Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)

Grandmother Moon is lonely in the night sky. When she stops in her journey to hear Brother Mountain's stories, she also stops the sun from rising, the animals from sleeping, and more! This causes the Creator to intervene, but how can Grandmother Moon's loneliness be solved while ensuring the sky moves from night to day?

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 3 and under.

Additional Information
36 Pages | 8.25" x 8.25" | Hardcover 

With simple, lyrical text and vibrant panoramic illustrations, this picture book explores the beauty and resources of thirteen ancestral Indigenous lands and how we all use those lands each day. Simple poetry and portrayals of children and families enjoying rivers, bike paths, beaches, and parks show how everyday activities can include honoring Indigenous nations and cultures.

Author Katrina Phillips (Ojibwe citizen) and illustrator Sam Zimmerman (Ojibwe direct descendant) together have crafted a loving tribute that gently demonstrates recognition and acknowledgement of the nations of people who first called these lands home.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 3 to 9.

Additional Information
32 pages | 10.00" x 8.00" | Hardcover 

A powerful and hopeful ode to Indigenous children.

Indigenous. Native. On this land, you may roam.
Child of the sun, on this land, you are home.

Of the Sun is an uplifting and mighty poem that wraps the Indigenous children of the Americas in reassuring words filled with hope for a brighter future and reminders of their bond and importance to the land. Each page fills them with pride and awe of their cultural heritage and invites them to unite and inspire change in the world.

Paired with powerful art reflecting cultures of various Indigenous Nations and Tribes, the poem offers all readers a sense of the history and majesty of the land we live on and how we can better care for ourselves and the world when we recognize our connection to the land and to each other.

Written by Xelena González, poet and activist in the Native and Latinx communities, and an enrolled member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation. Bold illustrations by prominent Anishinaabe illustrator Emily Kewageshig depict landscapes across the Americas and children from many backgrounds
Endnotes provide more information on Native and Indigenous unity and activism in younger generations

Reviews
"Of The Sun is a loving homage to the Indigenous peoples of this land—both in González’s beautiful, lyrical poem and Kewageshig’s warm, vibrant Anishinaabe-styled artwork. A wonderful read aloud you must add to bookshelves at home, at school, and in community!" - Traci Sorell, award-winning author of We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga and At The Mountain’s Base

"A luminous song, poem, promise
of cultures and connection,
of kinship and caring,
for Indigenous children across the continent." - Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Jingle Dancer

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 3 to 5.

Subjects / Themes / Topics Included: Indigenous Peoples in the Americas; Poetry; Land Connection; Inuit Clothing; Traditional Hair Bun (tsiiyéél); Concheros Dance; Three Sisters; La Danza de la Flor de Piña; Smoke Dance; Jingle Dress Dance; Manoomin (Wild Rice); English Words from Indigenous Languages; Indigenous Farming Practices; Bison; Land Back Movement.

Additional Information
32 pages | 10.00" x 9.75" | Hardcover

Strong kinship, rich stories, and lasting traditions—that’s the Seneca Nation. In this engaging nonfiction book for young readers, discover more about the people, places, and practices that connect Seneca communities across the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Learn how the Seneca people thrive today by safeguarding their language, maintaining customs, and honoring their heritage through ceremonies and council gatherings. Through interactive activities and engaging features—including maps, timelines, recipes, and stories—Seneca author Dr. Faye Lone offers young readers a window into the past, present, and future of this enduring culture.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 8 to 11.

This book is part of the Indigenous Peoples series.

Additional Information
32 pages | 7.00" x 9.00" | Paperback 

Look to the sky!

High above the ground, generation after generation, Native workers called skywalkers have sculpted city skylines, balancing on narrow beams, facing down terrifying heights and heartbreaking loss. These skywalkers who dared to touch the heavens have built a legacy of landmarks all over the North American continent—and even today, there are Native Americans still climbing up among the clouds, brave enough to walk the sky.

With impactful and illuminating prose, Patricia Morris Buckley (Mohawk) tells the soaring story of the remarkable skywalkers, whose bravery and tragedies are warmly captured in moving watercolors by award-winning artist E. B. Lewis (Lenni-Lenape).

Reviews
"By turns solemnly reverent and enthusiastic, Buckley’s elegant text will leave young people keenly aware of the historical and present-day significance of these groundbreaking workers, as well as their strength and resilience. Awe-inspiring." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Graceful language honors skywalkers throughout this stirring telling, while fluidly rendered watercolor illustrations in a desaturated color palette employ sweeping perspective and scale." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This fascinating narrative provides an in-depth history of skywalkers, the Caughnawaga, and their contributions to our cities and infrastructure." — School Library Journal (starred review)

"The text, even with all its facts and figures, is deeply emotional, capturing the giddy danger of skywalking, the relentless need to better one’s life, and the sorrow in a preventable tragedy...blurring faces and bodies in a way that emphasizes the comradery and connection between the workers." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"Here, a descendant of one of the 75 workers who died in the 1907 collapse of the Quebec Bridge pays eloquent tribute to the first generation of Mohawk “skywalkers” who came out of the Caughnawaga (later Kahnawà:ke) reserve in Canada." — Booklist

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Additional Information
40 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Hardcover 

Author Deidre Havrelock’s and illustrator Aphelandra’s The Heartbeat Drum is an uplifting picture book biography of a Cree activist and musician who founded an Indigenous hand drumming group, led by women and children, that spreads joy, healing, and unity

nisôhkisinân (We are strong) . . .
ninikamonân (We are singing) . . .
mîna nika-âhkamêyimonân (And we will continue) . . .

Whenever young Carol Powder sang along to her family’s music, her heart felt light and full of joy. Learning from her grandfather, Moshum, Carol listened closely to the drums’ heartbeat until one day Moshum made her a drum of her very own. As Carol grew up, she passed down her songs to her children, grandchildren, and many women in her community, just as Moshum taught her—even as women and children became increasingly excluded from sitting at the drum. Despite those who disapproved, she formed her own drumming group called Chubby Cree.

Today, Carol and her group share their music to advocate at climate events, to honor residential school survivors at special ceremonies, and to spread healing for anyone who needs it. Empowering and joyfully illustrated, The Heartbeat Drum is a radiant celebration of preserving Indigenous traditions, finding your voice, and speaking out.

Includes both an author’s note and illustrator’s note, as well as a personal note from Carol Powder herself.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Additional Information
40 Pages | 9" x 11" | Hardcover 

Find out all about Wilma Pearl Mankiller, the first woman Cherokee chief whose image will appear on a 2022 US quarter, in this Step 3 Biography Reader.

In 1985, Wilma Pearl Mankiller became the first woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She had to convince her people that the chief should be the best person for the job, man or woman.

Before the English came to what is now the United States, Cherokee women and men shared the leadership of the tribe. This created balance. But the English colonists told the Native People that men should be in charge.

It stayed that way for many years, until Wilma Pearl Mankiller made history. She used the concept of gaduji, of everyone helping each other, to make the Cherokee Nation strong.

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots and popular topics—for children who are ready to read on their own.

Reviews
“This work is historically accurate on an underrepresented topic in the curriculum.” —School Library Journal

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 5 to 8.

This book is part of the Step Into Reading series. This series is designed to give every child a successful reading experience. The grade levels are only guides; children will progress through the steps at their own speed, developing confidence in their reading. The F&P Text Level on the back cover serves as another tool to help you choose the right book.

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots and popular topics—for children who are ready to read on their own.

Additional Information
48 pages | 6.06" x 9.00" | Paperback

Chooch is not thrilled to be spending some of his summer with his Cherokee story-telling uncles and cousin Janees at a convention in North Carolina. While there, the uncles want to visit Judaculla Rock, a place of spiritual significance to the Cherokee people. Little does Chooch know that he has his own connection to the rock--a connection that could put him in mortal danger.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Additional Information
216 pages | 5.51" x 7.56" | Hardcover 

A twelve-year-old Iroquois boy rethinks his calling after witnessing the arrival of a mystical figure with a message of peace in this historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Twelve-year-old Okwaho's life has suddenly changed. While out hunting with his best friend, his friend is kidnapped by marauders from a neighboring tribe. Okwaho barely escapes back to his village where everyone lives in fear of raids and killings: The five tribes of the Iroquois have been at war with each other for far too long, and no one can even remember what it was like to live in peace.

Okwaho seeks only revenge, which will just perpetuate the violence. But before he can retaliate, a visitor with a message of peace, as told in the lore of the of the Iroquois nation, comes to him in the woods. The Peacemaker--a vision in white buckskin with a calm demeanor and soothing words--tells the boy that he can convince even the most warlike leaders of the wisdom of peace. Okwaho joins the legions of others who believe, and is present when the great treaty creating the Iroquois Confederacy is enacted.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Additional Information
160 pages | 5.69" x 8.56" | Hardcover

How about a book that makes you barge into your boss's office to read a page of poetry from? That you dream of? That every movie, song, book, moment that follows continues to evoke in some way?

The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside."

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core). The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Awards

• American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner

Reviews
"With language rich in metaphor, this is a timely and important work that begs for multiple readings."-Booklist, starred review

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 18.

Additional Information
352 pages | 6.50" x 9.40"

This is the story of remarkable women who laid the foundation for the modern women's movement and the Native American nation that proved equality was possible. In 1850, these brave women challenged a culture that believed they were inferior to men. How did they envision such a world? They looked to their neighbors the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and saw how women were held in high regard, with even greater rights than men. In the United States, a woman was considered subservient to her husband, who gained all his wife's wealth upon marriage. Women had no claim to their children and were considered runaway slaves if they left an abusive man. In contrast Haudenosaunee society provided a shining example of what is possible when women are treated with respect. Read how early activists forged a path to women's equal rights using the ideals of their Native American neighbors.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

This work is from an American publisher. Therefore, terminology may be different than what is used in Canada.

Subjects / Concepts: Human Rights, Women's Rights, Native American, Indigenous, History, Biographies, Social Activists.

Additional Information
48 pages | 7.90" x 9.40" | Paperback

Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes ten short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play from Walter Dean Myers never before in-print. This collection addresses topics like gentrification, acceptance, untimely death, coming out, and poverty and ranges in genre from contemporary realistic fiction to adventure and romance. It will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines. All you need is fresh ink.

Authors Include: Schuyler Bailar, Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Sharon G. Flake, Eric Gansworth, Malindo Lo, Walter Dean Myers, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Aminah Mae Safi, Gene Luen Yang, Nicola Yoon

Reviews
"I absolutely love this mix of established and newer talents, and I'm really intrigued and excited by the mixed formats." --BookRiot

"Huge, huge names in YA participated." --Bustle

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12+

This work includes an Indigenous contribution. Not all conributions are from Indigenous writers.  It's up to readers to determine if this work is authentic for their puproses.

Additional Information

This spine-tingling middle-grade collection brings together Skeleton Man and The Return of Skeleton Man—two modern classics that will chill you to the bone.

Molly’s father grew up on the Mohawk Reserve of Akwesasne, where he learned the best scary stories. One of her favorites was the legend of Skeleton Man, a gruesome tale about a man with a deadly, insatiable hunger. But ever since her parents mysteriously vanished, those spooky tales have started to feel all too real.

And things go from bad to worse for Molly when a stranger shows up one day and claims to be her great-uncle. A ghostly thin man she’s never seen before. A man who reminds her an awful lot of the Skeleton Man. But he couldn’t possibly be the same person from her father’s tale . . . could he? It’s up to Molly to uncover the truth about this fearsome figure and rescue her parents before it’s too late.

This 2-in-1 collection is perfect for fans of R.L. Stine, Ellen Oh’s Spirit Hunters series, Holly Black’s Doll Bones, and any young reader who loves a good thrill.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 8 - 12.

Additional Information
288 pages | 5.12" x 7.62"

Through the seasons, the stars move across the night sky. One set of stars tells the story of seven hunters chasing a big bear. Follow the stars through each season to discover the story. This Kanyen'kehà:ka (Gan-yeh-ga-ha-ga) story is about not giving up on your goals. The Kanyen'kehà:ka is one of Six Nations that together are the Haudenosaunee.

Educator & Series Information
Big Bear is part of the Strong Stories: Kanyen'kehà:ka series. Strong Stories focus on different First Nation territories from across Canada and the United States. These stories reflect the belief that our stories are the roots of our people, our lands and our cultures. It is from our stories that we grow and become strong and proud.

This resource is also available in French: La Grande Ourse.

Additional Information
16 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | ISBN: 9781771741149

A long time ago, the world was just water - there was no land! Then a curious woman fell from the sky world and with the help of the birds and animals created a land to live on. This Kanyen'kehà:ka (Gan-yeh-ga-ha-ga) story is about the origin of the land where we live today. The Kanyen'kehà:ka is one of Six Nations that together are the Haudenosaunee.

Educator & Series Information
Creation Story Sky Woman is part of the Strong Stories: Kanyen'kehà:ka series. Strong Stories focus on different First Nation territories from across Canada and the United States. These stories reflect the belief that our stories are the roots of our people, our lands and our cultures. It is from our stories that we grow and become strong and proud.

This resource is also available in French: La Femme du Ciel

Additional Information
16 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | ISBN: 9781771741156