Mitglied in der Keetoowah Society.