Celebrating Native American Heritage Month with Poetry

November is national Native American Heritage Month and a good time to seek out, share, and celebrate poetry by and Native American writers. In fact, check out the recent Presidential Proclamation that beautifully describes why this is such an important celebration. I'm so pleased to feature a poem by Debbie Reese in honor of Native American Heritage Month. Debbie is a fellow academic who keeps the rich and informative blog, American Indians in Children's Literature. She is Pueblo Indian, tribally enrolled at Nambe Pueblo in New Mexico and her poem, "Making Bread," describes a beautiful family and Pueblo tradition complete with Tewa words (and a helpful pronunciation guide).You'll find this beautiful poem and 155 more in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. 

For more poetry by Native American writers, look for these poetry collections.

Native American Poetry For Young People

Voices from Native American or Indian tribes and traditions offer poetry in many forms. Here is a selection of these poetry books for young people.

Begay, Shonto. 1995. Navajo; Visions and Voices Across the Mesa. New York: Scholastic.

Bruchac, Joseph. 1996. Between Earth and Sky. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.

Bruchac, Joseph. 1996. The Circle of Thanks. Mahwah, NJ: Bridgewater Books.

Bruchac, Joseph. 1995. The Earth Under Sky Bear's Feet: Native American Poems of the Land. New York: Philomel.

Bruchac, Joseph. 1996. Four Ancestors: Stories, Songs, and Poems from Native North America. Mahwah, NJ: Bridgewater Books.

Bruchac, Joseph. 1992. Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back: A Native American Year of Moons. New York: Philomel.

Carvell, Marlene. 2005. Sweetgrass Basket. New York: Dutton. 

Castillo, Ana. 2000. My Daughter, My Son, the Eagle, the Dove: An Aztec Chant. New York: Dutton.

Francis, Lee. 1999. When The Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Geis, Jacqueline. 1992. Where the Buffalo Roam. Nashville, TN: Ideals Children's Books.

Hirschfelder, A. and Singer, B. Eds. 1992. Rising Voices: Writings of Young Native Americans. New York: Scribner’s.

Littlechild, George. 1993. This Land Is My Land. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.

McLaughlin, Timothy. Ed. 2012. Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky; Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School. New York: Abrams.

Ochoa, Annette Piña, Betsy Franco, And Traci L. Gourdine. Ed. 2003. Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming; Stories and Poems by American Indian Teens and Young Adults. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Slapin, Beverly, And Doris Seale. Eds. 1998. Through Indian Eyes: The Native American Experience in Books for Children. Berkeley, CA: Oyate. 

Sneve, Virginia. D. H. Ed. 1989. Dancing Teepees: Poems of American Indian Youth. New York: Holiday House.

Swamp, C. J. 1995. Giving Thanks; A Native American Good Morning Message. New York: Lee & Low.

Swann, B. 1998. Touching the Distance: Native American Riddle-Poems. San Diego, CA: Browndeer Press/Harcourt Brace.

And I'm late to the party, but don't miss the rest of the Poetry Friday posts all wrangled by Laura Purdie Salas over at Writing the World for Kids.