Native American literature

In the modern United States, Native American literature formally began following the introduction of written languages in North America during the early years of British, French, and Spanish colonization. However, it is deeply rooted in Native storytelling traditions dating back far into prehistory. Some of these ancient stories taught life lessons, others gave spiritual interpretations of the beginning of the world, and still others, such as lively tales of trickster animals, entertained. Early Native American writings of the 1700s and 1800s largely focused on nonfiction accounts, including memoirs. Later, fiction offered new ways of enlightening as well as entertaining readers.

Starting around the late 1800s, a growing wave of Native American activism in literature stood up for cultural traditions and pointed out the many deprecations Indigenous people have faced. The civil rights movement of the 1960s and a literary renaissance in the 1980s broke ground for a new century of Native American writers who blended the past, present, and future in stories that often plainly presented the great challenges of modern Native American life as well as celebrate the beauty of its traditions and hope for its future.

Background

The study of Native American literature is limited because for most of Native American history, accounts and stories were generally not recorded in written language. Existing symbolic images, such as etched pictographs, were likely meant to communicate stories. However, the meaning of these symbols was not always clear or understood by modern people. For that reason, the symbols and stories behind them remain enigmatic and subject to conjecture.

Most Native American stories were passed along orally, through the spoken or sung word. For thousands of years, storytellers enthralled their audiences with tales that were both entertaining and informative. Skilled storytellers were a prized commodity within a social group. Since the tales were not formally written, storytellers had to memorize them and then transmit them to a future generation of storyteller. In that way, histories, legends, ceremonial songs, and much more were transmitted across the ages.

Native American stories differed significantly between the varied cultures and regions of the Americas. Each reflected the unique beliefs of the group that told the story. In addition, many storytellers added their own interpretations and flourishes, sometimes beginning a story in a set way and then taking it in a new direction. Because of that variation, in some cases even groups with close cultural and historical ties may have very different storytelling traditions.

Despite the great diversity of these tales, many shared similar genres, themes, styles, or symbols. For example, one of the most common genres was the creation story, or a description of a group’s interpretation of the beginning of the world and the forces of nature. Some related sacred narratives of the creation and development of humans or various animals, plants, or landforms important to the group. Although scientists have developed more-modern explanations for such events, these ancient tales still hold significant spiritual and cultural value. In addition, they can offer historians clues as to the origins, development, beliefs, and migrations of different groups.

Another common genre of oral tale was the folktale, which could serve as mere entertainment but most often used a narrative to teach a lesson. Folktales often involved fictional people or animals that spoke, thought, and acted much like humans. Some of the most popular characters were the so-called tricksters, typically clever and mischievous animals such as spiders or foxes, whose antics delighted listeners. Through the characters’ adventures and discoveries, the storyteller could convey deeper messages to listeners about human behavior, the workings of nature, or spiritual entities.

Other orally transmitted stories were based on, or at least inspired by, actual events within the memories of the people telling them. One of the most notable of this type of tale is the coup story, which describes some feat of great bravery or accomplishment during battle.

Coup stories were generally not meant to be boastful or egocentric, but rather provided a means for a group to share information and communally celebrate accomplishments, particularly during battle.

Warriors might tell of infiltrating an enemy camp or defeating foes in hand-to-hand combat. A prestigious coup was becoming the first warrior to strike an enemy, which serves as an indication of vigor and valor. Repeated coups could greatly improve one’s reputation within a group and lead a young warrior to a level of greater authority.

The centuries-old storytelling tradition changed suddenly—along with most other factors of Native American life—following the 1492 arrival of European explorer Christopher Columbus in North America. Columbus’s findings led to a tidal wave of European interest in the Americas, and within a generation, thousands of Europeans were sailing to the so-called New World. Many wanted to establish colonies, while others sought treasure or wanted to spread Christianity. However, through their interactions with Native Americans, they negatively and permanently changed their lives.

Overview

The arrival of Europeans sent a shockwave through Native American cultures, and the resulting forced relocations, epidemics of smallpox and other diseases, and warfare with European settlers caused inestimable damage. Following the establishment of the United States, various policies continued to promote the displacement, forced assimilation, and sometime even extermination of Native Americans.

In the wake of the 1862 Homestead Act, which allowed American citizens to claim “unoccupied” land in the western United States, Native American groups became even further marginalized. In order to protect homesteaders and acquire resources on the most desirable tracts of land, the US government forced increasing numbers of Native American groups out of their traditional homelands and onto reservations. These reservations, often far away from traditional lands and in relatively barren regions, cut many Native Americans off from traditional resources, territories, and ways of life. Lifestyles often became more sedentary, and a lack of traditional activities such as hunting and intertribal feuding meant that few coup stories or tales of adventure would develop.

In addition to having to relocate to reservations, many young Native American children were taken, often through coercion, to attend boarding schools. There, education was centered on European ways, and teachers stressed European-American cultural values, Christianity, and European-American artistic and literary traditions. Over several generations, this process served to further suppress Native American ways.

One benefit of this largely disastrous time, however, was the introduction of widespread written languages, including the adoption of writing systems for many Native languages. For the first time, Native Americans had a shared method of permanently recording their knowledge, including still-remembered tales from the distant past. In the 1800s and 1900s, Native Americans and non-Native historians preserved hundreds of important cultural tales that might otherwise have disappeared forever. Many Native American people also recorded their own memories and experiences.

The first notable Native American authors focused on nonfiction accounts. Samson Occom, a member of the Mohegan people who converted to Christianity and became a Presbyterian minister, wrote a booklet in 1774 about the case of a Native American man who was executed for committing a murder while drunk. This account, perhaps the first work published by a Native American, was particularly valuable for its depiction of the ravages of alcoholism among Indigenous people.

Other Native American writers wrote memoirs, such as A Son of the Forest by William Apess, published in 1829. Apess was born into the Pequot people and converted to Christianity. His book recounts his early life, conversion, and the interactions between Native Americans and European Americans in the early nineteenth century. It also includes insights into the views that Native Americans held toward one another and their interplay. Another valuable early autobiography was The Life, History, and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh by George Copway, published in 1847, which also recounts a conversion to Christianity and adoption of new ways of life.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, literacy among Native Americans had spread, and the initial focus on purely factual work turned toward the fictional. For the first time, Native American authors began using their new abilities to write and publish to create new stories for future generations, reflecting the ever-changing Native American identity and experience. Likely the first novel published by a Native American was The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta (1854) by Cherokee writer Yellow Bird, or John Rollin Ridge.

Ridge’s story is loosely based on the real life and exploits of a Mexican bandit named Joaquin Murieta. His fictionalized adventures in the novel portray him as a Robin Hood-like figure who challenges the status quo and seeks vengeance and justice for wrongs committed against Native people. This stirring figure would eventually help inspire American pop-culture heroes such as Zorro and Batman.

Creek writer S. Alice Callahan became the first Native American woman to publish a novel with her 1891 work, Wynema: A Child of the Forest. This story also expands the perspective of Native literature by presenting the point of view of a European American girl who befriends nearby Native American people and eventually comes to better understand and accept their culture.

The turn of the century brought a new era for Native American literature in which writers added a new element to their repertoire, a sense of activism that would steadily increase over the subsequent decades. One of the earliest activist writers was Sarah Winnemucca, whose 1883 work Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims combined memoir and sociological study to point out the harms endured by Native American people over the past centuries.

Another notable activist was a Potawatomi writer named Simon Pokagon, whose fiction and nonfiction works sought to teach European Americans about the realities of Native American life, past and present, and defend Indigenous ways from the ongoing onslaught of restriction and alteration. Some of Pokagon’s most influential works include the 1899 novel Ogimawkwe Mitigwaki (Queen of the Woods), The Red Man’s Rebuke (1893), and The Red Man’s Greeting (1893). Other writers, such as John Milton Oskison and D’Arcy McNickle, represented mixed-race Native Americans and portrayed the cultural clash within their own heritage and the complexities of their social identities.

The twentieth century also kindled a new and growing pride in Native American heritage and traditions, including fresh interest in creation stories, legends, and folktales. Writers such as the Dakota author Zitkála-Šá compiled traditional stories from childhood in books such as Old Indian Legends (1901) and American Indian Stories (1921). The publication of these ancient tales not only helped to educate others of their existence and importance, but also served to preserve them for the future, thus safeguarding the work of the ancient storytellers.

By the 1960s, Native American culture had rebounded to a degree, both politically and culturally. However, the American pop-culture depiction of Indigenous people was still often outdated, loaded with stereotypes, and frequently inaccurate or offensive. Native American people were often shown to be wild and savage and made to seem simple-minded or villainous. New generations of Native American writers worked to address this image and use literature as a way to affirm Native identity on their own terms, as well as carry on the work of past authors.

On the tide of the civil rights movement, new Native American authors told their stories. One of the most influential was Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday, whose 1968 work House Made of Dawn won over critics and readers and earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This novel told the story of a Native American World War II veteran who returns home to find his people desolate and devastated by crime and addiction. After a painful journey, the protagonist decides to embrace his heritage. This novel and its message inspired countless other Native American writers in the coming decades.

By the 1980s, many critics believed that Native American writers and other artists were in the midst of a renaissance, one that was grounded firmly in the accomplishments of the writers of past centuries as well as the storytellers of ancient times. This period and the coming decades helped to cement Native literature as well as address and correct many questionable ideas about Native American people.

Some of the major Native American writers of the modern period include Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who focuses on the connection between past, present, and future in Native life in books such as Ceremony (1977). Chippewa novelist Louise Erdrich experimented with combinations of Native American stories written in European-American styles.

Spokane writer Sherman Alexie, a novelist and poet of works such as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) and “Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World” (2009), became known for blending hope and humor, as well as some surrealist imagery, in stories that dealt with some serious and often-solemn themes. Creek novelist and poet Joy Harjo won acclaim for her celebrations of the beauty of Native culture as well as her works that connect Native American topics with other fields of study and philosophy. Harjo won numerous awards for her work and, in 2019, became US Poet Laureate.

Many contemporary Native American writers have graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts, a fine arts college in New Mexico focused on Native American art. These have included memoir writer Terese Marie Mailhot and Tommy Orange, whose novel There There (2018) won the 2019 PEN/Hemingway Award, among other honors. Native American writers have also made gains in genres in which they were typically unrepresented, such as science fiction and fantasy. Writers in this genre, such as Cherie Dimaline and Daniel H. Wilson, combine traditional tribal myths with fantasy elements.

Many Native American writers began moving into the mainstream and writing to appeal to non-Native readers, while others remained focused on Native American themes and audiences. Particularly in the latter case, stories frequently examined cultural tensions and misunderstandings. Native American characters might try to make sense of life away from their reservation or deal with the influence of outside culture on a reservation. Many characters—like many modern Native people—are of mixed ancestry, and in those cases cultural tension exists within their families and sometimes within their own identities. Examples of this can be found in Angeline Boulley's young adult thrillers Firekeeper's Daughter (2021) and Warrior Girl Unearthed (2023).

Modern Native American literature often shows the degraded conditions of some reservation lands and the poor prospects of many Native American people. At the same time, these works often embrace the spirit of the Native American people and the richness of their traditions, beliefs, and ways of life. Many works blend poetry or artwork that further emphasizes the unique perspective of the modern Native American. Some works contain allusions to ancient legends and ceremonies to create a feeling of cultural continuity that may have been damaged but was never truly broken.

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