Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy Of American Indian Residential Schools: The Legacy Of American Indian Residential Schools

Little Moon There Are No Stars Tonight was four years old when armed federal agents showed up at her home and took her from her family. Under the authority of the government, she was sent away to a boarding school specifically created to strip her of her Ponca culture and teach her the ways of white society. Little Moon was one of thousands of Indigenous children forced to attend these schools across America and give up everything they’d ever known: family, friends, toys, clothing, food, customs, even their language. She would be the first of four generations of her family who would go to the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.

Dan SaSuWeh Jones chronicles his family’s time at Chilocco–starting with his grandmother Little Moon’s arrival when the school first opened and ending with him working on the maintenance crew when the school shut down nearly one hundred years later. Together with the voices of students from other schools, both those who died and those who survived, Dan brings to light the lasting legacy of the boarding school era. Part American history, part family history, Stealing Little Moon is a powerful look at the miseducation and the mistreatment of Indigenous kids, while celebrating their strength, resiliency, and courage–and the ultimate failure of the United States government to erase them.

Buffalo Dreamer

When 12-year-old Summer visits her family on a reservation in Alberta, Canada, she begins experiencing vivid dreams of running away from a residential school like the one her grandfather attended as a child and learns about unmarked children’s graves, prompting her to seek answers about her community’s painful past.

This book is featured in Season 3, Episode 2 of the WOW Reads podcast.
This book is the WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for April 2025.

Daughter Of the Light-Footed People: The Story Of Indigenous Marathon Champion Lorena Ramírez

From the copper canyons of Mexico her swift footsteps echo. Clip clap, clip clap. Experience a 60-mile run with Indigenous athlete Lorena Ramirez, who captured the world’s attention when she won an ultramarathon in Mexico wearing a skirt and rubber sandals — the traditional clothes of the Rarámuri, the light-footed people.

This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.

Featured in WOW Review Volume XVIII, Issue 1.

Wild Bird

In the small colonial community of Victoria in 1861, sixteen-year-old Kate Harding is trying to help her mother as she is about to give premature birth in their home. While mother and daughter make it through the grueling ordeal with the help of a local midwife, the baby does not live. The irony of this tragic event is that Kate’s father is one of the few doctors in the colony, but he was out tending to other patients at the time. Wild Bird takes readers up close as a young girl yearns to find her place through meaningful work, while the author describes the ways in which Indigenous people relate to the recently arrived settlers.

The Water Lady: How Darlene Arviso Helps A Thirsty Navajo Nation

Cody Is Worried When His Family On A New Mexico Navajo Reservation Runs Out Of Water, But Darlene Arviso, Called The Water Lady, Is On The Way With Her Tanker Truck. Includes Glossary Of Navajo Terms And Notes About Arviso And Life On A Reservation.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Traditions & Celebrations)

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about celebrating! The second Monday in October is a day to honor Native American people, their histories, and cultures. People mark the day with food, dancing, and songs. Readers will discover how a shared holiday can have multiple traditions and be celebrated in all sorts of ways.

Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, And Changemakers From Past And Present

A beautifully illustrated collection of true stories that celebrates 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people. Learn about the lives and contributions of Indigenous artists, activists, scientists, athletes and other change makers.

I Sang You Down From The Stars

A beautifully illustrated and unique baby book illuminates Native cultural details as a mother-to-be gathers gifts to create a sacred bundle to welcome her new baby. With each new thing she adds, the bundle offers the new baby great strength and strong connection to family, community and its traditions. Indigenous creators, author Tasha Spillett-Sumner and bestselling illustrator and Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade, combine beautiful words and luminous that illuminates the blossoming love that comes with expecting and welcoming a new baby.

Soldiers Unknown

Beginning at Klamath River in 1918, Soldiers Unknown tells the story of three cousins who are called to serve a nation that has given little to their people. Up until now, the native Yurok people of Northern California have remained untouched by the world war raging in Europe, but that soon changes as the cousins are thrust into battle on the Western Front of the Great War.

Of All Tribes: American Indians And Alcatraz

On the night of November 20, 1969, the end of one of the most tumultuous decades in American history eighty-nine young Native American activists crossed the San Francisco Bay under cover of darkness, calling themselves the “Indians of All Tribes.” Their objective? To claim the former prison island of Alcatraz, basing their actions on an 1868 treaty that said abandoned federal land could be returned to Indigenous peoples.

Taking a stand on an island reclaimed as “Indian Land,” these peaceful protestors brought worldwide attention to the issues facing present day Native Americans, as well as the centuries of unjust federal Indian policy.