Native American Literature for Teens
Fiction • Non-Fiction

Fiction

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Alexie, Sherman (YA ALE)
"Imagine that your own shadow on the wall is a perfect door."

Faces in the Moon
Bell, Betty (FIC BEL)
"I am your worst nightmare: I am an Indian with a pen!"

Sacajawea: The Story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Bruchac, Joseph (YA BRU)
Translator. Peacemaker. Caretaker. Guide. The story of an expedition and the woman who made it successful.

Shadow Brothers
Cannon, A.E. (YA CAN)
Two brothers are inseparable until one rediscovers his heritage.

Eye Killers
Carr, A.A. (FIC CAR) A father invokes ancient traditions to try to save his daughter from shape-shifting vampires who have lived - and murdered - for centuries.

Who Will Tell My Brother
Carvell, Marlene (YA CAR)
"My eyes search for answers, looking for those who also see the shame and seeing no one."

Mountain Windsong
Conley, Robert (FIC CON)
Separated by a genocidal march, betrothed Waguli and Oconeechee struggle to reunite.

Waterlily
Deloria, Ella (FIC DEL)
"Giving was basic to Dakota life. The idea behind it was this: if everyone gives, then everyone gets; it is inevitable."

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Dorris, Michael (FIC DOR)
Three generations-beset by hardship, torn by angry secrets, joined by the bonds of kinship.

The Antelope Wife
Erdrich, Louise (FIC ERD)
"I had this awful thought - us Indians are turning into the bottom-feeders of white culture."

Indio
Garland, Sherry (YA GAR)
Ipa-tah-chi is caught between two worlds when Spanish explorers enslave her people.

Flutie
Glancy, Diane (FIC GLA)
"They were all poor.... There was only the hope of marrying, having children, and continuing the struggle with her nose pushed into the dirt."

Twilight Boy
Green, Timothy (YA GRE)
Is it decades-old guilt that haunts Jesse's grandfather or is it a Skinwalker, a Navajo witch?

Skinwalkers
Hillerman, Tony (FIC HIL MYS)
Officer Chee and Lt. Leaphorn join in a frightening investigation that takes them into a dark world of ritual, witchcraft, and blood.

Bearstone
Hobbs, Will (YA HOB)
Cloyd learns the hard lessons taught by his totem, the black bear.

Power
Hogan, Linda (FIC HOG)
"They say that to speak an animal's name is to call out to the powers inside it."

Truth and Bright Water
King, Thomas (FIC KIN)
"A better game was one where you shot at your own feet and tried to come as close as you could without hitting anything."

Pigs in Heaven
Kingsolver, Barbara (FIC KIN)
When a Cherokee tribal lawyer comes to claim Taylor's illegally adopted Indian daughter, she must face the fact that her life is about to be torn apart.

Last Standing Woman
LaDuke, Winona (FIC LAD)
"She never professed to understand war or understand revenge...but something inside of her pulled her there."

Storm Riders
Lesley, Craig (FIC LES)
A father struggles to raise his adopted son, a Tlingit Indian boy cursed with fetal alcohol syndrome and an abusive childhood.

Prophecy Rock
MacGregor, Rob (YA MAC)
Visiting his Hopi tribal police chief father, Will is drawn into an unusual murder investigation that may be linked to a powaqu-a witch.

The Sacrifice
Matchek, Diane (YA MAT)
"How do you know I will not turn on you now and kill you?"

House Made of Dawn
Momaday, M. Scott (FIC MOM)
Can Abel reconcile the traditional ways of his people with demands of the 20th century?

Eclipse of Moonbeam Dawson
Okimoto, Jean (YA OKI)
It's hard enough being a normal teenager. But when your name is Moonbeam and you've grown up on a commune run by a bunch of refugees from the 60s--who's to say what's normal?

Vanishing Act
Perry, Thomas (FIC PER M)
Jane Whitefield: a one-woman witness protection program!

Ceremony
Silko, Leslie (FIC SIL)
"You don't have anything, if you don't have the stories."

Rain is Not My Indian Name
Smith, Cynthia Leitch (YA SMI)
After the death of her best friend, Rain learns to connect with family and community through the lens of a camera.

The Heartsong of Charging Elk
Welch, James (YA WEL)
"He understood that his people would not be allowed to go back to the buffalo ranges. What he didn't know was what would become of them."

Thunderwoman
Wood, Nancy (FIC WOO)
Thunderwoman, co-creator of the universe, returns to Earth in human form to try to save her people.

Non-Fiction:

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Matthiessen, Peter (305.897 MAT)

Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn
Colton, Larry (796.3236 COL)

When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans
(J 811.54 WHE)

Lighting Within: An Anthology of Contemporary American Indian Fiction
(813.54 LIG)

The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir
Hogan, Linda (818.54 HOG)

Earth Always Endures: Native American Poems
(J 897 PHI)

Alcatraz: Indian Land Forever
Johnson, Troy (970.1 ALC)

Lost Bird of Wounded Knee
Flood, Renee (970.1 FLO)

Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence
McLuhan, T.C. (970.1 MCL)

Lakota Woman
Crow Dog, Mary (978.362 BRA)

The Life and Death of Crazy Horse
Freedman, Russell (J 92 CRA)

Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means
Means, Russell (92 MEA)