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!
By: Geralyn Hoffman