Please, all recommendations happily accepted. I’ve already read and enjoyed the following, some recently:
-Empire of the Summer Moon
– Lonesome Dove (and the sequel and both prequels)
– The Son
– True Grit
– Buffalo Hunter Hunter
– (podcast) Apache Tears by Dan Carlin
And probably a lot more but the above are the great ones that stick out in my mind right now.
I also took a Native History course in college that was absolutely fascinating. Fiction, nonfiction, short stories, poems, open to whatever you got.
Especially interested in: Iroquois Confedaracy, Comanche, Apache, nomadic Plains Indians, forced schools, migration and changing lifestyles post-“discovery” of the americas, involvement in various wars big and small, and especially daily life.
by Willing_Rock_4657
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Title should say “any era, any tribe” apologies can’t edit that
Native Nations by Kathleen DuVal. The first bit is based more on archeology and surviving oral traditions and stories, but the rest of it has additional written accounts from various sources, including natives as they gained their own printing presses
*Cannibal Coast* by Edwin W. Kilman.
*The Westo Indians: Slave Traders of the Early Colonial South* Eric E*.* Bowne.
*Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Resistance* by Alvin Josephy.
*Forts and Forays: A Dragoon in New Mexico, 1850-1856* by Dr. James A. Bennett.
*The Blue, the Gray and the Red* by Thom Hatch.
*Stand Watie and the Agony of the Cherokee Nation* by Kenny A. Franks.
*The Sand Creek Massacre* by Stan Hoig.
*The Nebraska Indian Wars Reader, 1865-1877,* edited by R. Eli Paul.
*Jay Cooke’s Gamble: The Northern Pacific Railroad the Sioux and the Panic of 1873* by M. John Lubetkin.
*American Indians* by Wiliam T. Hagan.
*Fighting Indians of the West* by Dee Brown.
*Custer: The Controversial Life of George Armstrong Custer* by Jeffry D. Wert.
*Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas* by Mari Sandoz.
*The Battle of the Little Bighorn* by Mari Sandoz.
*Little Big Man* by Thomas Berger (fiction).
*Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West* by Dee Brown.
*Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History* by S. C. Gwynne.
*The Comanchero Frontier: A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations* by Charles L. Kenner.
*The Nebraska Indian Wars Reader, 1865-1877*, edited by R. Eli Paul.
*The Gospel of the Red Man: A Way of Life* by Ernest Thomas Seton and Julia M. Seton, eds.
*Black Elk Speaks* by John G. Neihardt.
*Ishi in Two Worlds, 50th Anniversary Edition: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America* by Theodora Kroeber.
*Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.* by David Grann.
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Allan Eckert’s “The Winning of America” historical fiction series (65% European and American settler history; 35% Native American (the Iroquois and other N.E. tribes) except for *A Sorrow in Our Heart* which is 100% Native American (Shawnee) history). Chronologically:
* *The Frontiersmen* – largely about the life and exploits of Simon Kenton and his contemporaries. The Battle of the Wabash: on 4 November 1791, almost the whole U.S. Army, led by MG Arthur St. Clair, was attacked by a large, combined force of Native Americans (Miami, Shawnee, & Delaware)and soundly defeated.
* *Wilderness Empire* by Allan Eckert – about the French and Indian War: 1754 to 1763.
* *The Conquerors* by Allan Eckert – about Pontiac’s Rebellion (Ottowa): 1763.
* *The Wilderness War* by Allan Eckert – through the American Revolution: 1763 to 1780.
* *Gateway to Empire* by Allan Eckert – settlement of the Chicago portage (“The Gateway”) towards the War of 1812.
* *Twilight of Empire* by Allan Eckert – through Black Hawk’s War (Sauk): 1830s.
* *The Court-martial of Daniel Boone* by Allan Eckert.
* *A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh* (Shawnee) by Allan Eckert.
This is a slightly off the wall recommendation, but the cookbook Turtle Island by Sean Sherman is all about getting back to pre-European ingredients in the native diet and it’s really fascinating. You might even want to make some of the food, the photography is gorgeous.
As far as novels go, anything by Louise Erdrich.
Louise Erdrich! She’s the best. I also liked Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie.
There, There and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange and anything and everything by Sherman Alexie.
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Fiction:
Love Medicine – Louise Erdrich
Winter in the Blood – James Welch
Ceremony- Leslie Marmon Silko
Memoir:
Poet Warrior
Crazy Brave
Poetry:
Joy Harjo
Going to check out some recommendations from this post! I will also recommend Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn and it’s follow ups.
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. Inspired by her grandfather’s fight against termination.
1491 by Charles C. Mann – read this last year and was absolutely fascinated.
I third Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee and Killers of the Flower Moon. I think about these books often
Native Nations is a nonfiction book that does really well in my bookstore
These are a bit old (80’s and 90’s), but any of the “People of the” books by Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. They are both archeologists as well as authors, so they are meticulously researched. I absolutely devoured these books back in the day.
I earned my Masters degree in US History with an emphasis on Native American history. These were some of my favorite reads from my program:
The Comanche Empire – Pekka Hämäläinen
Lakota America – Pekka Hämäläinen
The Contested Plains: Indians, Gold Seekers, and the Rush to Colorado – Elliott West
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 – Benjamin Madley
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England – William Cronin
From the Deep Woods to Civilization – Charles Alexander Eastman
Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land – Rebecca Nagle
There’s a series of fiction books by archaeologists Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear called the People (or The First North American) books which are written about specific Native cultures. They are quite in-depth–and explore a lot of what life would have been like pre-Columbus–actually a lot of them are way further back than that.