BOOK STORE > This Season’s Featured Books
Birchbark Books
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
A sweeping and trenchant exploration of the history of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life.
From the mid-nineteenth century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their tribal communities to attend boarding schools whose stated aim was to "save the Indian" by way of assimilation. In reality, these boarding schools--sponsored by the U.S. government, but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation--were a calculated attempt to dismantle tribes by pulling apart Native families. Children were beaten for speaking their Native languages; denied food, clothing, and comfort; and forced to work menial jobs in terrible conditions, all while utterly deprived of love and affection.
Amongst those thousands of children was Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother, who was was sent to a boarding school in northern Wisconsin at age five. The trauma of her experience cast a pall over Pember's own childhood and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, Medicine River paints a stark but hopeful portrait of communities still reckoning with the trauma of acculturation, religion, and abuse caused by the state. Through searing interviews and careful reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of Native cultures and nations in relation to the country that has been intent on eradicating them.
“Of all the musicians I’ve had the pleasure of playing with, Jesse is the one I admired the most, like a big brother.”
No one played like Jesse Ed Davis. One of the most sought-after guitarists of the late 1960s and ’70s, Davis appeared alongside the era’s greatest stars―John Lennon and Mick Jagger, B.B. King and Bob Dylan―and contributed to dozens of major releases, including numerous top-ten albums and singles, and records by artists as distinct as Johnny Cash, Taj Mahal, and Cher.
NO SPIRITUAL SURRENDER
Klee Banally, A Beautiful Diné Warrior, Takes His Journey To The Spirit World
Klee Benally, who is a Diné artist, musician, and writer, recently published a manifesto called No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred (2023). In this document, he presents an anti-colonial analysis based on his frontline experiences. Benally strongly advocates for Indigenous autonomy and the complete liberation of Nahasdzáán (Mother Earth) by relentlessly challenging colonial politics.
“Music is not enough. Direct & effective action is essential if we desire a healthy & sustainable existence. Entire eco-systems are being destroyed to maintain unsustainable lifestyles. Where there is an environmental crisis there is a cultural crisis because we are people of the earth.”
“We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.”
HOUSE MADE OF DAWN
N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer-Winning Novelist, Walks On at 89
Navarre Scott Momaday was a renowned Kiowa writer from Oklahoma and New Mexico who wrote novels, short stories, essays, and poetry. His works blend traditional tales, history, and spirituality among modern Kiowa. The success of House Made of Dawn, his first novel and the first Pulitzer-winning work by a Native Author, inspired a wave of Indigenous literature. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
N. Scott Momaday wrote a limited edition collection of Kiowa folktales called The Journey of Tai-me (1967). Later, he expanded it into The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969), illustrated by his father, Alfred Momaday. His poetry collection includes Angle of Geese and Other Poems (1969), The Gourd Dancer (1976), Again the Far Morning: New and Selected Poems (2011), and The Death of Sitting Bear: New and Selected Poems (2020). In addition, he wrote The Names (1976), a memoir about his Kiowa ancestors and his early life.
In 1989, Momaday published his second novel, The Ancient Child. The book is a blend of traditional tales, history, and a modern urban Kiowa artist's search for his roots. Some of his notable works include In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems 1961–1991 (1992), Circle of Wonder: A Native American Christmas Story (1994), The Man Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages (1997), In the Bear's House (1999), a collection of paintings, poems, and short stories, and Earth Keepers: Reflections on the American Land (2020).