Five Native American Authors You Need to Know

There are too many amazing Native American authors out there to count, so where do we start? Join me in this video essay as we familiarize ourselves with just five Indigenous American authors that everyone ought to be familiar with.

0:00 Intro
1:24 Sherman Alexie, "Indian Education"
4:00 Zitkala-Ša, American Indian Stories
5:31 Rebecca Roanhorse, "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™"
8:34 Louise Erdrich, "Captivity"
18:27 Leslie Marmon Silko, "Lullaby"
21:39 Remember their stories

All clips used in this video fall under fair use as they are part of my critique/review.

Editor: Khabi Javan

Music:

[RoughestDrafts]

Hey everyone! As always, thank you for watching.


As stated in the video, please let me and everyone else know what authors you find, as well as any Indigenous authors you already know. Moreover, if there are things I can improve or content you'd like to see in the future, let me know. Until then, take it easy.

[melissaanthonyxb]

I'm so happy that you mentioned zitkala-sa!!! I'm Indian(As in from India and not native American) and in our English textbooks there is a chapter called "memories of childhood" and there we have an extract called "the cutting of my long hair" By Miss Zitkala-sa. It was my first introduction to native American writers as I only read about British ones through my course and I didn't know that she was this popular!

[NormanDimmick]

I had the pleasure of taking a Native American Literature class taught by an absolutely spectacular Cherokee professor, and I'd love to pass along some of the books I really enjoyed and learned from in that class:

My favorite was *Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir* by Deborah A. Miranda. It is an spectacularly written and deeply impactful book, and for me personally, it was a really powerful counterpoint to the highly colonized version of California history I was taught by our public school system growing up, especially regarding missionization. I loved the sheer breadth of topics it tackled, and how artfully and personally it wove together a massive array of stories about colonization in California, and while it is definitely an emotionally challenging read, it has gone down as one of my favorite books of all time. I can also credit it with making me appreciate and connect with poetry in a way I never really had before, as I was only really exposed to poetry about the beauty of nature and love and all that jazz in school, and had never seen it used as a tool to tell such important stories and capture all the complicated, often conflicting emotions that can be harder to capture through the straightforward nature of prose.

*Red Bird, Red Power* by Tadeusz Lewandowski is a great biography of Zitkala-Ša, and does a great job diving into all the nuances of assimilation, the boarding schools, and how both lead to a huge amount of isolation and a conflicted sense of identity for her, all while putting her works into the historical context of her times.

*There There* by Tommy Orange is a book I find myself rereading every few years. Set in Oakland, it dives into a lot of different aspects of the urban Native experience and identity that arose out of the Relocation Act, telling the diverse and intertwined stories of a huge cast of characters. It's a tragic book, but it's spectacularly written and captivating from start to finish.

*New Poets of Native Nations* is a great poetry collection with a huge range of different poets from different tribes and cultures. It introduced me to a ton of new poets whose work I really enjoy, and is just a rock solid collection in its own right. Unsurprisingly, it further deepened my appreciation for poetry.

*The Marrow Thieves* by Cherie Dimaline is a really accessible title aimed at the YA demographic that manages to tackle some really, really hard topics (the boarding schools in particular) with a huge degree of depth and tact through the use of allegory and sci-fi. The character writing especially is really great, and I think it's a really good book for starting conversations about colonization with teens.

[mckenziepearmain]

leslie silko’s work really made me emotional. how tragic, and yet how beautiful. i really want to be better at reading the works of marginalized groups and supporting them and their stories. so much of our history can be distorted, and hearing the first hand experiences from our native american friends is so important. well done!

[GigasGMX]

I’m probably not gonna get around to watching this whole video (ADHD), but thanks for the reminder that Leslie Marmon Silko wrote other books. Reading Ceremony in High School completely changed my relationship with literature (for the better), but somehow that never translated into me reading any of her other books.

[MsAdlerHolmes]

I'm Australian, and live by a place called K'Gari - known for the last two centuries or so and Fraser Island. So called for the man whose wife lived amongst the natives there for a time after a shipwreck. The story she told was not a kind one, but it flew in the face of evidence observed by others and recounts from other sources which said that she was treated kindly and with respect. Fed and sheltered as though she were one of them. The latter rings true when you know that's in keeping with the way the indigenous people are and were.
There were other stories of shipwrecked English children found years later who did not want to leave, and saw their caretakers as family.
The poem you mentioned that reexamines the capture narrative is moving, and has a truth to it that feels undeniable, open to interpretation as it it.

[PasCorrect]

The Absolutely True Story of a Shallow Video Essay Watcher

1. Algorithm fed me your Rupi Kaur video. I checked it out because the title made me expect a brutal takedown. You got me! It was way more interesting than that.
2. Clicked through to your channel to see what else you've done.
3. Honestly only clicked this video because I thought "Uh oh, Sherman Alexie!" and wanted to see how that was dealt with.
4. Ended up watching the whole video.
5. Actually cried when you read the lullaby at the end.
6. Subscribed with the force of a million suns.

[efoxkitsune]

I feel like this was one of your best videos yet... (and that's saying something, because your videos are generally amazing...!)
(I'm saying that as a white European woman, btw)

Beautiful analysis of Erdrich's poem, I'm in love. Since I'm from Europe, I don't know much about Native American people and their cultures. In my studies, I learned about (and read) Zitkala-Ŝá and Silko, but I'd never heard of the other authors. Thank you for this video!

[redringrico]

criminal that this only has 400 something views!!! thank you for highlighting our writing and giving me some recs

[katezim]

your analysis of the louise erdrich piece was exceptional. i love poetry but have always struggled to get to a deeper understanding of a work without some nudging. the questions you posed were so intriguing and added so much to my comprehension and appreciation of that work. silko’s lullabye made me tear up. what a great collection of works, definitely made me interested in reading more native american authors. thanks so much for putting this video together.

[mollietaffaro]

Why don't you have more videos? I really enjoy your content and wish there was more to watch! Would love to see something on Latin American literature, and eastern European literature. Or anything else related to creative writing actually. I subscribed to your channel and am hoping to see a new video essay or presentation soon!

[wackyotter]

to clarify, enrollment is a difficult subject as familys can be a mess. enrollment does not determine a persons identity and should not. I should also add people get the idea that were these people free and pure from any corruption, they need to understand natives are just as faultable as anyone else. You may also find interesting how many colonizers found native life more fulfilling than their own, check out more of that genre.

This is coming from someone in the San Carlos Tribe, nice vid btw its seriously good that you are bringing attention to all these works and educating people.

[indyvids]

This was really informative for me about the various writings of Native Americans, and I thank you for making this video because of that. The story of Zitkala-Ša was saddening to hear about, as well as Leslie Marmon Silko's story, but I do hope that more people hear about them to have a better understanding of Native American lives.
Now, I kind of want to read a story written by someone from either the Cherokee or Chickasaw tribes, since they were really prominent where I live now.

[carolli]

I'm 2 months late to watching this video but I was so happy to see Louise Erdrich's poetry acknowledged here since she is more well known for her children's fiction :)

[mckenzieroseboom]

Three suggestions for anyone who wants them! (From an English Education Major)
1) I just read N. Scott Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain for my class about ecological literature. I highly suggest for anyone looking for bite-sized pieces of NA Lit. The novel beautiful shares stories from the Kiowa culture as well as discussing the repercuasions of events such as the overhunting of the American Buffalo.

2) Another phenomenal book is Love, Medicine by Louis Erdrich. This is a collection of connected short stories that play with the ideas of Magical Realism and Feminism. It also delves into the effects of colonialism on Native Americans.

3) My final suggestion for something even more modern is The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. This is a YA novel that deals with identity, mystery, action, and grief. If you want a book that will give you insight into the Ojibwe culture, I highly suggest it.

I hope everyone is able to find some Native author to appreciate and fall in love with.

[isak]

Thank you for this video! I’m Alaska Native and over the past couple years I’ve gotten really into Native literature and these are great recommendations! For any horror enthusiasts, check out Stephen Graham Jones, specifically “The Only Good Indians”

[nofacedetected]

I saw tommy orange speak at my university promoting there there. Very good novel.

[synthmass]

If anyone is looking for fiction, I read Bad Cree by Jessica Johns last year and really enjoyed it.

[Naeruve]

6:00 I understand this from my perspective as a Puerto Rican person that grew up in the island but did not grow up following any of our Taíno traditions. Let me try to explain this. We grow up learning that Taínos were exterminated by the Spanish in like less than a century which while credit to them for not shying away from our bs colonial history, still doesn’t tell the full story because in fact a lot of those taínos just ran to the mountains and stayed there. They were safe because the Spanish had no clue how to navigate the jungles and mountains and cave systems so they set up communities there that eventually became very racially mixed like the rest of Puerto Rico, but culturally they still followed and still today follow a lot of the traditions from the taínos and maintain really strong connections to the land, the spirituality and identify as Taínos. You can be lily white and blue eyed and if you grew up there, the community recognizes you as Taino. So in PR it has become a lot less about how you look or the amount of Taino blood in your dna, and more about do you actually follow the traditions, have an elder teaching you, believe in the spirituality, etc? So I understand this reaction the tribe had of wait a second here…you can’t represent us. At the same time, I recognize how painful that can be when your upbringing and identity are pretty much out of your hands and you want to belong somewhere so badly. What a rough time she musta have had trying to find her identity

[heathertaylor]

I really recommend "the road back to sweetgrass" trigger warning for SA but very good book