Check out Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. #BookLoversDay

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, first published in 2007 by Little, Brown, is among my favorite books. Lots of readers know about the novel because it has won many awards including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Young Adults. It’s a great read – one that makes you laugh and cry along with Junior as he makes his way in a new school and at home on the reservation. But it continues to show up on lists of banned books. Read it and see what you think – I join many others in loving it.

New Books for Teens

Here are three books we recommend in case you’re looking for good books to read for the “Summer Reading” you need to do for school.

How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle (Choctaw), Roadrunner Press, 2013

      Tim Tingle's new book is about a young boy and the Choctaw Trail of Tears; here’s how it starts:

            Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before. I am a ghost. I am not a ghost when this book begins, so you have to pay very close attention. I should tell you something else. I see things before they happen. You are probably thinking, “I wish I could see things before they happen.”

            Be careful what you wish for.

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth (Onondaga), Scholastic, 2013 

      Lewis Blake lives on the Tuscarora Reservation and is starting junior high school and wants to make friends and he does, with George Haddonfield, an army

kid who shares his love for the Beatles.

Debbie Reese writes about it on her blog:

It is, however, a rare but honest look at culture and how people with vastly different upbringings and identities can clash. And dance. And laugh. Gansworth informs readers about cultural difference, but he doesn't beat anyone up as he does it.

Him Standing by Richard Wagamese (Ojibway), Orca, 2013

      One of Canada’s award-winning authors, Richard Wagamese‘s new book is an Orca Rapid Reads book and it is a quick, yet compelling story about what happens when Lucas Smoke, extraordinary woodcarver, is asked to carve a spirit mask by a mysterious man dressed all in black.

S.D. Nelson

We’ve just added 2 new, beautiful books by S.D. Nelson to our collection of books by Native authors. He is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and is an artist, writer, and gifted craftsman whose works of art are influenced by his Lakota heritage, yet they are contemporary interpretations of traditional images. Children respond to his pictures with people, horses, and animals of many vivid colors. Greet the Dawn: The Lakota Way, is a lyrical creation of images and colors, and follows people through the day from dawn to night. Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story combines his paintings with historical and contemporary photography to illustrate Waheenee-wea’s (Buffalo Bird Woman) words which were written down by Gilbert Wilson in the early 1900s. A lengthy, information-filled author’s note provides valuable background and resources for readers who will get a feel for her life in Like-a-Fishhook Village. 

Chickadee wins 2013 Scott O'Dell Award

Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) was recently awarded the 2013 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, for her latest story in the Birchbark House series, Chickadee. In 2006, The Game of Silence, her second book in the series, was recognized as the best historical fiction for young people.

            The year is now 1866 and Omakayas and Animikiins have 8-year-old twin sons – Chickadee and Makoons. Their extended family, whom we know from the previous books, is enjoying the warmer spring weather while maple sugaring. At least they are, until Chickadee is taken by Zhigaagby’s two sons in revenge for a prank he played on the old man.

            Finding strength and resourcefulness from his namesake bird, Chickadee escapes and eventually finds his uncle and his family who has been desperately tracking his kidnappers from the woods to the Great Plains. The author is working on the fifth book about Chickadee’s twin, Makoons, and we hope she continues with the stories which are based on her family’s experiences.

Reading Circle - Tracks by Louise Erdrich

“We started dying before the snow, and like snow, we continued to fall.”

If you’ve never read Louise Erdrich’s novel, Tracks, or you have read it and are eager to share your thoughts about this powerful work, now is your chance.  While you wait to get your hands on Erdrich's new novel, The Round House, enrich your reading experience and join us on Saturday, February 16th at 1:00pm. 

Beat those February doldrums by calling to register for this free event. (860) 396-6897. 

Professor Theodore Van Alst (Lakota), Director of Yale’s Native American Cultural Center, brings his insights and enthusiasm to our Reading Circle discussion. Some light refreshments follow the discussion. 

Need a copy of the book? We have some copies to lend and they are available for purchase at our Museum store.

It takes a village – to create a village!

Rendering of Pequot Village exhibit from project notebook 1993

Our 15th Anniversary Year:

The Mashantucket Museum & Research Center opened its doors in 1998. However, long before the bulldozers arrived and the steel girders went up, members of the Mashantucket Pequot community and many researchers and consultants were thinking about how to tell the story of the Pequots and other Native people of the eastern woodlands. Tribal Council minutes from 1988 reflect planning and discussion related to the museum and possible exhibits.

Tribal elders at Museum opening 1998

In the Archives, there are thousands of pages of research, design ideas, drawings, and correspondence which reveal the complex process of bringing this dream to reality. In the coming year, we will be celebrating our history and offering many opportunities for visitors to learn about how the exhibits came to be, in addition to our usual array of programs. Join us in 2013!

New arrivals at the MPMRC Research Library

History and Culture - Native peoples of the Northeast:

The Unkechaug Indians of Eastern Long Island by John Strong.

“…the most comprehensive analysis to date of Unkechaug history.” 

Chief Harry B. Wallace, Unkechaug Nation

Archaeology/Anthropology

As featured on the Smithsonian Science website:

 http://smithsonianscience.org/2012/03/ice-age-mariners-from-europe-were-the-first-people-to-reach-north-america/

 Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture by leading archaeologists Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Traditional Knowledge

Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing by Patricia Gonzales

“Gonzales links pre-Columbian thought to contemporary healing practices by examining ancient symbols and their relation to current curative knowledges among Indigenous peoples. Red Medicine suggests that Indigenous healing systems can usefully point contemporary people back to ancestral teachings and help them reconnect to the dynamics of the natural world.”  

University of Arizona Press