Honoring Indigenous Nations

This is an anthology of short memoir comics about modern indigenous life, with some fiction or fictionalized memories mixed in.--Publisher.

"No one knows how a suit of samurai armour ended up in the Fort Smith museum. When a mysterious stranger turns up to claim it, Sonny, a young Tłı̨chǫ Dene boy, is eager to help. Shinobu has travelled to Fort Smith, NWT, to reclaim his grandfather's samurai sword and armour. But when he discovers that the sword was lost in a poker game, he must confront the man known as Benny the Bank. Along the way, Shinobu must rely on unlikely heroes--Sonny, his grandmother, and a visitor from the spirit world. Together, they face Benny and his men, including the giant they call Flinch. Will Shinobu be able to regain the lost sword and, with it, his family's honour? Can Sonny and his grandmother help Shinobu while keeping the peace in their community? Now in full-colour, this new edition includes additional background information and cultural context. Learn about the real-life inspiration behind the story and the intersections between Indigenous and Japanese-Canadian experiences during the Second World War"--

"Curtis has returned to Fort Smith, six weeks sober and determined to stay that way. Can he find healing in his grandfather's ancient cultural practices? Notorious bootlegger, Benny the Bank stands in his way. With poison slowly killing him, Benny is uneasy about how he'll be remembered. Can he find a way to make amends?"--Provided by publisher.

"In a world that has barely survived an apocalypse that leaves it with pre-twentieth century technology, Lozen is a monster hunter for four tyrants who are holding her family hostage"--

"In this engrossing graphic novel, teen hockey player Chase learns more about himself and his identity in the face of prejudice and homophobia. Thirteen-year-old Chase's life and identity should be simple. He's the goalie for his hockey team, the Eagles. He's a friend to Kevin and Jade. He's Kookum's youngest grandchild. He's a boy. He should like girls. But it's not that simple. Chase doesn't like girls the way that the other boys do. It's scary being so different from his peers. Scarier still is the feeling that his teammates can tell who he is--and that they hate him for it. If he pretends hard enough, maybe he can hide the truth. Real strength and change can't come from a place of shame. Chase's dreams are troubled by visions of a bear spirit, and the more he tries to hide, the more everything falls apart. With the help of an Elder, and a Two-Spirit mentor, can Chase find the strength to be proud of who he is? Between the Pipes explores toxic masculinity in hockey through the experiences of an Indigenous teen."--

In her remarkable second novel following her Governor General's Award-winning debut, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Jen Ferguson writes about the hurt of a life stuck in past tense, the hum of connections that cannot be severed, and one week in a small, snowy town that changes everything.

"Lozen and her family, on the run from the tyrants who once held them hostage, embark on a journey along a perilous trail once followed by her ancestors, where they meet friends and foes alike"--

"Chelsea is missing, but she's not gone... In this moving graphic novel, thirteen-year-old Reanna grieves the loss of her older sister. Can she find comfort through her family's Ojibwe traditions? It's been a year since Reanna's sister, Chelsea, went missing on her way home from school. Without any idea of what happened, Reanna and her family struggle to find closure. Driven from their home by memories, Reanna's mom moves to the big city. Left behind on the reserve, Reanna and her little brother go to live with their dad. Reanna is hurt and angry that her mom has run away. She feels lonely, abandoned... but she is not alone. Lights turn on in empty rooms, and objects move without being touched. There are little moons everywhere."--

A true story of "found and lost" ... and found again. "Zintka!" tells the troubled tale of a Native American girl caught between two worlds, accepted by neither. A Lakota (Sioux) baby and her mother who were fleeing for safety became victims in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. The baby was found four days after a South Dakota blizzard, alive by the warmth of her mother's dead body. She was adopted by a prominent soldier and his famous suffragette wife to be raised in their white, high-society circles. Zintka was not accepted there because of racial prejudices in the era of forced assimilation. Neither was she was accepted by her own people when she sought out her roots, in part because she did not speak their language. Named "Lost Bird" at the moment she was separated from her Lakota caregivers, Zintka was chronicled in newspapers from her discovery to her death. She attempted to succeed in show business, joining Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, San Francisco's vaudeville circuit and as an extra in Hollywood silent films. Zintka died in the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1920 and was buried in a pauper's grave in Hanford, California. Finally, in 1991 her story was discovered through efforts of her biographer Renée Sansom Flood. Lakota leadership from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota ceremoniously reburied her at the Wounded Knee Monument, near the mass grave of the disaster, which included her birth mother. The name "Lost Bird" came to describe Native American children adopted off the reservation by non-Indians after the publication of her biography by Renée S. Flood, "Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota" (Scribner, 1995).--Publisher.

"Before that awful Saturday, Molly used to be inseparable from her brother, Hank, and his best friend, Tray. The indoor climbing accident that left Hank with a traumatic brain injury filled Molly with anger. While she knows the accident wasn't Tray's fault, she will never forgive him for being there and failing to stop the damage. But she can't forgive herself for not being there either. Determined to go on the trio's postgraduation hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, even without Hank, Molly packs her bag. But when her parents put Tray in charge of looking out for her, she is stuck backpacking with the person who incites her easy anger. Despite all her planning, the trail she'll walk has a few more twists and turns ahead. . . ."--Publisher.

This is an anthology of short memoir comics about modern indigenous life, with some fiction or fictionalized memories mixed in.--Publisher.

"No one knows how a suit of samurai armour ended up in the Fort Smith museum. When a mysterious stranger turns up to claim it, Sonny, a young Tłı̨chǫ Dene boy, is eager to help. Shinobu has travelled to Fort Smith, NWT, to reclaim his grandfather's samurai sword and armour. But when he discovers that the sword was lost in a poker game, he must confront the man known as Benny the Bank. Along the way, Shinobu must rely on unlikely heroes--Sonny, his grandmother, and a visitor from the spirit world. Together, they face Benny and his men, including the giant they call Flinch. Will Shinobu be able to regain the lost sword and, with it, his family's honour? Can Sonny and his grandmother help Shinobu while keeping the peace in their community? Now in full-colour, this new edition includes additional background information and cultural context. Learn about the real-life inspiration behind the story and the intersections between Indigenous and Japanese-Canadian experiences during the Second World War"--

"Curtis has returned to Fort Smith, six weeks sober and determined to stay that way. Can he find healing in his grandfather's ancient cultural practices? Notorious bootlegger, Benny the Bank stands in his way. With poison slowly killing him, Benny is uneasy about how he'll be remembered. Can he find a way to make amends?"--Provided by publisher.

"In a world that has barely survived an apocalypse that leaves it with pre-twentieth century technology, Lozen is a monster hunter for four tyrants who are holding her family hostage"--

"An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes she circles toward a central argument: the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return"--"As a leading researcher in the field of biology, Robin Wall Kimmerer understands the delicate state of our world. But as an active member of the Potawatomi nation, she senses and relates to the world through a way of knowing far older than any science. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she intertwines these two modes of awareness--the analytic and the emotional, the scientific and the cultural--to ultimately reveal a path toward healing the rift that grows between people and nature. The woven essays that construct this book bring people back into conversation with all that is green and growing; a universe that never stopped speaking to us, even when we forgot how to listen"--

"1890: When Desiderya Lopez, The Sleepy Prophet, finds an abandoned infant on the banks of an arroyo, she recognizes something in his spirit and brings him home. Pidre will go on to become a famous showman in the Anglo West whose main act, Simodecea, is Pidre's fearless, sharpshooting wife, who wrangles bears as part of his show. 1935: Luz "Little Light" Lopez and her brother Diego work the carnival circuit in downtown Denver. Luz, is a tea leaf reader, and Diego is a snake charmer. One day, a pale-faced woman in white fur asks Luz for a reading, calling her by a name that only her brother knows. Later that night at a party downtown, Luz sees Diego dancing with this pale-faced woman, which results in a brawl with the local white supremacist group. Diego leaves town for cover and Luz is left trying to get justice for her brother and family. Merging two multi-generational storylines in Colorado, this is a novel of family love, secrets, and survival. With Fajardo-Anstine's immense capacity to render characters and paint vivid life, set against the Sange de Cristo mountians, Woman of Light is full of the weight, richness, and complexities of mixed blood and mica clay. It delights like an Old Western, and inspires the hope embedded in histories yet-told"--

"A radical reinterpretation of early American history from a native point of view, centered on the Odawa tribe of Northern Michigan"--

Celebrates the Native American tradition of sharing fry bread during family meals, in a story about family, history, culture, and traditions, both new and old.

In the 1883 Colorado mining town of Goetia ruled by the Virtues, the winners of an ancient war against the Fallen, descendants of demonkind living among them, Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of devil's advocate to defend her sister Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue.

In this first-ever anthology of Indigenous science fiction, Grace Dillon collects some examples of the craft, with contributions by Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori authors.

Zitkala-Š̌̌̌a finds that she can sing through her music, but also by writing stories and giving speeches and being an activist for Native American rights.

"This picture book explores the intergenerational impact of Canada's residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down and shared through generations, and how healing can also be shared. Stolen Words captures the beautiful, healing relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks him how to say something in his language - Cree - her grandpa admits that his words were stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather regain his language."--Publisher's description

These stories and poems by both new and veteran Native American writers burst with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride.

"Thomas C. Gannon's Birding While Indian spans more than fifty years of childhood walks and adult road trips to deliver, via a compendium of birds recorded and revered, the author's life as a part-Lakota inhabitant of the Great Plains. Great Horned Owl, Sandhill Crane, Dickcissel: such species form a kind of rosary, a corrective to the rosaries that evoke Gannon's traumatic time in an Indian boarding school in South Dakota, his mother's tears when coworkers called her "squaw," and the violent erasure colonialism demanded of the Indigenous humans, animals, and land of the United States. Birding has always been Gannon's escape and solace. He later found similar solace in literature, particularly by Native authors. He draws on both throughout this expansive, hilarious, and humane memoir. An acerbic observer-of birds, of the aftershocks of history, and of human nature-Gannon navigates his obsession with the ostensibly objective avocation of birding and his own mixed-blood subjectivity, searching for that elusive Snowy Owl and his own identity. The result is a rich reflection not only on one man's life but on the transformative power of building a deeper relationship with the natural world."--

"An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes she circles toward a central argument: the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return"--"As a leading researcher in the field of biology, Robin Wall Kimmerer understands the delicate state of our world. But as an active member of the Potawatomi nation, she senses and relates to the world through a way of knowing far older than any science. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she intertwines these two modes of awareness--the analytic and the emotional, the scientific and the cultural--to ultimately reveal a path toward healing the rift that grows between people and nature. The woven essays that construct this book bring people back into conversation with all that is green and growing; a universe that never stopped speaking to us, even when we forgot how to listen"--

"1890: When Desiderya Lopez, The Sleepy Prophet, finds an abandoned infant on the banks of an arroyo, she recognizes something in his spirit and brings him home. Pidre will go on to become a famous showman in the Anglo West whose main act, Simodecea, is Pidre's fearless, sharpshooting wife, who wrangles bears as part of his show. 1935: Luz "Little Light" Lopez and her brother Diego work the carnival circuit in downtown Denver. Luz, is a tea leaf reader, and Diego is a snake charmer. One day, a pale-faced woman in white fur asks Luz for a reading, calling her by a name that only her brother knows. Later that night at a party downtown, Luz sees Diego dancing with this pale-faced woman, which results in a brawl with the local white supremacist group. Diego leaves town for cover and Luz is left trying to get justice for her brother and family. Merging two multi-generational storylines in Colorado, this is a novel of family love, secrets, and survival. With Fajardo-Anstine's immense capacity to render characters and paint vivid life, set against the Sange de Cristo mountians, Woman of Light is full of the weight, richness, and complexities of mixed blood and mica clay. It delights like an Old Western, and inspires the hope embedded in histories yet-told"--

"A radical reinterpretation of early American history from a native point of view, centered on the Odawa tribe of Northern Michigan"--

Celebrates the Native American tradition of sharing fry bread during family meals, in a story about family, history, culture, and traditions, both new and old.

In the 1883 Colorado mining town of Goetia ruled by the Virtues, the winners of an ancient war against the Fallen, descendants of demonkind living among them, Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of devil's advocate to defend her sister Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue.