Want to be a member of HRE USA? JOIN TODAY

A network dedicated to building a culture of human rights

Books – Indigenous Peoples Rights

Non-Fiction

American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture
Traces the growth of the American Indian population over the past forty years as the result of an increased willingness of Americans to identify themselves as Indians. Identifies several historical forces that have converged to create an urban Indian population base, a reservation and urban Indian organizational infrastructure, and a broad cultural climate of ethnic pride and militancy.  

  • Author: Joane Nagel
  • Publisher: Oxford Univ.  Press, 1997


Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
Collection of essays exploring how Indians have been treated by white agencies (including churches and the government), documenting the effects of such treatment, and proposing options for future action by Indian leaders.

  • Author: Vine Deloria Jr.
  • Publisher: Univ. of Oklahoma, 1988


Lakota Woman
Memoir of growing up poor on the Redbud Reservation in SD and joining the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies.

  • Author: Mary Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1990


The Return of the Native: American Indian Political Resurgence
Looks at American Indian and Euro-American relations from the 16th century to the present, focusing on how such relations have shaped the Native American political identity and tactics in the ongoing struggle for power. Recounts the reemergence of American Indian political power and identity, evidenced by militant political activism in the 1960s and early 1970s.

  • Author: Stephen Cornell
  • Publisher: Oxford Univ.  Press, 1990


Rethinking Columbus
More than 90 essays, poems, interviews, historical vignettes, and lesson plans reevaluate the myth of Columbus and issues of indigenous rights. Rethinking Columbus is packed with useful teaching ideas for kindergarten through college.

  • Author: Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson
  • Publisher: Rethinking Schools, Ltd, 1998


A River Ran Wild
An environmental history of the Nashua River, from its discovery by Indians through the polluting years of the Industrial Revolution to the ambitious clean-up that revitalized it.

  • Author: Lynn Cherry
  • Source: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992
  • Price: Variable
  • Grade Level: upper elementary
  • Subject Area: Science, social studies, geography, ecology
  • Lesson plans available from Scholastic, ReadWriteThink, and California Lutheran
We are grateful for the generous support of our members, individual donors, and The Puffin Foundation Ltd
The core values of HRE USA and its partner organizations include transparency and critical thinking skills. We believe that human rights--and human rights education--belong to everyone, and that the full realization of human rights means that access to human rights education materials must never be conditioned upon the subscription to any particular religious faith, ideology, political affiliation, or membership in any particular organization and that any organizational connections should be openly acknowledged.