What are your must reads for Native American History?

[A home for their hearts]

We are going to study Native American history along with Ancients this year. What are you must reads for real-alouds, readers, fiction and non-fiction?

thanks!

[Farrar]

The Birchbark House is the number one, absolutely must read it, IMO. Children of the Longhouse is another good pick potentially and Joseph Bruhac has others for Native Americans and is a great author. Both would be good read alouds for both older and younger children. Warning though, The Birchbark House includes a sad death (from illness).

 

We also enjoyed many of the projects in More Than Moccasins.

 

The Scholastic If You Lived With the... series is also surprisingly good and contains a nice amount of text. It's perfect for your 8 yo and wouldn't be too simple for your 12 and 11 yo, though you might want more resources as well.

[tammyw]

DD9 and I both liked this book that we recently read:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Names-Remain-Cherokees-Trail/dp/0316085197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348167967&sr=8-1&keywords=Only+the+names+remain

[Chrysalis Academy]

Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 by Charles Mann was a highlight of our history studies last year. Great book, very interesting. Miss P still talks about it.

[frugalmama]

For a slightly older child or teen, Sweetgrass is a great one. I read it when I was upper elementary and it really was a formative book that I still remember fondly.

[tammyw]

Can I tack onto this thread?

 

I'd also love to know of great dvds on this topic, particularly child-appropriate.

[Lori D.]

Picture books are wonderful for all ages, as they also often are in the art style of the particular Native American tribe:
- picture books by Paul Goble
- picture books of legends of different tribes by Terri Cohlene, Gerald McDermott, and others
- Last Leaf, First Snowflake -- beautiful, poetic picture book

 

At a grade 1 reading level:

- Small Wolf (Benchley)

- Sacajawea (Milton)

- Sitting Bull (Penner)

- The Warrior Maiden (Schecter)

 

At a grade 2-3 reading level:
- Squanto (Bulla)
- Pocahontas (Bulla)
- Tikta'liktak (Houston) -- legend of an Inuit-Alaskan man stranded on an ice floe

- Trail of Tears (Bruchac)

At a grade 3-4 reading level, short biographies by Troll publishers:
- Sequoyah: Cherokee Hero (Oppenheim)
- Osceola: Seminole Warrior (Oppenheim)
- Black Hawk: Frontier Warrior (Oppenheim)
- Tecumseh: Shawnee War Chief (Fleischer)
- Sitting Bull: Warrior of the Sioux (Fleischer)

- Sacajawea: Wilderness Guide (Jassem)

- Squanto: The Pilgrim Adventure (Jassem)

- Chief Joseph, Leader of Destiny (Jassem)

- Pocahonta: Girl of Jamestown (Jassem)

At a grade 4 reading level:
- Om-Kas-Toe (Thomasa) -- Blackfoot boy tames a horse for his tribe
- Naya Nuki (Thomasa) -- true story of a friend of Sacajawea who escaped her Indian captors and journeyed home over 1000 miles away

- Sequoyah and Cherokee Alphabet (Cwiklik) -- biography

 

At a grade 5+ reading level:

- Island of the Blue Dolphins (O-Dell) -- based on the true story of a Nicoleno Indian girl who lived alone on an island off the coast of CA for 18 years

 

At a grade 6-8 reading level:
- Streams to the River, River to the Sea (O'Dell) -- Sacajawea
- Sing Down the Moon (O'Dell) -- Navajo and the Long Walk of the 1860s
- Walk the World's Rim -- Southwestern tribes, through the eyes of a 16th century Spanish conquistador
- Indian Captive (Lenski) -- true story of Mary Jemison, who chose to stay with the Native group that took her as a replacement for a lost tribe member

[SFM]

We are actually pausing our history to do a little depth into Native American history and culture and we are LOVING it. We use Holling C Holling's book Indians as a "spine" so to speak and then we study the different areas and their tribes/clans.

 

I don't have my list but I got a lot of great ones from this board, some have very extensive lists. Perhaps you could search for them?

 

Anyways, I just wanted to say, Om-Kas-Toe is a HUGE hit in this house. My 4 year old even goes around saying, "Oh, look there's wise bird!" (It's the bird in the book). It was really great and now we know how to better identify the Blackfeet people.

[SweetandSimple]

Don't forget to study Ishi! We enjoyed reading a picture biography as well as the fictionalized account of his life by Theodora Kroeber.

[Chava_Raizel]

We're doing Native American's right now and we're enjoying Children of the Longhouse

 

Another great read is Sees Behind Trees. My twins, who usually claim to hate any book I choose for them, really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed Walk the World's Rim.

 

We're planning on watching America Before Columbus tomorrow. I caught it on tv a while back and I thought it was interesting.

[SFM]

Oh we also really enjoyed Walk the World's Rim and Sign of the Beaver.

[thebacabunch]

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sing Down the Moon, and Birchbark House are must reads!

[A home for their hearts]

We are actually pausing our history to do a little depth into Native American history and culture and we are LOVING it. We use Holling C Holling's book Indians as a "spine" so to speak and then we study the different areas and their tribes/clans.

 

Is this book out of print?

 

thanks everyone for all the great suggestions! Now, is there a list somewhere that groups the books according to tribe/time period? ;)

[hellen]

The picture book "Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing" by Rumford is quite interesting.

[SFM]

Is this book out of print?

 

thanks everyone for all the great suggestions! Now, is there a list somewhere that groups the books according to tribe/time period? ;)

 

Yes, it is out of print, however, I got it off of Amazon marketplace from a lady in Utah who used it with her brother as a child. I thought that was so neat and added to my attachment of the book. We love Holling C Holling.