Fiction Books That Celebrate Native American Heritage

The First Laugh Ceremony is a celebration held to welcome a new member of the community. As everyone-from Baby's nima (mom) to nadi (big sister) to cheii (grandfather)-tries to elicit the joyous sound from Baby, readers are introduced to details about Navajo life and the Navajo names for family members. 

Stylized watercolor illustrations of indigenous people and accessible text demonstrate how fostering empathy builds peaceful communities.

A stunningly illustrated celebration of the Native American year written by acclaimed Native American storyteller Joseph Bruchac.

This moving adaptation of the classic children's story Cinderella tells how a disfigured Algonquin girl wins the heart of a mysterious being who lives by the lake near her village.

The powerful Invisible Being is looking for a wife, and all the girls in the village vie for his affections. But only the girl who proves she can see him will be his bride. The two beautiful but spoiled daughters of a poor village man try their best to be chosen, but it is their Rough-Face-Girl sister, scarred on her face and arms from tending fires, who sees the Invisible Being in the wonder of the natural world.

A wild stallion, the leader of the wild horses, welcomes a girl and her horses into his herd and together they roam the hills, free and happy. When hunters from her community finally discover the girl after months of searching, they are overjoyed to find her safe and try to bring her home. The stallion fiercely defends the girl as one of his own, but she falls when her horse stumbles and the hunters are able to return her to her relatives. Though she was glad to see her parents and friends, the girl must ultimately make a choice. Will she stay with her people or return to her family of wild horses?

An ancient American classic tale about a poor boy and his pony.

Angela Shelf Medearis' great-grandfather, Papa John Davis, escaped from slavery and made his way to Oklahoma, where he was eventually accepted as a member of the Seminole tribe. Papa John's story is the inspiration for Dancing with the Indians, which recounts a visit his grandchildren make to a pow-wow during the 1920s.

This picture book gently introduces the legacy of Native American boarding school as a young girl asks her grandmother questions in her garden.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt joyfully spent his boyhood summers on Campobello Island. It was there that he met Tomah Joseph, a Passamaquoddy elder and former chief. Authors Soctomah and Flahive imagine the relationship that developed between these two as Tomah Joseph taught young Franklin how to canoe and shared some of the stories and culture of his people.

Martha Tom is a Choctaw girl who becomes friends with Little Mo, a slave boy who lives on the other side of the Bok Chitto River in the 1800s. When the boy's family faces separation, Martha Tom and the Choctaw women help them to escape to freedom.

A sensitive story filled with information and the important mix of tradition within a contemporary family context that shows readers just how real—and alive—the ongoing history of Native Americans can be.

The genius Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary, is celebrated in this historical novel about his 13-year-old son.

Ghost stories remain among the most treasured tales passed from generation to generation in American Indian cultures. Through time, communities have told and continue to tell stories to share origins of the world and tribal history, to carry messages and to teach, and of course to entertain. Dan SaSuWeh Jones, Ponca Nation, has compiled some of his favorites with contributions from storytellers across the US and Canada, accompanied by haunting illustrations by Weshoyot Alvitre, Tongva Nation.

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother has disappeared. While tracing her steps on a car trip from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, Salamanca tells a story to pass the time about a friend named Phoebe Winterbottom whose mother vanished and who received secret messages after her disappearance. One of them read, "Don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins." Despite her father's warning that she is "fishing in the air," Salamanca hopes to bring her home. By drawing strength from her Native American ancestry, she is able to face the truth about her mother.

From National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson, a kaleidoscopic middle-grade adventure that mixes the anxieties, friendships, and wonders of a Cherokee boy's life with Cherokee history and lore.

A Choctaw boy tells the story of his tribe's removal from the only land his people had ever known, and how their journey to Oklahoma led him to become a ghost, one with the ability to help those he left behind.

Molly remembers the Mohawk legend of a man so hungry he ate himself and everyone in his village, except for one brave girl. Now her parents have mysteriously disappeared, and an unknown great-uncle has shown up to claim her. He has fingers like talons and eyes like twin blue flames. Somehow Molly must escape to find her parents - because the Skeleton Man may be more than just a legend!

This fictionalized account of a young Native American boy's arduous journey is an excellent way to introduce a difficult period of American history. 

Neither human nor animal, but something in between. Baron has always been fascinated by bears - their gentle strength and untamed power. But the Bearwalker legend, passed down by his Mohawk ancestors, tells of a different kind of creature - a terrible mix of human and animal that looks like a bear but is really a bloodthirsty monster.

Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him— people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. But if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home, will he still be his friend?

Bruchac brings to life for young adults the stories of some of the unsung heroes of World War II. This one concerns the young Navajo men who were a crucial part of the American effort in sending and receiving messages that used their native language. 

Carson hopes starting a rock band will help him make his mark on the rez and off.