People of the Trail: How the Northern Forest Indians Lived

Describes the family life, games, hunting and fishing techniques, homes, clothing, beliefs, and means of travel of the Indians of the Northwest.

My Kokum Called Today

A telephone call from her grandmother has a young native girl in the city looking forward to visiting the reserve. In gentle, joyous ways we see how women — especially grandmothers — are often the spiritual glue when families are separated by long miles.

Arctic Stories

a storiesAcclaimed Inuit storyteller Michael Kusugak weaves a tapestry of tales about ten-year-old Agatha and her accidental heroism in the high Arctic of 1958. The first of Agatha’s stories is based on one of Kusugak’s real life experiences, when an eerie, black airship flew over Chesterfield Inlet in 1958. A sleepy Agatha “saves” the community from the monstrous flying object. In the second story, Agatha notices the playful antics of the winter ravens and takes an interest in the many migrating birds. As the seasons change, she begins to favor more beautiful and peaceful birds of spring, until the ravens return. The third of Agatha’s stories takes place in the fall when Agatha is sent to school in Chesterfield Inlet, an English-speaking community south of her home. During an afternoon of skating, Agatha rescues a show-off priest, who has inadvertently demonstrated the danger of thin ice. The three Agatha stories resonate with the nostalgia and affection of Kusugak’s childhood memories.

Nanabosho and the Cranberries

Sometimes we can be fooled by what we want to see. That happens to a famished Nanabosho when he sees a bush of plump cranberries seemingly floating on the surface of the lake.

Mush-Hole: Memories of a Residential School

When Maddie Harper was seven years old, she found herself in the Brantford School in Ontario with about 200 other little girls who called it “mush-hole” because mush was their daily fare. Here, Harper tells of her eight years at the school, the cultural degradation she was forced to endure, her escape at age 15, her alienation from her community, her descent into alcoholism and finally, her return to traditional ways and recovery.

“Just Talking About Ourselves”: Voices Of Our Youth (Just Talking About Ourselves)

The prose that comprise these anthologies are true depictions of the lives of Native youth in urban and reserve settings. Volume 2.