This month we’ve decided to compile a summer reading list focusing on Native American history, culture, and language. More specifically, most of the books on our list are specific to the Kumeyaay/Diegueño People or other nations in the southern Californian region. This list is by no means all encompassing. Our research library is jammed full of books about the Kumeyaay/Diegueño People and it was truly a difficult task to trim down this list. Please feel free to reach out to us for recommendations on specific topics or research questions!

Young Children’s Books

A is for Acorn: A California Indian ABC By: Analisa Tripp

Sin 1 Hewak 2 Hemuk 3 By: Rhonda Welch

The Painted Rocks By: Ruth Alter

Ilymash Shemap: Ensuenos de Ninos By: Rhonda Welch-Scalco

My Ancestors' Village By: Roberta Labastida

Young Adult Books

Salt Water Boy By: Millicent Lee

Indians of the Oaks By: Millicent Lee

Pushed Into the Rocks By: Florence Connolly Shipek

Kumeyaay: A History Textbook: Volume 1: Precontact to 1893 By: Michael Connolly Miskwish

Adult Books

Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography, An Account of Her Last Years and Her Ethnobotanic Contributions By: Delfina Cuero, Sylvia Brakke Vane (Editor), Lowell John Bean (Preface), Rosalie Pinto Robertson (Translator)

Strangers in a Stolen Land By: Richard Carrico

El Capitan By: Tanis C. Thorne

Maay Uuyow: Kumeyaay Cosmology By: Michael Connolly Miskwish

Murder State: California’s Native American Genocide, 1846-1873 By: Brendan Lindsay

An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 By: Benjamin Madley

Bonus Book for Educators!

A Teacher’s Guide to Historical and Contemporary Kumeyaay Culture: A Supplement Resource for Third and Fourth Grade Teachers

By: Geralyn Hoffman