Reading 1001 discussion

What is the definition of American Indian or Alaska Native?
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines American Indian or Alaska Native as a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains
tribal affiliation.

Indigenous People Day is actually in October and began as a counter to Columbus Day.

Brazil celebrates "National Indigenous Peoples' Day" on April 19. In the Philippines, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, as well as various local indigenous towns, designated October 29, 2008, as Indigenous Peoples' Day.

In 1994, the United Nations declared an International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, establishing it on August 9. This international holiday has been celebrated also in various nations.


1. After reading your chosen book. How do you think it represented the Native American or Indigenous People. Was it racist in anyway?

2. Why do you think indigenous authors/people are poorly represented in 1001 Books?

3. Here is a list of books from Publisher's Weekly of Native American Authors. Have you read any of these? Do you have any suggestions of books that you think should be added to the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die that would represent these people groups?

I have found that we do have some options for indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand. I added those books. I searched for books that would include indigenous people of Philippines and did not find any. Have you read any other books from 1001 that represented an indigenous people (outside of Africa, South America, Canada, of North America)?

I finished reading Love Medicine and I really loved it.

1) After reading your chosen book. How do you think it represented the Native American or Indigenous People. Was it racist in anyway?

As the author, Louise Erdrich, is a Native American Ojibwe it was difficult to separate what was racist from a true telling of how the tribal culture makes judgements against their own people, multiracial people and against whites. If anything, I perceived that most Native American judgements came from personal interactions and family rivalries rather than being based on "race". Almost all the white characters in the book were racist however.
The author commented (in the back of the book) that the book was a "mess" of her imagination. It is an apt word as this book is about family relationships, love affairs, and friendships that all intertwine and mesh and disintegrate and sometimes even come back together. The multi-generational nature of the characters is particularly compelling as you feel that the sins of the mothers and fathers are visited upon the children. Young people full of promise and potential often end up like their parents. The chapters are from the point of view of the different characters so you learn about people from their own point of view and from other people's point of view at different times in their lives. As more than one main character has multiple children from different fathers and as families take in children that are not directly related to them it was necessary for the author to draw a map of family ties plus sexual relationships. I referred back to that map over and over again. The decades are very hard on everyone as the indigenous people interact with the US government, the BIA, capitalism, the war in Viet Nam, and alcohol. However, most of the trauma revolves around love and that particular human trauma is understood in any culture.

2. Why do you think indigenous authors/people are poorly represented in 1001 Books?
I think partially it falls under the heading:
“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
I also think that it is simply very difficult to get anything published and if you are a true "outsider", speaking in a language and a culture that is not going to appeal to the masses than it must be even more difficult to be published.
And lastly, 1001 books just isn't the most diverse and inclusive list of books...

3. Here is a list of books from Publisher's Weekly of Native American Authors. Have you read any of these? Do you have any suggestions of books that you think should be added to the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die that would represent these people groups?
The new book There, There by Tommy Orange is a very interesting book but I have not read any of the others on this list. I did print it out though and hope to read Tracks by Erdich and maybe a few others mentioned like Shell Shaker. I love the book The Bone People but I believe that Keri Hulme is only partially Maori. It won the Booker prize when it came out in the 80's.

Not an answer to a question but Erdich is very gifted in her use of language. One of my favorite quotes:
"I never grew from the curve of my mother's arms. I still wanted to anchor myself against her. But she had torn herself away from the run of my life like a riverbank, leaving me to spill out alone."

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Gail wrote: "I finished reading Love Medicine and I really loved it.

1) After reading your chosen book. How do you think it represented the Native American or Indigenous People. Was it racist in ..."

Nice review and comments. I think Erdrich is a great author.

I read Last of the Mohicans for my 1st book.

1. After reading your chosen book. How do you think it represented the Native American or Indigenous People. Was it racist in anyway?

There is a lot of stereotyping of the Native Americans in this book, which is typical for the attitudes of this time. However, to Cooper's credit, I think the book actually portrays Native Americans in a way that is perhaps more favorable than the views of the time, since they were not merely depicted as hostile savages. So, nowhere near a politically correct depiction, but certainly a better depiction than the image held by society at the time. Today, this would be considered racist. Back then, it would be considered more a more sympathetic portrayal and not racist.

2. Why do you think indigenous authors/people are poorly represented in 1001 Books?

Because they are mostly written by non-indigenous authors of the dominant society. Too many white guys selecting books written by other white guys. My apologies to the white guys in the group.

3. Here is a list of books from Publisher's Weekly of Native American Authors. Have you read any of these? Do you have any suggestions of books that you think should be added to the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die that would represent these people groups?

Kristel, the link is not included for this list. I Googled it and may or may not have the correct list. Of the ten books on the Publisher's Weekly list I found, sadly I have only read 2. I am disappointed that Sherman Alexie is not included on the list.

I don’t know how I managed to mess up but here is the link: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...

I think it would be an interesting question to ask why Sheman Alexis wasn’t included. But that being said, I haven’t read the others and maybe they are more deserving for reasons that PW used in making their list.

I went back and checked again. The list is Brandon Hobson’s personal list and he does tell why he picked the books he did.

Here is an additional challenge? What would your 10 essential Native American Novels include?

Or for other geographical locations. What would you include in a top 10 indigenous people novels (these would be authored by indigenous people).

I went back and checked again. The list is Brandon Hobson’s personal list and he does tell why he picked the books he did.

Here is an additional challenge? What would your 10 essential Native American

I read The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. This was the second time for me.

This is a great work of American literature. I did not feel that this book was racist as I think one has to look at the book from the time period in which it was written. Not with the standards that seem to judge by words used rather than intent of the passages. While Fennimore Cooper uses words such as savages and redskins, his hero’s are Hawkeye-white man raised by Mohican Indians, Uncas, and Uncas father. One of the major themes of this novel was interracial love and friendship. While the author gave a new definition of family with Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas. Intermarriage was doomed as was the love between Uncas and Cora which ends in tragedy. (Cora Munro’s mother was part black).

Of course James Fennimore Cooper was not a Native American Author but he was a author who did support interracial friendship, nature, and he wrote with insight into a frontier free and untouched by European culture. I appreciated this work much more with second reading.

I finished The Last of the Mohicans and ultimately came to appreciate it. It took me a long time to get with Cooper's use of 20 words where 2 would do. Also, I had a lot of trouble with the two daughters representing the "strong one" and the "always weeping" one, but after the fashion of the day the fact that Cora was strong was probably rather unique, especially as she had African-American blood in her which was conveyed in this book as a positive at a time when it would largely have been seen as a negative. By about half way through the book I was appreciating the nature of the story which ultimately was a tragedy. Neither the French nor the English were heroes the way the Mohicans and Hawkeye were. In this way, I did not see this book as racist although it certainly reflected many of the stereotypes held during the time of its writing including the blood thirsty nature of the Iroquois and the noble savage nature of the Mohicans. I also appreciated the nostalgic nature of the descriptions of the geography. He was describing a wild land that was already lost by the time that he wrote it. It is definitely an American classic. I am rather amazed that I never read it before.

1. I read Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. I had never heard of her before, which is why I love this group. It exposes me to much literature that I didn't know I didn't know! I am not really in a position to judge whether Native Americans are well represented by this book, as I was raised on Western movies where the Indians were the bad guys and the cavalry would arrive at the last minute to save the settlers! Hardly representative. I got the sense that Erdrich knew what she was writing about and our understanding of life on the reservation was revealed by each of the characters speaking in their own voice to their own truth. The introduction to my Kindle version said that Native Americans received the book well as being realistic. It also said that the cyclical nature of the stories was representative of traditional storytelling, but I am not in a position to judge.

2. I cannot improve on Gail's response to this question.

3. I have not read any other authors on this list. I have read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, which depicted the shocking treatment of Native Americans when they discovered oil on the supposedly wasteland they had been assigned. We have several authors of Maori descent in New Zealand who would be worthy additions to the list: Patricia Grace, Witi Ihaemaera, Alan Duff, to name three, and of course, Keri Hulme who won the Booker Prize with The Bone People. I think that Gail's comment that Hulme is only part Maori, with the implication that she might not qualify, irrelevant. She wrote about Maori myth as well as Celtic and Nordic, being descended from all three. I am not familiar with aboriginal novelists but Stephen McGregor is a screenwriter who is telling powerful stories about aboriginal history through movies such as Sweet Country.

Wow, aside from Tracks, I hadn’t even heard of any on that list.

I have read Navarre Momaday but I find it sad that I could not come up with 10 new books that I would add to the 1001 books by indigenous authors. Much to learn and much to do.
And as for Keri Hulme, Pip is correct it is irrelevant to me. I loved the book The Bone People. I was just ignorant in regards what the Maori felt about her and the book and didn’t want to presume. I guess I didn’t do that well.

I am reading Love Medicine this month, but have only just started and will finish in December (again--shocking, I know).

I don't think I could come up with 10 Essential Native American Novels without repeating authors.

I have read two books on that list--Ceremony and House Made of Dawn--and different books by James Welch and Louise Erdrich. I have not even heard of the rest of the authors, which shocks me a little.

Sherman Alexie is generally a YA writer, I believe? I have read one of his books because my then-freshman read it for school, liked it, and asked me to. He liked it more than I did, but middle-aged-mom was clearly not the target audience.

The only writer that, to me, sticks out as missing from that list is Jimmy Santiago Baca. But maybe he is not a novelist? I have read some of his poetry. I liked it quite a lot.

I read half of The Bone People and just couldn't finish. I found it very repetitive, but I am such a mood reader maybe that was the real issue. I have read very little lit from Australia/NZ at all.

I haven’t read a lot of Australian/NZ books. I have read The Colour which is a 1001 book so could recommend that as a book to read. I checked out of the library The Tree Of Man which is another Australian author, 1001 book. I’ve also read Remembering Babylon which was very good. I read Ngaio Marsh, Colour Scheme which I think has Maori or indigenous people in it. She is a golden age woman mystery author. Not a 1001 author though.

Canadian Indigenious Authors I think should be considered for the 1001 list:

Richard Wagamese - I loved Indian Horse. It’s definitely a must read.

Carol Daniels

Tomson Highway

Richard Van Camp

Katherena Vermette

Eden Robinson

Tracey Lindberg

Thomas King

That’s quite a list Chinook. I am only familiar with Thomas King, I think I saw one of his books a while back. Truth and Bright Water. Thomas King actually taught at the University of Minnesota, i noted.

I can’t recommend Indian Horse enough. It’s about a boy at a residential school who loves to play hockey. I’m not really a sports person but it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

I read My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson last year. It is a YA book about how the Alaskan Inuit children were treated by the US when they were sent to live with families in the mainland, so far away. I am sure the author isn’t indigenous. But the book was informative.

The author lives in Barrow Alaska and is married to an Eskimo per GR page.

My library has Indian Horse, so I will try to work that into my reading schedule for next year. It also has Medicine Walk.

for my second book, I read The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo.

1. After reading your chosen book. How do you think it represented the Native American or Indigenous People. Was it racist in anyway?
This is difficult to answer as it was written by a 16th century conquistador who was part of the colonization of Mexico. He took part in the killing of many people and the destruction of a civilization. Oddly, I didn't find his writing racist (taking the time frame into account), despite the fact that what he doing was essentially partaking in genocide. The book is (mostly) a factual account of the Spaniards encounters with the indigenous people of Mexico. He did a great job of describing the people, their surroundings, and social customs. He did seem to regard the indigenous people with awe, despite the fact that he is very much the enemy and his mission to conquer and destroy them. He also called things as he saw them, however, and did regard some of the natives as savages due to some of the barbarous practices he saw and vividly described..

2. Why do you think indigenous authors/people are poorly represented in 1001 Books?

See my response in post #5.