Our favorites: Indigenous media

Thrive Central Oregon

Oct 28, 20222 min read

Updated: Oct 31, 2022

For Native communities in Central Oregon and nation-wide, Native American Heritage Month is every month. For those of our readers that are non-Native, we encourage you to learn more about the reality of Indigenous/Native communities and people, particularly our local Oregon and Central Oregon tribal communities. Learn about how these communities are becoming more powerful and connected, traditions and language are being uplifted, and how you can be a better ally and supporter of Indigenous sovereignty.

We've collected some of our favorite recent media created and centered around the Indigenous experience for you to check out, we'd love to hear from you if you have other recommendations as well!

Start with OPB's special: Broken Treaties to learn more about our local Oregon communities.

READ: Books for all ages

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Robin Wall Kimmerer)

Kimmerer is a botanist and part of the Potowatomi Nation, and this books beautfiully weaves her knowledge of plants and animals with stories of her family and history.

There,There (Tommy Orange)

Set in modern day, this novel follows twelve urban Native characters, unknown to each other, whose stories converge at the Big Oakland Powwow

Fools Crow (James Welch)

One of the most prominent Native writers of the last 100 years centers this novel around the lives of the Blackfeet people shortly after the Civil War. The invasion of white society threatens to change their traditional way of life, and they must choose to fight or assimilate. The story is a portrait of a culture under pressure from colonization)

The Seed Keeper (Diane Wilson)

A beautiful generational story of loss, change and reawakening.