By Zach Miller
Minitex Communications Head

Ebooks Minnesota’s Indigenous Representations collection features 28 books suitable for all ages. Early readers will enjoy Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade’s “We Are Water Protectors,” winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal and one of the School Library Best Books of the Year. “In this picture book inspired by indigenous-led movements, lyrical text describes how a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth’s water but a young water protector stands up to defend the resource. Includes additional information, a glossary, further reading, and a pledge to be a steward of the Earth and a protector of water.”

“Indian No More,” by Charlene Willing McManis and Traci Sorell, is written at the 4th-grade level. “After her father signs up for the Indian Relocation Program and uproots the family to Los Angeles, 12-year-old Regina Petit struggles to make sense of life off the reservation, the racism she discovers in her diverse neighborhood, and her identity as an Umpqua native.”

“Gaawin gindaaswin ndaawsii: I Am Not A Number,” by Jenny Kay Dupuis, Kathy Kacer, and Gillian Newland, is presented side-by-side in English and the Ojibwe language. The book tells the real-life story of Dupuis’s grandmother, an Anishinaabe woman from a First Nation community in the region of Lake Nipissing in Northern Ontario.

“Forced to attend a residential school, Irene Couchie struggles to remember who she is and the ways of her people, despite the abuse she endures.”

The collection also includes scholarly works such as “An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World shaped early North America,” by Michael Witgen, “Mni sota makoce: the land of the Dakota,” by Gwen Westerman and Bruce M. White, and more.

Each book in the collection is immediately available to anyone in Minnesota, with no username or password required. Ebooks Minnesota’s unlimited simultaneous use model also means that there’s never a need to wait for a digital copy to become available.

Start reading today and celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day with Ebooks Minnesota.

Reprinted from the Minitex Messenger.