Native Life

It’s 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and 15-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women, presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine’s father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church - a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter, until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever.

On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, a girl and her grandmother gather gifts from the earth. Salmon from the stream, herring eggs from the ocean, and in the forest, a world of berries. Through the seasons, they sing to the land as the land sings to them. Brimming with joy and gratitude, in every step of their journey, they forge a deeper kinship with both the earth and the generations that came before, joining in the song that connects us all.

A pioneer girl traveling west with her Mormon family at the mid-point of the 19th century, Olive Oatman’s life story began like many others. But when Olive’s family were massacred and she was taken captive by Native Americans, her story took a unique turn. An extraordinary tale of survival and loss, the life of Olive Oatman is stranger than fiction.

Speak English like a native speaker with these daily life English expressions. What would it mean for your studies or career to be able to speak and write freely in English? How about understanding more of what you hear or read? The idioms, phrases, words, and expressions in Daily Life English Expressions to Know are designed to improve your English quickly and easily.

The author of 18 spellbinding detective novels set on the Navajo Nation, Tony Hillerman simultaneously transformed a traditional genre and unlocked the mysteries of the Navajo culture to an audience of millions. His best-selling novels added Navajo Tribal Police detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee to the pantheon of American fictional detectives.

Jenna Rosen returns to the place in Alaska where her young son, Bobby, disappeared without a trace two years before. Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death. But ancient legends may have had a hand in Bobby’s fate, forcing Jenna to sift through her own Native American ancestry to uncover the truth.

When you think about the beginning of the American story, what comes to mind? Three ships in 1492, or perhaps buckled hats and shoes stepping off of the Mayflower, ready to start a new country. But the truth is, Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Colonists didn't arrive to a vast, empty land ready to be developed. They arrived to find people and communities living in harmony with the land they had inhabited for thousands of years, and they quickly disrupted everything they saw.

Twelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to. That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor.

At the start of the 1840s, the Oregon Country had no political boundaries or effective government. The first to begin showing up in large numbers were missionaries...Narcissa Prentiss Whitman became the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains...A teacher and missionary, she accomplished the journey with her like-minded husband, Dr. Marcus Whitman. Their history-making tenure in the northwestern wilderness caused them to become one of the most well-known couples of the 19th century, and their story was soon known to the entire nation.

Here is the amazing personal story of Joseph Rael, Beautiful Painted Arrow, from his birth on the Southern Ute reservation, through his childhood at Picuris Pueblo, to his work today as a healer, visionary and man of peace. It is a story of the power of Native American ceremonies, both ancient and contemporary, of visions, miracles, and mystical knowledge.

In this book, your child will be learning about the Haida and Iroquois Indians. Information included in this audio is focus on the culture, tradition, and location of the Haida and Iroquois Indians. Understand how their geographic location has shaped their way of life. Listen about these interesting tribes. Begin today.

A thoughtful and heartfelt middle grade novel by American Indian Youth Literature Honor-winning author Christine Day (Upper Skagit), about a girl whose hopeful plans for Indigenous Peoples’ Day (and plans to ask her crush to the school dance) go all wrong—until she finds herself surrounded by the love of her Indigenous family and community at an intertribal powwow.

Edward feels ready to move in with his dad’s girlfriend and her son, Nathan. He might miss having his dad all to himself, but even if things in their new home are a little awkward, living with Nathan isn’t so bad. And Nathan is glad to have found a new guardian for Dew, the young water monster who has been Nathan's responsibility for two years. Now that Nathan is starting to lose his childhood connection to the Holy Beings, Edward will be the one to take over as Dew’s next guardian. But Edward has a lot to learn about taking care of a water monster.

Thirteen-year-old Uwohali has not seen his father, Sequoyah, for many years. So when Sequoyah returns to the village, Uwohali is eager to reconnect. But Sequoyah's new obsession with making strange markings causes friends and neighbors in their tribe to wonder whether he is crazy - or, worse, practicing witchcraft. What they don't know, and what Uwohali discovers, is that Sequoyah is a genius, and his strange markings are actually an alphabet representing the sounds of the Cherokee language.

With heart, pathos, humor, and insight, twenty renowned writers, performers, athletes, and activists explore what it means to be Native American today. Through a series of essays and poems, these luminaries give voice to their individual experiences while shedding light on the depth and complexity of modern Native American identity, resiliency, and joy.

It all begins when Soft Rain's teacher reads a letter stating that as of May 23, 1838, all Cherokee people are to leave their land and move to what many Cherokees called "the land of darkness"...the west. Soft Rain is confident that her family will not have to move, because they have just planted corn for the next harvest but soon thereafter, soldiers arrive to take nine-year-old Soft Rain and her mother to walk the Trail of Tears, leaving the rest of her family behind. On the journey, she is forced to eat the white man's food and sees many of her people die.

The Olmecs walked the Earth a long time ago, but their marks are still felt these days. In fact, some of the traditions you know may have originated from the Olmecs. Learn about the Olmec civilization, particularly their art and religion, daily lives, and discoveries. Get a copy and encourage your fifth grader to listen beginning today.

The name Pocahontas is one of the most recognized in the world, and many think they know the story of how she met and fell in love with a European colonist meddling in her Native American affairs. But is this really what happened? It certainly has been a popular theme, and whole Disney movies have been made celebrating this narrative, but besides these conveniently glossed-over tales, what is the real story?

Geronimo, the fierce Apache war chief in the days of the wild west, was known as a blood thirsty savage that ravaged both the Mexicans and the White Men in countless bloody raids. But what were his motivations? Why did he seek bloodshed and revenge? In this dramatic true story, Geronimo accounts for his people's perspective which was full of loss and hardships during a turbulent and lawless period of American history.

Whispers of the Vineyard: Restoring the Family Legacy" unfolds the captivating journey of the Johnson family as they inherit a dilapidated winery, igniting a quest to breathe new life into a forgotten heritage. Amid skepticism and the allure of a new beginning, they unearth a secret wine recipe, leading them on an exploration that intertwines their future with the legacy of their ancestors. As they confront challenges and unearth hidden tales within the winery's walls, they discover the true essence of family, resilience, and the unbreakable bonds that history can forge.