88 Books Like Me and Mine

One thing my research has shown me is that Indian tribes differ from each other in most ways. Still, they do share some values—those of mutual aid, honesty, and respect for Mother Nature.

I found that this compilation of distinct Indian voices offers eloquent and emotional insights into the history, creativity, and values found in Indian life. Certainly, the contributions describe historical pain. But they are also bright with truthful, uplifting insight. Most importantly, they made clear to me that our present society has much to learn from America’s Indian tribal cultures, past and present.

This may be the most honest autobiography I’ve ever read. Means spares no one, especially not himself.

What made this book memorable to me is its intimate look into the heart of Means, as he relates his successes and failures in meeting the challenges of being an American Indian. Means traveled a painful and tortuous road to finally become a significant leader of the late twentieth-century Indian movement for recognition, reparation, and self-determination.

This slim autobiography enchants with its simplicity. It is easy to see why it is considered a classic of American Indian literature.

La Flesche gives a first-hand account of his own boyhood in a boarding school far from his family and community. While many Indian parents resisted the theft of their children, others surrendered them. They had no choice. While many reservation Indians were dying from starvation, disease, despair, and outright murder, this young boy struggled with the daily dehumanization of forced assimilation.

This book is a testament to the Indians' extraordinary endurance. The author, himself, triumphed by becoming a respected academic and America’s first Indian ethnologist, working for the Smithsonian.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and yet knew little about the variety and value of its native peoples. I found this book to be a moving and compassionate telling of how white settlement impacted Pacific Northwest Indians. It is also uplifting because it details how a present-day tribe embraced self-determination while manifesting their strong environmental values.

Deloria draws the connection between the universally held Indian respect for the earth and its creatures and the emergence of the nation’s tribes as leaders of the environmental restoration movement. It is a movement that has become particularly strong and effective in my region.

Gilbert worked closely with his Hopi people and nation on this book, and he demonstrates how a book can take different forms such as a documentary film, blog, and other more publicly accessible projects. In his book, Gilbert shows how to apply Indigenous methodologies and intellectual processes to understand Indigenous perspectives of boarding schools. He contextualizes Indian boarding school experiences as part of larger historical dynamics and a sense of being for Hopi who have faced and navigated challenges of colonialism for generations.

A Hopi Indian named Don Talayesva was born in 1890 in the northeastern desert of Arizona. This is his personal life journey on the Sun Trail. I’ve never read anything quite like this. Every sentence immerses you into his mind’s eye, and you’ll see life through the lens of the Hopi worldview. Legends and myths run through every experience–yet everything feels real. The Spider Woman, Guardian Spirit, Katcina dancers, Six-Point-Cloud-People, Masau’u the bloody-headed Fire Spirit who wanders the mesa at night, and the secret society of Two-Hearts, who cast spells to take lives, to prolong their own. Don’s personal joys, opinions, and flaws are all part of the mix. In my own novel, I created a Hopi character with a vivid inner dialogue, thanks to Sun Chief.

Amazon tells me I have bought this book 8 times. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s that few. I tend to give Perseverance to colleagues and leaders I am coaching. We all need a little help “keepin' on keepin’ on” when we are doing the heavy lifting of inner development and this little book does that. Perseverance manages to be simple and profound, short and deep, and oh, so helpful for functioning in the midst of chaos. You can open it to any “random” page and get the message you need in the moment, or to prepare your mind and heart for the day ahead. Given the permanent whitewater we leaders find ourselves in, the need for this kind of inner resourcefulness is essential, and the need to replenish it constantly.

I love this book because Lawrence is one of the great travel writers. His highly individual style of writing, so full of energy and life, makes Mexico in the 1920s come alive. In the marvellous opening chapter you are with him in his Mexican garden, seeing what he sees, smelling what he smells, hearing what he hears. Very few travel writers have this gift and it’s hard to believe that this book is nearly 100 years old when it is as fresh as the day it was written.

This collection of essays by one of the greatest anthropologists of the last century inspired a whole generation of historians—for example, Joan Scott and William Sewell, Jr. as well as myself.  The essays also should appeal to the general reader because of their well-wrought style and wit.  Drawing on Max Weber, Geertz treats cultures as symbolic systems and shows how they helped ordinary people make sense of the world.  Far from wandering off into abstractions, he offers fine-grained descriptions of actual events, notably a Balinese cockfight in an essay that has been cited and debated endlessly among social scientists.

I chose this title because it’s the first story that made me fall in love with this genre. There is a deep sense of authenticity stemming from the reality of finding love after abuse. It helps the reader understand the true emotions of someone navigating through life after years of childhood abuse and trauma. Afton’s writing creates a beautiful story from beginning to end, while bringing the reader on an emotional roller coaster at the same time. This story left an impact on my heart and greatly influenced my writing as an author.