Stories of Sacrifice and Healing in Indigenous Narratives
Depicting the Cree Creation Story of Turtle Island, these narratives explore themes of sacrifice, family, identity, and resilience within Indigenous cultures. From the selfless act of the turtle to the healing effects of family, these stories delve into the profound connections between land, community, and personal growth.
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Literature Circles EFP 11 This image is a depiction of the Cree Creation Story: Turtle Island. It beautifully illustrates the turtle sacrificing himself for the preservation of all living things. Artist: Aaron Paquette.
Big Idea How do stories help us understand each other and ourselves??
Essential Questions a.What are you learning about Indigenous culture based on this story? What will you do with this knowledge? b.How does the land and sense of place affect the actions and motivations of the characters? c.How do life experience s shape one s identity?
Cowboy lore and First Nations mysticism in this affecting novel about the healing effects of family. In pursuit of a world- champion title, Joe Willie Wolfchild suffers a horrific, career-ending accident while riding a temperamental bull named C-4. His supportive family, longtime rodeo people, whisk him back to their ranch to recuperate. Far from the laconic stereotype, this book is filled with his soaring descriptions of the desert landscape, action-packed rodeo scenes, and reverence for hearth and home which will strike a chord with readers. https://www.strongnations.com/DreamW heels
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. https://www.strongnations.com/Firekeeper'sDau ghter
Years ago, when plagues and natural disasters killed millions of people, much of the world stopped dreaming. Without dreams, people are haunted, sick, mad, unable to rebuild. The government soon finds that the Indigenous people of North America have retained their dreams, an ability rumored to be housed in the very marrow of their bones. Soon, residential schools pop up or are re-opened across the land to bring in the dreamers and harvest their dreams. Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to these schools and has spent the years since heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But then French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is and what it will take to escape. Meanwhile, out in the world, his found family searches for him and dodges new dangers school Recruiters, a blood cult, even the land itself. When their paths finally collide, French must decide how far he is willing to go and how many loved ones is he willing to betray in order to survive. www.strongnations.com/Huntingbystars
The Back of the Turtle In The Back of the Turtle, Gabriel returns to Smoke River, the reserve where his mother grew up and to which she returned with Gabriel s sister. The reserve is deserted after an environmental disaster killed the population, including Gabriel s family, and the wildlife. Gabriel, a brilliant scientist working for DowSanto, created GreenSweep, and indirectly led to the crisis. Now he has come to see the damage and to kill himself in the sea. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her, and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky? Filled with brilliant characters, trademark wit, wordplay and a thorough knowledge of native myth and story-telling, this novel is a masterpiece by one of our most important writers. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22662902-the-back-of-the- turtle
Indian Horse Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows. With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man.
Moon of the Crusted Snow A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow. The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision. Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn. https://www.strongnations.com/store/item_display.php?i=7349&f=4024
Four chronically homeless peopleAmelia One Sky, Timber, Double Dick and Digger seek refuge in a warm movie theatre when a severe Arctic Front descends on the city. During what is supposed to be a one-time event, this temporary refuge transfixes them. They fall in love with this new world, and once the weather clears, continue their trips to the cinema. On one of these outings they meet Granite, a jaded and lonely journalist who has turned his back on writing the same story over and over again in favour of the escapist qualities of film, and an unlikely friendship is struck. A found cigarette package (contents: some unsmoked cigarettes, three $20 bills, and a lottery ticket) changes the fortune of this struggling set. The ragged company discovers they have won $13.5 million, but none of them can claim the money for lack of proper identification. Enlisting the help of Granite, their lives, and fortunes, become forever changed. Ragged Company is a journey into both the future and the past. Richard Wagamese deftly explores the nature of the comforts these friends find in their ideas of home, as he reconnects them to their histories. www.strongnations.com/raggedcompany
