Native American Heritage 2007

	Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with these recommended titles by, for and about Native Americans. All of these library materials are owned by the Metropolitan Library System. Log on to CyberMars with your library card to reserve any titles that interest you, or ask a librarian for assistance.
	Back to Spotlight On.....	1 2

d
	Dream Wheels Richard Wagamese (St. Martin’s,c2006) Shelf Number: Fiction/WAG This Ojibwa author tells the story of Joe Willie Wolfchild who suffers from severe depression after an accident destroys his chance of becoming a world champion rodeo rider. He returns home, where he encounters a troubled young man whose actions have landed him in jail. This novel is all about the healing effects of family. The descriptions of the desert landscape and the action-packed rodeo scenes will strike a chord with readers.
	Effigies Mary Anna Evans (Poisoned Pen,c2006) Shelf Number: Fiction/EVA Archaeologist Faye Longchamp and her friend Joe Wolf Mantooth are in Mississippi working on an excavation near the sacred mound that is said to be the birthplace of the Choctaw Nation. The owner of a nearby farm, with an ancient mound that may be rich in artifacts, refuses to let the team investigate. In fact, he tries to bulldoze the mound along with a few of the archaeologists. The local sheriff diffuses the situation, but later the farmer turns up dead. Since the murder weapon is a handmade stone blade, and Faye and Joe were nearby, they become suspects. Along with the mystery Evans adds an extra touch to her novel with the fascinating history of ancient American civilizations.
d
	Flight: a Novel Sherman Alexie (Black Cat/Pub. Group West, c2007) Shelf Number: Fiction/ALE It’s tough being a fifteen year old orphaned ward of the state, as well as a so-called half-breed. Add to that a history of abuse, and no wonder the orphaned teen has a gun in each hand, ready to exact revenge on strangers in a bank. Of course, with Alexie, this is not a classic troubled youth tale, but a time-travel fable. In the first episode of this out-of-body experience tale, the teen is catapulted back to 1975, where he inhabits the body of a white FBI agent confronting radical Indian activists. This is a novel of learning from confrontations, and it asserts that people of all backgrounds are capable of both good and evil.
a
	The Girl With Braided Hair Margaret Coel (Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin, c2007) Shelf Number: Mystery/COE On the Wind River reservation in Wyoming, an animal unearths the remains of a woman. It turns out she was murdered in 1973 when Native American activists came to the reservation. Several reservation women ask attorney Vicki Holden to press the sheriff to find the killer. Immediately, threats are leveled against Vicki and her friend Father John O’Malley. They must find the killer, before the killer gets them. This is the thirteenth Vicki Holden mystery, and it is filled with Coel’s trademarks vivid landscapes and snappy dialogue.
a
	The Insufficiency of Maps: a Novel Nora Pierce (Atria Books,c2007) Shelf Number: Fiction/PIE In this first novel by Pierce, Native American schoolgirl Alice struggles with poverty and limited opportunities in the reservation trailer home of her alcoholic parents. Alice is placed with a white foster family in the suburbs when her mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia, a situation that challenges Alice’s sense of culture and identity.
a
	The Marriage of Saints: a Novel Dawn Karima Pettigrew (Univ. of Oklahoma Press ,c2006) Shelf Number: Fiction/PET This is the story of several generations of a Cherokee family. Storylines are intertwined; a young lady with healing powers who saves an ex-convict, the lives of four sisters and a traveling woman’s love for her dog. Pettigrew is a Harvard graduate who weaves her Cherokee and Creek heritage into this story.
a
Click here to view printable version.