Book cover images. Graphic credit: Abigail Malate
Indigenous History Month Book Recommendations (& more)
Indigenous History Month Book Recommendations (& more)
In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, we’ve compiled recommendations of all types that tell the stories of science and Indigenous people, including biographies of Native physical scientists, books and resources on the interactions between Indigenous knowledge and western science, readings about conflicts over Native land use for scientific purposes, and even a Sci-Fi series and selections for young readers. Our list contains books of multiple genres, podcasts, and videos, so there is something for everyone to enjoy, no matter what medium you prefer!
Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present - by Adrienne Keene (2021)
Genre: Nonfiction
This book contains a compilation of biographies of Indigenous individuals from multiple fields. It also contains some short essays on topics like “Settler Colonialism 101,” “Whose Land Are You On?” and “Current Issues in Indian Country.” The book is written by a Native author and illustrated by Chamoru artist Ciara Sana. From the Publisher:
Celebrate the lives, stories, and contributions of Indigenous artists, activists, scientists, athletes, and other changemakers in this beautifully illustrated collection. From luminaries of the past, like nineteenth-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis—the first Black and Native American female artist to achieve international fame—to contemporary figures like linguist jessie little doe baird, who revived the Wampanoag language, Notable Native People highlights the vital impact Indigenous dreamers and leaders have made on the world.
This powerful and informative collection also offers accessible primers on important Indigenous issues, from the legacy of colonialism and cultural appropriation to food sovereignty, land and water rights, and more. An indispensable read for people of all backgrounds seeking to learn about Native American heritage, histories, and cultures, Notable Native People will educate and inspire readers of all ages.
WorldCat | Goodreads | Bookshop
Bonus: Don’t just take our word for it - NASA mechanical engineer Aaron Yazzie also recommends this book (and is featured in it)!
Excited for the release of “Notable Native People” TODAY by the incredible @NativeApprops !! The illustrations are stunning, the profiles are inspiring.
Among this small slice of Indigenous leaders, dreamers, & changemakers from past & present is one deeply honored space nerd 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/dbzlNvKAxu
— Aaron Yazzie (he/him) (@YazzieSays) October 19, 2021
Who’s Asking? Native Science, Western Science, and Science Education - by Douglas L. Medin and Megan Bang (2014)
Genre: Nonfiction
From the Publisher:
The answers to scientific questions depend on who's asking, because the questions asked and the answers sought reflect the cultural values and orientations of the questioner. These values and orientations are most often those of Western science. In Who's Asking?, Douglas Medin and Megan Bang argue that despite the widely held view that science is objective, value-neutral, and acultural, scientists do not shed their cultures at the laboratory or classroom door; their practices reflect their values, belief systems, and worldviews. Medin and Bang argue further that scientist diversity—the participation of researchers and educators with different cultural orientations—provides new perspectives and leads to more effective science and better science education.
Medin and Bang compare Native American and European American orientations toward the natural world and apply these findings to science education. The European American model, they find, sees humans as separated from nature; the Native American model sees humans as part of a natural ecosystem. Medin and Bang then report on the development of ecologically oriented and community-based science education programs on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin and at the American Indian Center of Chicago. Medin and Bang's novel argument for scientist diversity also has important implications for questions of minority underrepresentation in science.
Science and Native American Communities: Legacies of Pain, Visions of Promise - edited by Keith James (2001)
Genre: Nonfiction
From the Publisher:
Representing an unprecedented gathering of Native American professionals working in the sciences and advanced technology, the book combines theory and practice, firsthand experience and strategic thinking, in a provocative exploration of the uneasy meeting ground between science and Native American communities. In highly personal, deeply informed, and frequently moving essays, the authors wrestle with a legacy of mistrust and violence. They ask: Is a common ground between science and Native America possible? The problems and prospects that emerge from such a meeting, and that these essays address, include the impact of science and technology on Native lands and environment; economic and technological opportunities and challenges for reservation communities; and the differences and similarities between Native and scientific thought and practice. The authors not only showcase different reactions to the consequences of science, but also energetically propose strategies for renegotiating Native communities' relationships with science, seizing control of their destinies, and moving forward in the twenty-first century.
Ojibwe Sky Star Map Constellation Guidebook: An Introduction to Ojibwe Star Knowledge - by Annette S. Lee, William Wilson, Jeffrey Tibbetts, and Carl Gawboy (2014)
Genre: Nonfiction
A constellation guidebook focusing on Ojibwe Star Knowledge. Greek constellations and astronomical objects of interest are included along with the Ojibwe constellations organized by the four seasons and north circumpolar stars. Written by four Native authors: Annette Lee, William Wilson, Jeff Tibbetts, Carl Gawboy. Accompanies the "Ojibwe Giizhig Anung Masinaaigan" - Ojibwe Sky Star Map created by Annette Lee, William Wilson, and Carl Gawboy.
Annette Lee is an astrophysicist, an artist (check out her art here), and Lakota. In 2021, Lee won the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Early Career Award for Public Engagement in Science for "her collaborative, culturally relevant and community-focused projects grounded in Indigenous knowledge of the stars." She founded Native Skywatchers, an organization that "seeks to remember and revitalize Indigenous star and earth knowledge."
From the Publisher:
This book is an outgrowth of Native Skywatchers research and programming ... We seek to address the crisis of the loss of the Indigenous star knowledge, specifically the Dakota and Ojibwe who are the Native peoples of Minnesota ... Together, we have created two astronomically accurate and culturally important star maps, Ojibwe Giizhig Anang Masinaa'igan - Ojibwe Sky Star Map and Makoce Wicanhpi Wowapi - D(Lakota) Sky Star Map, which were first disseminated to regional educators at a Native Skywatchers Middle School Teacher workshop in June 2012.
Dakota/Lakota Star Map Constellation Guidebook: An Introduction to D(L)akota Star Knowledge - by Annette S. Lee, Jim Rock, Charlene O'Rourke (2014)
Genre: Nonfiction
A companion to Ojibwe Sky Star Map Constellation Guidebook. From the Publisher:
A constellation guidebook focusing on D(L)akota Star Knowledge. Greek constellations and astronomical objects of interest are included along with the D(L)akota constellations organized by the four seasons and north circumpolar stars. Written by three Native authors: Annette S. Lee, Jim Rock, and Charlene O'Rourke. Accompanies the D(L)akota Star Map created by Annette Lee and Jim Rock.
The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars - by Duane Hamacher (2022)
Genre: Nonfiction
This book is written from an Australian perspective. We’re including it in this list because it adds more voices to the conversation around the often overlooked and misunderstood value of Indigenous knowledge, particularly in the field of astronomy. It will be available in 2023. From the Publisher:
Our eyes have been drawn away from the heavens to our screens. We no longer look to the sky to forecast the weather, predict the seasons or plant our gardens. Most of us cannot even see the Milky Way. But First Nations Elders of the world still maintain this knowledge, and there is much we can learn from them.
These Elders are expert observers of the stars. They teach that everything on the land is reflected in the sky, and everything in the sky is reflected on the land. How does this work, and how can we better understand our place in the universe?
Guided by six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, Duane Hamacher takes us on a journey across space and time to reveal the wisdom of the first astronomers. These living systems of knowledge challenge conventional ideas about the nature of science and the longevity of oral tradition. Indigenous science is dynamic, adapting to changes in the skies and on earth, pointing the way for a world facing the profound disruptions of climate change.
The First Astronomers shows us how respectful collaborations can drive exciting and innovative solutions to global challenges that impact us all.
Native American Science Curriculum - by Anne Calhoun et al. (revised 2020)
Genre: Media
This website provides a university-level curriculum to study the relationships between Native science and western society. These courses include full slide decks with notes, assignments, reading lists, and methods of evaluation. The contributors are a collaboration of professors from several US universities in various fields: biology, ecology, Native American studies, and language studies. The website logo, pictured here, was designed by Temashio N. Anderson. From the website:
The cultural heritage of most Native American and Alaska Native peoples incorporates considerable knowledge and experience of the natural world, including meteorological and ecological phenomena.
Despite these strong cultural traditions, Native Americans and Alaska Natives remain the most under‑represented minority in scientific disciplines overall, and in environmentally oriented sciences in particular, currently constituting less than half of one percent of all enrollees…
This curriculum is an attempt to counter all of these other factors, by showing how Indigenous traditions are based on a solid understanding and description of natural phenomena. Our goal is to avoid romantic cliches and characterizations of Indian people and their traditional knowledge and to present this knowledge as well documented but different in approach from "Western science." These traditions are based on connection to the natural world, rather than separation from nature--in other words we are working with a science based on relationships, reciprocity and respect rather than solely on exploitation and economic concerns.
Science, Colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples: the Cultural Politics of Law and Knowledge - by Laurelyn Whitt (2009)
Genre: Nonfiction
From the Publisher:
At the intersection of Indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of Indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, Indigenous peoples rather than nation-states.
Yellow Dirt: A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos - by Judy Pasternak (2011)
Genre: Nonfiction
From the Publisher:
This investigative feat tells the shocking, heartbreaking story of uranium mining on the Navajo reservation and its terrible legacy of sickness and government neglect, documenting one of the darker chapters in 20th century American history.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the United States knowingly used and discarded an entire tribe of people as the Navajos worked, unprotected, in the uranium mines that fueled the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Long after these mines were abandoned, Navajos in all four corners of the Reservation (which borders Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona) continued grazing their animals on sagebrush flats riddled with uranium that had been blasted from the ground. They built their houses out of chunks of uranium ore, inhaled radioactive dust borne aloft from the waste piles the mining companies had left behind, and their children played in the unsealed mines themselves. Ten years after the mines closed, the cancer rate on the reservation shot up and some babies began to be born with crooked fingers that fused together into claws as they grew. Government scientists filed complaints about the situation with the government, but were told it was a mess too expensive to clean up.
Judy Pasternak exposed this story in a prizewinning Los Angeles Times series. Her work galvanized both a congressman and a famous prosecutor to clean the sites and get reparations for the tribe. Yellow Dirt is her powerful chronicle of both the scandal of neglect and the Navajos’ fight for justice.
Ceremony - by Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)
Genre: Fiction
Ceremony is a classic of Native American literature about a Pueblo man named Tayo, who returns from World War II traumatized. It goes back and forth between storytelling about Tayo, before, during, and after the war and ancient times of the Pueblo people.What does this have to do with physics? Well, the area where the Pueblo lived was rich in uranium, mined and used in the creation of nuclear weapons. Additionally, Los Alamos (of the Manhattan Project) and the Trinity test site are also located on Pueblo land. Parts of Tayo’s story take place at uranium mines and the Trinity test site, inextricably tangling his story with the story of US nuclear power and its long history of colonialism. For more on colonialism and science, our podcast is a great accompaniment: https://www.aip.org/initialconditions/episode-12-hawaii-and-thirty-meter-telescope
The Long Walk of Fred Young - co-produced by the BBC and WGBH (1979)
Genre: TV documentary
This is an episode of the television special NOVA on the life of Fred Young, also known as Fred Begay and Clever Fox. The documentary features extensive interviews with Young and covers his life from childhood through to his professional career. Young was a Navajo/Ute nuclear physicist who was born on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation in Colorado and worked for almost 30 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The documentary is highly recommended by our Public Historian Joanna Behrman, although she warns that scenes mentioning the death of children, or showing alcoholism or casual racism (sometimes on the part of the film makers) may be triggering for viewers. You can watch the entire one-hour episode on Internet Archive, linked below.
Fred Begay: Connecting Physics and Navajo Culture - by Dennis Fertig (2013)
Genre: Young readers
This elementary-level children’s biography takes a look at the life of physicist Fred Begay. There is also a slightly easier-to-read version of this book called Fred Begay: Scientist, also by Denis Fertig (2013). If you’re looking to introduce Fred Begay to the classroom at a higher level, we have a teaching guide: “Fred Begay: Physicist by 3 Names,” which is intended for the high school level. A peek at the table of contents for Fred Begay: connecting Physics and Navajo Culture:
Beauty all around
Young scientist
A long walk to school
Farming and war
A surprise
Hard work at college
Understanding Physics
Life as a scientist
Sharing wisdom
Native American Scientists: Fred Begay, Wilfred F. Denetclaw, Jr., Frank C. Dukepoo, Clifton Poodry, Jerrel Yakel - by Jetty St. John (1996)
Genre: Young readers
This children's collected biography covers five Native scientists: biologist Wilfred Denetclaw Jr., geneticist Frank Dukepoo, physicist Fred Begay, biologist Clifton Poodry, and neuroscientist Jerrel Yakel. In 1971, Poodry was the first person from the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation to earn a his Ph.D, after also becoming the first person in his family to earn a college degree. Frank Dukepoo was the first member of the Hopi tribe to earn a Ph.D., which he achieved in 1973.
Hawai'i and the Thirty Meter Telescope, Episode 12 of Initial Conditions: A Physics History Podcast (2022)
Genre: Podcast
Featuring a discussion with experts Samantha Thompson and Kalewa Correa from the Smithsonian Institution, this episode is about the history of Hawai’i and the controversy surrounding the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The TMT Corporation’s Board of Directors selected Maunakea as its preferred site in 2009. The 2014 groundbreaking for the TMT site was met with fierce, but peaceful, opposition by Indigenous Hawaiians and environmentalists for whom the mountain is both a sacred religious and cultural site, as well as home to rare species. Disagreements manifested at the mountain, where protectors of Maunakea assembled to block the road, and in the courts, where they halted the project through legal proceedings. The Supreme Court of Hawai’i paused the project until 2018, at which point protectors once again assembled and delayed construction. In the media, the battle over Maunakea and the Thirty Meter Telescope was often portrayed as a conflict between science and religion, but as our guests point out, that is not the case. This episode contextualizes the battle as part of a larger history of science, colonization, and the sovereignty of Native Hawaiians. The accompanying blog post features further reading about the sources used in the making of the episode.
The Sacred Mountain: Season 2 of Offshore Podcast (2017)
Genre: Podcast
Offshore is all about Hawai'i, and season two focuses on Maunakea. The discussion of the Thirty Meter Telescope is part of a much larger discussion on science and colonization, but it is also very specific to Hawai’i and the people who have lived on the archipelago for generations. The host interviews astronomers working on Maunakea, Native Hawaiians, and even Native Hawaiians who work on the mountain. From this range of perspectives, she is able to find nuance in her reporting.
From the website: “What is it about Hawaii’s tallest mountain that makes it so revered? So desired? So fought over? One thing’s for sure, the mountain changes people.”
Ep 1: Mauna Kea | Ep 2: The Protectors | Ep 3: The Astronomers | Ep 4: Who’s to say? | Episode 5: The Other Mountains | Episode 6: Creation
Native Women Changing Their Worlds - by Patricia Cutright (2021)
Genre: Young readers
This collected biography features a chapter on aerospace engineer Mary Golda Ross and a chapter on librarian Loriene Roy, whose writing, research, and service on Indigenous cultural heritage development earned her presidency of the American Indian Library Association (1997-1998) and the American Library Association (2007-2008), as well as many awards. She established and directs the “If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything” reading club for American Indian students. You can find excerpts of Native Women Changing Their Worlds on Google books. A summary from the Publisher:
Native women have filled their communities with strength and leadership, both historically and as modern-day warriors. The twelve Native American and First Nations women featured in this book overcame unimaginable hardships--racial and gender discrimination, abuse, and extreme poverty--only to rise to great heights in the fields of politics, science, education, and community activism. Such determination and courage reflect the essence of the traditional Cheyenne saying: ‘A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground.’
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer - by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Natasha Donovan (2021)
Genre: Young readers
From the Publisher:
Cherokee author Traci Sorell and Métis illustrator Natasha Donovan trace Ross’s journey from being the only girl in a high school math class to becoming a teacher to pursuing an engineering degree, joining the top-secret Skunk Works division of Lockheed, and being a mentor for Native Americans and young women interested in engineering. In addition, the narrative highlights Cherokee values including education, working cooperatively, remaining humble, and helping ensure equal opportunity and education for all.
Lerner Publishing Group has a free teaching guide about the book which includes activities for a variety of age groups: https://lernerbooks.com/teaching_guides/578
The Girl Who Could Rock the Moon: An Inspirational Tale about Mary G. Ross and the Magic of STEM - by Maya Cointreau (2019)
Genre: Young readers
From the Publisher:
The Girl Who Could Rock the Moon inspires girls and boys of all ages to create an exciting new world through the exploration of STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. Mary G. Ross was a gifted mathematician and became the first female Native American engineer in the United States at a time when women in STEM were rare. She was brave, she was bold and she helped take us to the moon. Her equations solved in-flight problems for rockets and jets, and she wrote a traveler's manual to the planets. Much of her work remains classified to this day, but her inspiring story does not. Does your little one like technology? Do they like to ask questions? Encourage them to see math as a game they'll want to play with this bright, entertaining read. The Girls Who Could is a fun, colorful series of stories about real women who have made a difference in the world through inspired action. By giving young girls and boys examples of women who are doing amazing things, children grow up with a template of achievement upon which to grow and expand their own dreams and goals. Simple drawings of children their own age and fun, rhyming prose helps kids connect easily with the message in each story.
Mission to Space - by John Herrington (2016)
Genre: Young readers
From the Publisher:
Astronaut John Herrington shares his passion for space travel and his Chickasaw heritage as he gives children a glimpse into his astronaut training at NASA and his mission to the International Space Station. Learn what it takes to train for space flight, see the tasks he completed in space, and join him on his spacewalk 220 miles above the earth. This unique children’s book is illustrated with photos from Herrington’s training and space travel and includes an English-to-Chickasaw vocabulary list with space-related terms.
Jerry C. Elliott High Eagle (My Itty-Bitty Bio) - by June Thiele (2022)
Genre: Young readers
From the Publisher:
This book examines the life of physicist Jerry C. Elliott High Eagle, one of the first Native Americans to work at NASA, in a simple, age-appropriate way that helps children develop word recognition and reading skills.
For more on Jerry C. Elliott High Eagle’s fascinating life, check out NBLA’s oral history interview with Jerry C. Elliott High Eagle. We also hold oral history interviews with Native physicists Corey Gray and Ximena Cid.
Black Sun (2021) & Fevered Star (2022) - by Rebecca Roanhorse
Genre: Sci-Fi
Hugo Award-winning Rebecca Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky series is, “An epic series weaving the people, cultures, and history of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous society into the astounding fantasy world of Meridian where matriarchal clans vie for power as a dead god rises.” The final book in this trilogy is expected to be published next year!
Black Sun: WorldCat | Goodreads | Bookshop
Fevered Star: WorldCat | Goodreads | Bookshop
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