November is Native American Heritage Month

by Jackie Martini, Library Social Media Student Worker

November is Native American Heritage Month! First declared by George H.W. Bush in 1990, the month serves to draw special awareness to Native American history, culture, and social issues. 

Did you know? There are 11 reservations in Minnesota, 7 Ojibwe and 4 Dakota. Minneapolis is also the birthplace (and current headquarters) of the American Indian Movement.

The CSP library now has a Native American Heritage Month display on the main level of the library, featuring Native stories and many local authors. We've collected some snapshots here, but stop by the library to view the entire display and check out one of these interesting reads!

The Painted Drum

Louise Erdrich is an Ojibwe writer.  She writes poetry and children’s books, and most of her books have Native American themes to them.  Erdrich is one of the most significant authors of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance.  She is also a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.  She owns a bookstore, Birchbark Books, in Minneapolis.

Messengers of the Wind: Native American Women Tell Their Life Stories

Jane Katz has edited together several stories of special importance: those of Native American women. The women authors come from several different tribes and their stories vary widely; some are healers, some are mothers and grandmothers.  Daughters, dancers, modern women, and women remembering their roots all come together in Messengers of the Wind to tell their stories to the world.

Lakota Woman

Mary Crow Dog was born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  A Sicangu Lakota writer and activist, she was a member of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s and was involved in Wounded Knee. Mary’s memoir, Lakota Woman, won an American Book Award in 1991, and was later adapted into a film.  Mary Crow Dog passed away on February 14th, 2013.

Prudence

David Treuer is the author of The Hiawatha, Little, Prudence, and Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual.  He was raised on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota.  Treuer is the son of an Austrian Jew and survivor of the Holocaust; his mother was a tribal court judge.  He went to Princeton after high school, graduating with degrees in anthropology and creative writing.

Learn more about Minnesota's Native communities here.