Guides: Community Outreach and Partnerships @ Pitt-Bradford Hanley Library: Campus and Community Common Reader

Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 - Author Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Call Number: Reserves E98.P5 K56 2020
Publication Date: 2020, 2nd Edition
Drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2013
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces indigenous teachings that consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take "us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer; Monique Gray Smith; Nicole Neidhardt (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC E98.P5 K56 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things--from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen--provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.
Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Call Number: QK537 .K56 2003
Publication Date: 2003
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common, largely unnoticed element of the natural world. GatheringMoss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer; John Burgoyne (Illustrator)
Call Number: E98.B7 K56 2024 & eBook
Publication Date: 2024
A bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world. The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that "hoarding won't save us, all flourishing is mutual."

Thurs., September 5, 2024 – Foraging Walk and Sumac Lemonade, 4 to 5:15 p.m. Meet behind Blaisdell Hall on the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford campus. Pitt-Bradford’s Isaac Spaeth will introduce participants to some local plants that are edible and/or medicinal, helping us to recognize some of the gifts that local plants provide to people. Participants can also learn how to make and sample sumac “lemonade.” Those wishing to attend are asked to contact Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor of biology at Mary.mulcahy@pitt.edu. Free.

Thurs., September 12, 2024 – “Braided Walk” – Nature walk and readings from “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, 4 to 5:15 p.m. behind Blaisdell Hall at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Pitt-Bradford botany students will lead the walk, find places with plants talked about in “Braiding Sweetgrass,” and read a short passage about that plant. Those wishing to attend are asked to contact Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor of biology at Mary.mulcahy@pitt.edu. Free.

Sat., September 28, 2024 - Guided Mushroom Foraging Walk, 2 p.m. Sponsored by the Bradford Area Public Library (BAPL). Sam Warren, a NYSOGA licensed guide, will lead a guided mushroom foray into our local woods (location received upon registration). Free program, but registration is necessary as the guides are limited to the number of people they are permitted to lead. For more information, visit the BAPL events page. Free.

Sat., November 16, 2024 - Lance White Eagle and Brenda White Eagle: Culture of Indigenous People, 11:30 a.m. at the Bradford Area Public Library. The Bradford Area Public Library is the sponsor of this free program; no registration is necessary. Free.

Wed., November 20, 2024 - Sky Woman Women Film Premiere, 6 p.m. at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, University Room.

A special screening and premiere of Sky Woman Women, a powerful film by Dara Friedman. In observance of Native American Heritage Month, this event will feature fellowship, food, and a post-screening panel discussion featuring the film's director, Dara Friedman. Sky Woman Women explores themes of identity, culture, and the resilience of Native women. Don't miss this unique opportunity to engage with the film and its creators in an intimate and thought-provoking setting—registration is required. Free.

Thurs., December 12, 2024 - The Friends of Hanley Library Season's Reading, 11 a.m. Wick Chapel. Dr. Don Ulin will read from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. No registration is required. Free.

Thurs., February 6, 2025 - Weaving the Past Together for the Future, Art Exhibition by Penelope Minner. Noon. The exhibition will open at noon with the artist's introduction at the KOA Art Gallery, Blaisdell Hall. No registration is required. Free.

Thurs., February 6, 2025 - Winter Nature Walk. 4 p.m. meeting behind the KOA Art Gallery. Those wishing to attend are asked to contact Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor of biology, at Mary.mulcahy@pitt.edu. Free.

Mon., February 24, 2025 - Harvesting Maple Syrup. 12:30 p.m. Please contact Professor Don Ulin at ulin@pitt.edu. Free.

Thurs., February 27 & Fri., February 28, 2025 - Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge and Resources into K-12 Classroom Practices. 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Frame-Westerberg Commons.

This two-day professional development workshop will provide training to support integrating culturally sustaining Indigenous knowledge and resources into lesson plans and library collections. The workshop will be a dynamic interplay of information and participatory engagement and include a final project of creating a lesson plan or library collection plan.

The series will allow pre- and in-service teachers to learn how to teach about Indigenous topics and use resources responsibly. The impact will extend to participants’ colleagues, students, and future students of Pitt-Bradford pre-service teachers, who will be introduced to culturally responsive teaching of Indigenous scientific wisdom, history, and culture.

For the schedule of events & registration, please visit the website link. Questions? Please email Jenelle (jme26@pitt.edu). Registration is required & closes on February 25 at 3 PM. Free, but registration is required.

Sat., March 1, 2025 - Open Book Club, Bradford Area Public Library - "Braiding Sweetgrass" Book Discussion. 10:30 am.

Invited Guest Speakers - Dr. Mary Mulcahy and Bob Harris. . For questions, please email Janelle Nolan at marketing@bradfordlibrary.org. No registration is required. Free

Tues., March 18, 2025 - Robin Wall Kimmerer Class Visit. 4 p.m. University of Pittsburgh at Bradford instructors and professors wishing to join the class session, please email Dr. Nancy McCabe at ngm4@pitt.edu.

Tues., March 18, 2025 - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Visiting Writer - Author's Talk. 7:30 p.m. Bromeley Theater, Blaisdell Hall, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim.

Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. In 2022 she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild. Free, but registration is required.

Spring 2025. TBD. Leek gathering. For more information, please email Professor Don Ulin at ulin@pitt.edu.

Sat., March 1 - Open Book Club, Bradford Area Public Library - Braiding Sweetgrass Book Discussion. 10:30 am.

Invited Guest Speakers - Dr. Mary Mulcahy and Bob Harris. Please email Janelle Nolan at marketing@bradfordlibrary.org.

Summer 2024 Book Discussion Series

In preparation for the author's visit to Pitt-Bradford in March 2025, we hope the Braiding Sweetgrass book discussion will inspire and encourage the campus and community to engage with Kimmerer's topics.

The hybrid book discussion series will consist of three sessions. Discussions will be held in the Hanley Library, Osborne Room on the second floor, and online through Zoom.

For more information and to register for the discussion, please visit https://www.upb.pitt.edu/book-discussion.

Books will be available in the Pitt-Bradford Panther Bookstore starting June 17.

Summer 2024 Reading Series for Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Wall Kimmerer
"As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild."
James A. Cannavino Library Braiding Sweetgrass LibGuide
"This guide provides you with resources to supplement the book as well as offer some assistance in reading the text including important vocabulary, illustrations to supplement the book's explanations, and more."

Braiding Sweetgrass Related Library Resources

Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo
Call Number: PS3558.A62423 Z46 2021
Publication Date: 2021
Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice.
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through by Joy Harjo (Editor); LeAnne Howe (As told to); Jennifer Foerster (As told to)
Call Number: PS591.I55 W47 2020
Publication Date: 2020
This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries. Opening with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors who represent the five geographically organized sections.
Women and Ledger Art by Richard Pearce
Call Number: E78.G73 P37 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Women and Ledger Art calls attention to the extraordinary achievements of these strong women who have chosen to express themselves through ledger art. Author Richard Pearce foregrounds these contributions by focusing on four contemporary women ledger artists: Sharron Ahtone Harjo (Kiowa), Colleen Cutschall (Oglala Lakota), Linda Haukaas (Sicangu Lakota), and Dolores Purdy Corcoran (Caddo). Pearce spent six years in continual communication with the women, learning about their work and their lives. Women and Ledger Art examines the artists and explains how they expanded Plains Indian history.

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky by Lois Ellen Frank
Call Number: TX837 .F73 2023
Publication Date: 2023
This enriching cookbook celebrates eight important plants Native Americans introduced to the rest of the world: corn, beans, squash, chile, tomato, potato, vanilla, and cacao--with more than 100 recipes.
New Native Kitchen by Freddie Bitsoie; James O. Fraioli; Quentin Bacon (By (photographer)); Gabriella Trujillo (Illustrator)
Call Number: TX715 .B499485 2021
Publication Date: 2021
Bitsoie showcases the variety of flavor and culinary history from 566 federally recognized tribes and provides modern interpretations of 100 recipes that have long fed this country. With recipes as varied as the tribes that inspired them, New Native Kitchen celebrates the Indigenous heritage of American cuisine.

The First Blade of Sweetgrass by Suzanne Greenlaw; Gabriel Frey; Nancy Baker (Illustrator)
Call Number: Hanley Course Reserves
Publication Date: 2021
Musquon must overcome her impatience while learning to distinguish sweetgrass from other salt marsh grasses, but slowly the spirit and peace of her surroundings speak to her, and she gathers sweetgrass as herancestors have done for centuries, leaving the first blade she sees to grow for future generations. This sweet, authentic story from a Maliseet mother and her Passamaquoddy husband includes backmatter about traditional basket making and a Wabanaki glossary.
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson; David Shannon (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC PZ7.1.R635 Hi 2015
Publication Date: 2015
Born of Mohawk and Cayuga descent, musical icon Robbie Robertson learned the story of Hiawatha and his spiritual guide, the Peacemaker, as part of the Iroquois oral tradition. Now he shares the same gift of storytelling with a new generation. Hiawatha was a strong and articulate Mohawk who was chosen to translate the Peacemaker's message of unity for the five warring Iroquois nations during the 14th century. This message not only succeeded in uniting the tribes but also forever changed how the Iroquois governed themselves - a blueprint for democracy that would later inspire the authors of the U.S. Constitution.
Shanyáak'utlaax by Johnny Marks (Editor); Hans Chester (Editor); Nora Dauenhauer (Editor); Richard Dauenhauer (Editor); David Katzeek (Editor); Michaela Goade (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC PZ90.T61 S53 2017
ISBN: 9781946019028
Publication Date: 2017
Shanyaak'utlaax: Salmon Boy comes from an ancient Tlingit story that teaches about respect for nature, animals and culture. The title character, a Tlingit boy, violates these core cultural values when he flings away a dried piece of salmon with mold on the end given to him by his mother. His disrespect offends the Salmon People, who sweep him into the water and into their world.
Sweetgrass by Theresa Meuse; Jessica Jerome (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC PZ7.M567935 Sw 2022
Publication Date: 2022
A modern story of traditional Indigenous knowledge that follows a young boy and his Auntie as they gather and braid sweetgrass, one of the four sacred medicines. From the duo behind the bestsellers The Gathering and The Sharing Circle, this heartfelt story about the gifts we receive from Mother Earth and how to gather them respectfully offers thoughtful insight into a treasured Mi'kmaw tradition. Sweetgrass grows in wet meadows, low prairies, and the edges of sloughs and marshes . It grows from Labrador to Alaska, south to New Jersey, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, and Arizona. Widely used by North American indigenous peoples from many different Nations, it is also considered one of the "four sacred medicines" by many Plains Indians.
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom; Michaela Goade (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC PZ7.L6623 We 2020
Publication Date: 2020
From author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Michaela Goade comes a New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Medal winning picture book that honors Indigenous-led movements across the world. Powerfully written and gorgeously illustrated, We Are Water Protectors, issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption--inviting young readers everywhere to join the fight.

Iwigara: The kinship of plants and people by Enrique Salmon
Call Number: GN476.73 .S345 2020
Publication Date: 2020
The belief that all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath--known in the Rarámuri tribe as iwígara--has resulted in a treasury of knowledge about the natural world, passed down for millennia by native cultures. Ethnobotanist Enrique Salmón builds on this concept of connection and highlights 80 plants revered by North America's indigenous peoples. Salmón teaches us the ways plants are used as food and medicine, the details of their identification and harvest, their important health benefits, plus their role in traditional stories and myths.
Manomin by Brittany Luby (Editor); Margaret Lehman (Editor); Andrea Bradford (Editor); Samantha Mehltretter (Editor); Jane Mariotti (Editor)
Call Number: GT2868.8 .M36 2024
Publication Date: 2024
Manomin: Caring for Ecosystems and Each Other offers a community-engaged analysis of the under-studied grain, weaving together the voices of scholars, chefs, harvesters, engineers, poets, and artists to share the plant's many lessons about the living relationships between all forms of creation. Grounded in Indigenous methodologies and rendered in full colour, Manomin reveals and examines our interconnectedness through a variety of disciplines--history, food studies, ethnobotany, ecology--and forms of expression, including recipes, stories, and photos.
Native American Gardening by Michael J. Caduto; Joseph Bruchac; Gary P. Nabhan (Foreword by)
Call Number: E98.A3 C24 1996
Publication Date: 1996
Readers will learn about the relationships between people and the gardens of Earth, seed preservation, Native diets and meals, natural pest control, and the importance of the Circle of Life.
Native Plant Stories by Joseph Bruchac
Call Number: E98.F6 B915 1995
Publication Date: 1995
These stories draw upon legends from eighteen Native American tribes and illustrate the importance of plant life in Native American traditions.
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask by Mary Siisip Geniusz; Wendy Makoons Geniusz (Editor); Annmarie Geniusz (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2015
Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information. Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask makes this botanical information useful to native and nonnative healers and educators and places it in the context of the Anishinaabe culture that developed the knowledge and practice.
Revered Roots by LoriAnn Bird
Call Number: QK98.4 .B57 2025
Publication Date: 2025
A purposeful and powerful reference to the lessons, nourishment, healing, and history of our "plant teachers," Revered Roots shares guidance on exploring, gathering, and reclaiming these long-revered plants as food and medicine.
What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? by John Hausdoerffer (Editor); Brooke Parry Hecht (Editor); Melissa K. Nelson (Editor); Katherine Kassouf Cummings (Editor)
Call Number: GN476.7 .W438 2021
Publication Date: 2021
As we face an ever-more-fragmented world, What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? demands a return to the force of lineage--to spiritual, social, and ecological connections across time. It is an offering to teachers who have come before and to those who will follow, a tool for healing our relationships with ourselves, with each other, and with our most powerful ancestors--the lands and waters that give and sustain all life.

Unsettling Education by Anna-Leah King (Editor); Kathleen O'Reilly (Editor); Patrick Lewis (Editor)
Call Number: E96.2 .U57 2024
Publication Date: 2024
This edited collection tackles "unsettling" as an emerging field of study that calls for settlers to follow Indigenous leadership and relationality and work toward disrupting the colonial reality through their everyday lives. Unsettling Education is well suited for college and university courses in Indigenous studies or education that focus on decolonization, land-based learning, Indigenization, unsettling, and reconciliation.
Without Destroying Ourselves by John A. Goodwin
Call Number: E97.55 .G66 2022 & eBook
Publication Date: 2022
Without Destroying Ourselves is an intellectual history of Native activism seeking greater access to and control of higher education in the twentieth century. John A. Goodwin traces themes of Henry Roe Cloud's (Ho-Chunk) vision for Native intellectual leadership and empowerment in the early 1900s to the later missions of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) and education-based, self-determination movements of the 1960s onward. Goodwin demonstrates that Native activism for self-determination was never snuffed out by the swing of the federal government's pendulum away from tribal governance and toward termination. Moreover, efforts for Native control in education remained a vital aspect of that activism. Without Destroying Ourselves documents this period through the full accreditation of TCUs in the late 1970s and reinforces TCUs' continuing relevance in confronting the unique needs and challenges of Native communities today.

Native Historians Write Back by Susan A. Miller (Editor); James Riding In (Editor)
Call Number: E76.8 .N35 2011
Publication Date: 2011
No matter what you know about Lewis and Clark, the Hopi Snake Dance, the occupation of Wounded Knee village, or the Seminole Freedmen claim, you have never before seen those and myriad other historic episodes from these perspectives. In this first-of-its-kind anthology, American Indian scholars examine crucial events in their own nations? histories. On the one hand, these writers represent diverse tribal perspectives. On the other, they share a unifying point of view grounded in ancestral wisdom: the Cosmos is a live being, Earth is our Mother, the North American tribes are engaged in national liberation struggles, and Indigenous realities are as viable as any other. Fanciful? Read this book and see whether you still think so.
Our History Is the Future: Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes
ISBN: 9781786636720
Publication Date: 2019
In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century, attracting tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Native allies from around the world. Its slogan "Mni Wiconi" Water is Life was about more than just a pipeline. While a historian by trade, Estes also draws on observations from the encampments and from growing up as a citizen of the Oceti Sakowin (the Nation of the Seven Council Fires), making Our History is the Future at once a work of history, a personal story, and a manifesto.
Sisters in Spirit by Sally Roesch Wagner; John Fadden (Illustrator)
Call Number: HQ1410 .W35 2001
Publication Date: 2001
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women sparked the revolutionary vision of early feminists by providing a model of freedom at a time when American women experienced few rights. Women of the Six Nations Confederacy possessed decisive political power, control of their bodies, control of their own property, custody of their children, the power to initiate divorce, satisfying work and a society generally free of rape and domestic violence. Historian Sally Roesch Wagner recounts the struggle for freedom and equality waged by early American women documenting how Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Matilda Joslyn Gage were influenced by their Indigenous women neighbors.

Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States by Devon A. Mihesuah (Editor); Elizabeth Hoover (Editor)
Call Number: E98.F7 I53 2019
Publication Date: 2019
"All those interested in Indigenous food systems, sovereignty issues, or environment, and their path toward recovery should read this powerful book." --Kathie L. Beebe, American Indian Quarterly Centuries of colonization and other factors have disrupted indigenous communities' ability to control their own food systems. This volume explores the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States, and asks whether and how it might be achieved and sustained.
An Indigenous Present by Jeffrey Gibson (Editor)
Call Number: N6538.A4 I67 2023
Publication Date: 2023
This landmark volume is a gathering of Native North American contemporary artists, musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, architects, writers, photographers, designers and more. An Indigenous Present foregrounds transculturalism over affiliation and contemporaneity over outmoded categories.
Kaandossiwin. How We Come to Know: Indigenous Re-search Methodologies (2nd Ed.) by Kathleen E. Absolon (Minogiizhigokwe)
Call Number: E76.7 .A26 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Indigenous methodologies have been silenced and obscured by the Western scientific means of knowledge production. In a challenge to this colonialist rejection of Indigenous knowledge, Anishinaabe re-searcher Kathleen Absolon describes how Indigenous re-searchers re-theorize and re-create methodologies. Indigenous knowledge resurgence is being informed by taking a second look at how re-search is grounded. This second edition features the author's reflections on her decade of re-search and teaching experience since the last edition, celebrating the most common student questions, concerns, and revelations.
Recovering the Sacred : The Power of Naming and Claiming by Winona LaDuke
Call Number: E98.R3 L33 2005
Publication Date: 2005
Calling as ever on her lyrical sensibility and caustic wit, moving from the popular to the politic, from the sacred to the profane, LaDuke uses these essays not just to indict the current situation but to point out a way forward for Native Americans and their allies.
We Are Still Here by Dick Bancroft (Photographer); Laura Waterman Wittstock (Text by); Rigoberto Menchu Tum (Introduction by)
Call Number: E98.T77 B35 2013
Publication Date: 2013
The American Indian Movement, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, burst into that turbulent time with passion, anger, and radical acts of resistance. The photographs of activist Dick Bancroft, a key documentarian of AIM, provide a stunningly intimate view of this major piece of American history from 1970 to 1981. This is the inside record of a movement that began to change a nation.

Iroquois Creation Story by John C. Mohawk
Call Number: E99.I7 M745 2005
Publication Date: 2005
The Oneida Creation Story by Demus Elm; Harvey Antone; Floyd G. Lounsbury (Translator); Bryan Gick (Translator)
Call Number: E99.O45 E45 2000
Publication Date: 2000
The Oneida Creation Story is the oldest tradition of the Onyota'aka (People of the Standing Stone) and is one of the greatest pieces of oral literature of Native North America. Ancient elements of Iroquoian cosmology are the heart of the saga: Sky-world, the fall of Sky-woman, the creation of Earth upon Turtle's back, and the creation of mankind and early society by the twins. Various versions have been passed down from generation to generation, but the story has never before been published in the Oneida language. The Oneida Creation Story makes this majestic and beautiful story available in both Oneida and English for the first time. This special bilingual edition also features earlier translated versions of the Creation Story, a discussion of its cultural and historical contexts by Oneida Indian historian Anthony Wonderley, and lexicons cross-referenced to the story.
Reading the Wampum by Penelope Myrtle Kelsey
Call Number: PS153.I52 K45 2014 & eBook
Publication Date: 2014
In Reading the Wampum, Kelsey provides the first academic consideration of the ways in which these sacred belts are reinterpreted into current Haudenosaunee tradition. While Kelsey explores the aesthetic appeal of the belts, she also provides insightful analysis of how readings of wampum belts can change our understanding of specific treaty rights and land exchanges. Reading the Wampum conveys the vitality and continuance of wampum traditions in Iroquois art, literature, and community, suggesting that wampum narratives pervade and reappear in new guises with each new generation.
The Untold Story of the Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists by Sally R. Wagner
Call Number: JK1896 .W35 1996
Publication Date: 1996
A collection of essays detailing the influence of women from the Iroquois Nation on early suffragettes. Topics covered include Seneca Falls and the Women's Suffrage Association.

All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke
Call Number: PS3555.R42 F88 2017 & eBook
Publication Date: 2016
"Winona LaDuke's seminal work of Native resistance to oppression. This thoughtful, in-depth account of Native struggles against environmental and cultural degradation features chapters on the Seminoles, the Anishinaabeg, the Innu, the Northern Cheyenne, and the Mohawks, among others."
The Indian Card by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz
Call Number: E99.C91 S44 2024
Publication Date: 2024
A groundbreaking and deeply personal exploration of Tribal enrollment, and what it means to be Native American in the United States. With this intimate perspective of the ongoing fight for Native sovereignty, The Indian Card sheds light on what it looks like to find a deeper sense of belonging.
Namwayut--We Are All One by Chief Robert Joseph
Call Number: E78.C2 J66 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Reconciliation belongs to all of us. In this book, drawing from the lessons that he has learned along his pathway from residential school to the leader of Reconciliation Canada, Chief Robert Joseph provides a map for collective change and transformation. In this moving and inspiring book, Chief Joseph teaches us that we have to start to transform relationships with ourselves and each other. As we learn about, honour and respect the truth of stories told by those who have experienced pain and who are grieving intergenerational trauma, we can discover how to dismantle the walls of discrimination, hatred, and racism in our society. Chief Joseph is recognized as one of the leading voices on peace building in our time, with his dedication to reconciliation recognized with multiple honorary degrees and numerous awards. A Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation and one of the last few speakers of the Kwakwaka'wakw language, his wisdom is grounded in Indigeneous ways of knowing, while making space for us all.
We Are the Middle of Forever by Dahr Jamail (Editor); Stan Rushworth (Editor)
Call Number: E98.P5 W425 2022
Publication Date: 2022
An innovative work of research and reportage, We Are the Middle of Forever places Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today's environmental crisis. The book draws on interviews with people from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities, generations, and geographic regions, who share their knowledge and experience, their questions, their observations, and their dreams of maintaining the best relationship possible to all of life. A welcome antidote to the despair arising from the climate crisis, We Are the Middle of Forever brings to the forefront the perspectives of those who have long been attuned to climate change and will be an indispensable aid to those looking for new and different ideas and responses to the challenges we face.

Keepers of the Earth by Michael J. Caduto; Joseph Bruchac; John Kahionhes Fadden (Illustrator); Carol Wood (Illustrator); N. Scott Momaday (Introduction by)
Call Number: CRC E98.F6 C12 1997
Publication Date: 1997
Beginning with Native American stories, this invaluable resource provides hands-on activities that inspire children to understand and appreciate Native American cultures and the Earth.
Native American Lesson Plans by Meredith Schramm; Ruben Zendejas (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC PROF E76.6 S37 2019
Publication Date: 2019
Native American Lesson Plans: A look into Natives Today 2nd Edition is a collection of lesson plans written for teachers in grades K-12 as a resource to help teach about Native American culture today. All lessons were created using the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies put out by the National Council for the Social Studies. Lessons were also created using Common Core National Standards for Language Arts, Math, and Writing, as well as references to the Utah Core Social Studies Standards. Each lesson utilizes multiple standards for a deeper cross-curricular experience.
A Broken Flute by Doris Seale; Beverly Slapin (Editor)
Call Number: CRC PROF E77.4 .B76 2005
Publication Date: 2005
Seale and Slapin are with Oyate, a community-based Native organization located in Berkeley, California, dedicated to the honest portrayal of the lives, traditional arts and literature, and histories of Native Americans. Their unique guide brings attention to some of the gifted Native writers and illustrators published by Native and small presses.

Akhwatsirehko:wa : My Big Family by rennor Jacobs with Brendan Bomberry
Call Number: CRC GV989 .J33 2020
Publication Date: 2020
Dive into the world of lacrosse from an indigenous perspective as we discover the affects and just how big of an impact the Creators game has had on those who have come to play the sport around the world. Did you know Lacrosse is the national sport of the Haudenosaunee confederacy and one of the oldest sports in North America. "Akhwatsirehkó:wa - My Big Family" explores how the game of lacrosse has spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually aided players from all around the world, through their differing experiences within the sport. The book includes Six Nations content - stories about various lacrosse legends in the chapter. A sit down with the legends of Peterborough Lacrosse. There are players, coaches, referees, stick makers, fans and builders of the lacrosse game.
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer; Monique Gray Smith; Nicole Neidhardt (Illustrator)
Call Number: CRC E98.P5 K56 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things--from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen--provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.
Indigenous Ingenuity by Deidre Havrelock; Edward Kay
Call Number: CRC GN476 .H38 2023
Publication Date: 2023
The book includes fun, simple activities and experiments that kids can do to better understand and enjoy the principles used by Indigenous inventors. Readers of all ages are invited to celebrate traditional North American Indigenous innovation, and to embrace the mindset of reciprocity, environmental responsibility, and the interconnectedness of all life.
Rez Ball by Byron Graves
Publication Date: 2023
This compelling debut novel by new talent Byron Graves tells the relatable, high-stakes story of a young athlete determined to play like the hero his Ojibwe community needs him to be.
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
Call Number: CRC PZ7.1.L57812 Sn 2021
Publication Date: 2021
A Snake Falls to Earth is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie Little Badger draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed.
Voices of the People by Joseph Bruchac
Call Number: CRC E89 .B78 2022
Publication Date: 2022
Through poems that capture the essence of each person's life, acclaimed Native American writer Joseph Bruchac introduces readers to famous indigenous leaders from The Peacemaker in 1000 A.D. to modern day dancer Maria Tallchief and Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller. Each poem is illustrated by a modern-day tribally enrolled artist.

Fall 2022 - Author Joyful Clemantine Wamariya

In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Joyful Clemantine Wamariya provokes us to look beyond the label of "victim" and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms (Penguin Random House).

This campus and community reader is brought to you by Pitt-Bradford First-Year Seminar, Creative and Professional Writing Program, Spectrum Series & Hanley Library.

The campus community can purchase the book at the Panther Shop, Online, or borrow from the library by logging into my.pitt.edu and using this link. The community can find a copy at the Bradford Area Public Library.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads author visit on Oct. 26 at 7:30.

Zonta Club of Bradford:

Thursday, September 15 at 6:30 pm

First Presbyterian Church Library

Bradford Area Public Library, “Open Book Club”

Saturday, September 17 at 10:30 am

Bradford Area Public Library, Conference Room

Bradford Area Public Library, “BYO - Book Club”

Wednesday, September 28 at 6 PM

The Bradford Area Public Library

Facebook Live Event: https://www.facebook.com/bradfordareapubliclibrary

Panel Discussion

An Enduring Pursuit: History, Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing

October 12, 202 Poster event details as listed in the text above 2

7:00 PM

University Room, Commons - Public invited

We invite the campus and the community to a panel session on October 12 at 7 PM in the University Room. Panelists will discuss topics associated with the first-year common and community reader, The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Joyful Clemantine Wamariya.

The panel will begin with a brief overview of Rwanda and transition into contextual knowledge of the Rwandan Civil War and massacre through Wamariya’s accounts in The Girl Who Smiled Beads. Several panelists will then describe the truth, reconciliation, and healing process from trauma and war while further examining the actions taken by truth and reconciliation commissions. The panelists will conclude with the repercussions of war and conflicts as it relates to the people forced to flee and the West’s reactions. As time permits, each section will end with a brief Q&A. This panel session is in preparation for Wamariya’s visit to the Pitt-Bradford campus on October 26.

Panelists:

•   Fatima Saccoh, Pitt-Bradford Senior, a Pre-Med Biology major, and President of the African Student Association
•   Dr. Jonathan Chitiyo, Associate Professor of Education and the Director of Teacher Education & First Year Seminar Program
•   Shelley Alcorn, Director of the YWCA Victim Resource Center, works with domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. Shelley started at the YWCA as a Shelter Staff, became the Sexual Assault Counselor/Advocate, and in 2019 was appointed Program Director.
•   Dr. Adedoyin Ogunfeyimi, Assistant Professor of Composition
•   Dr. Stephen Robar, Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Environmental Studies Program, & International Affairs Program

Moderator: Jenelle Johnson
Sponsored By: The First Year Seminar Program and the Hanley Library

Author's Visit

Author's Visit: The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Joyful Clemantine Wamariya

The Girl Who Smiled Beads October 26 Author Visit

October 26, 2022

7:30 PM

Bromeley Theater, Blaisdell Hall

Public invited

This campus and community reader is brought to you by Pitt-Bradford First-Year Seminar, Creative and Professional Writing Program, Spectrum Series & Hanley Library.

Historical Dictionary of Rwanda by Aimable Twagilimana
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2015
Blessed with natural beauty and rich vegetation, Rwanda is often called the "land of a thousand hills" (le pays des mille collines), a reference to its many lush and green rolling hills. Moreover, for many Rwandans, at least in the past, Rwanda, in spite of its small size, is vast; in fact, it means the universe. This idyllic view, however, sharply contrasts with the sad history of ethnic strife that unfolded since the 1950s: the 1959 Hutu Revolution followed by years of anti-Tutsi pogroms, undemocratic regimes, the civil war of 1990-1994, and, more significantly, the April-July 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and the killing of Hutu who opposed the killings. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Rwanda contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Rwanda.
The Land Beyond the Mists by David Newbury; Jan Vansina (Foreword by)
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2013
The horrific tragedies of Central Africa in the 1990s riveted the attention of the world. But these crises did not occur in a historical vacuum. By peering through the mists of the past, the case studies presented in The Land Beyond the Mists illustrate the significant advances to have taken place since decolonization in our understanding of the pre-colonial histories of Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Congo. Based on both oral and written sources, these essays are important both for their methods--viewing history from the perspective of local actors--and for their conclusions, which seriously challenge colonial myths about the area.
One Hundred Days of Silence by Jared Cohen
Call Number: DT450.435 .C64 2007
Publication Date: 2007
In the spring of 1994, eight-hundred thousand Rwandan Tutsis and Moderate Hutus were killed in a horrific genocide. One Hundred Days of Silence is a scathing look at the challenges of humanitarian intervention, the history of U.S. policy toward the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and the role of genocide in the larger context of strategic studies. It looks at the principal questions of what the U.S. knew, and why it didn't intervene, and how non-intervention was justified within the American bureaucracy.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
Call Number: DT 450.435 .G68 1998
Publication Date: 1998
An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity. This remarkable debut book chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority. Though the killing was low-tech--largely by machete--it was carried out at shocking speed: some 800,000 people were exterminated in a hundred days. A Tutsi pastor, in a letter to his church president, a Hutu, used the chilling phrase that gives Philip Gourevitch his title. With keen dramatic intensity, Gourevitch frames the genesis and horror of Rwanda's "genocidal logic" in the anguish of its aftermath: the mass displacements, the temptations of revenge and the quest for justice, the impossibly crowded prisons and refugee camps. Through intimate portraits of Rwandans in all walks of life, he focuses on the psychological and political challenges of survival and on how the new leaders of postcolonial Africa went to war in the Congo when resurgent genocidal forces threatened to overrun central Africa. Can a country composed largely of perpetrators and victims create a cohesive national society? This moving contribution to the literature of witness tells us much about the struggle everywhere to forge sane, habitable political orders, and about the stubbornness of the human spirit in a world of extremity.
On the Path to Genocide by Deborah Mayersen
Call Number: DS195.5 .M3738 2014
Publication Date: 2014
Why did the Armenian genocide erupt in Turkey in 1915, only seven years after the Armenian minority achieved civil equality for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire? How can we explain the Rwandan genocide occurring in 1994, after decades of relative peace and even cooperation between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority? Addressing the question of how the risk of genocide develops over time, On the Path to Genocide contributes to a better understand why genocide occurs when it does. It provides a comprehensive and comparative historical analysis of the factors that led to the 1915 Armenian genocide and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, using fresh sources and perspectives that yield new insights into the history of the Armenian and Rwandan peoples. Finally, it also presents new research into constraints that inhibit genocide, and how they can be utilized to attempt the prevention of genocide in the future.
Eyewitness to a Genocide by Michael Barnett
Call Number: DT450.435 .B38 2003
Publication Date: 2003
Why was the UN a bystander during the Rwandan genocide? Do its sins of omission leave it morally responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dead? Michael Barnett, who worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1993 to 1994, covered Rwanda for much of the genocide. Based on his first-hand experiences, archival work, and interviews with many key participants, he reconstructs the history of the UN's involvement in Rwanda. In the weeks leading up to the genocide, the author documents, the UN was increasingly aware or had good reason to suspect that Rwanda was a site of crimes against humanity. Yet it failed to act. Barnett argues that its indifference was driven not by incompetence or cynicism but rather by reasoned choices cradled by moral considerations. Employing a novel approach to ethics in practice and in relationship to international organizations, Barnett offers an unsettling possibility: the UN culture recast the ethical commitments of well-intentioned individuals, arresting any duty to aid at the outset of the genocide. Barnett argues that the UN bears some moral responsibility for the genocide. Particularly disturbing is his observation that not only did the UN violate its moral responsibilities, but also that many in New York believed that they were "doing the right thing" as they did so. Barnett addresses the ways in which the Rwandan genocide raises a warning about this age of humanitarianism and concludes by asking whether it is possible to build moral institutions.
Ghost of Rwanda by PBS: Frontline (Television program)
Call Number: Digital Streaming
Publication Date: 2005
Rwanda was supposed to be easy.Ten years ago, when the United Nations sent peacekeepers to this small, Central African nation -- with the full support of the U.S. government -- most of the policy-makers involved believed it would be a straightforward mission that would help restore the U.N.'s battered reputation after failures in Bosnia and Somalia. Few could imagine that, a decade later, Rwanda would be the crisis that still haunts their souls."Ghosts of Rwanda," a special two-hour documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide -- a state-sponsored massacre in which some 800,000 Rwandans were methodically hunted down and murdered by Hutu extremists as the U.S. and international community refused to intervene -- examines the social, political, and diplomatic failures that converged to enable the genocide to occur.