New on the Shelves

 

New books are always showing up in Northport. Here are a few recent additions at Dog Ears Books.

And don't forget this coming Thursday, Bob Downes is giving a slide show on pre-European Native American history, 4 p.m., right here on Waukazoo Street. 

Traverse City Author to Present Slide Show on Native American History

Original Americans

Traverse City author Robert Downes, winner of a book-of-the-year award in 2025 for his Raw Deal: The Indians of the Midwest and the Theft of Native Lands, will give a slide presentation on Native history in the Americas prior to the advent of European explorers in the 1500s (the “lost century”). His fascination with indigenous culture and history began as a boy when he would find arrowheads in farm fields. 

Prize-winning history

Besides his prize-winning history, Downes is the author of three novels featuring Native American culture. His latest, The Sun Dog, fits as the second in his Native trilogy, which began with The Wolf and the Willow and wraps up with Windigo Moon. 

Historical fiction trilogy

Locals also know Bob for his cycling adventure books and as one of the original publishers of the popular Traverse City weekly, Northern Express. 

The author’s presentation will take place in the David Grath gallery, accessible from Dog Ears Books, 106 Waukazoo Street, and will begin at 4 p.m. So come take a culture break with us between your afternoon at the beach and your evening cocktails. There will be opportunity for questions and discussion following the presentation, as well as an opportunity to purchase books and have the author sign them.  

Author with his latest book,
which he will be happy to sign for you

Winter Reading Suggestions -- Indigenous

 

Although the total numbers of titles published is smaller, there is as much variety in Native American books as there is in the book world at large. Today we’ll peek at a few offerings in the new book section of my store (used books, our original mission in 1993, still predominate Dog Ears Books inventory), titles that are definitely on my must-read list for 2024.

 

From National Book Award winner Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) comes The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (Yale University Press, 2023). Blackhawk offers a synthesis of Native and non-Native histories of our country, from early Spanish explorers in the 1600s to the late 20^th century. The first 445 pages are text, followed by extensive notes and the all-important (to any book of history) index of names and subjects. 

 

History is not only for adults, however, and Traci Sorell (Cherokee) and Frané Lessac, illustrator, creators of the 2018 We Are Grateful, subsequently put Native American history into an attractive children's picture book, We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know (Charlesbridge, 2021), with twelve young people giving presentations to other students and their parents at Indigenous People’s Day. Each two-page spread highlights an important concept in a history that is still ongoing, emphasized by the repeated “We are still here!” at the end of every topic. The book is designed for children 7-10 of age, but many parents and teachers will learn from it, also.

 

A 50th anniversary edition of God Is Red: A Native View of Religion (Fulcrum Publishing, 2023; orig. pub. Putnam, 1973), by Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux), with introduction by Philip J. Deloria, includes critical essays by Philip J. Deloria, Suzan Shown Harjo, Daniel Wildcat, and David E. Wilkins. The author was named by Time magazine as one of the greatest religious thinkers of the 20^th century. Why was I not introduced to this book when studying religion at the university level, why did I continue to be ignorant of its existence for so long after? If you need further motivation to read the book, here is an interview with Philip Deloria by Foreword magazine reviewer Kristen Rabe.

 

Survival Food: North Woods Stories by a Menominee Cook (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2023) is a second memoir from Thomas Pecore Weso (Menominee), whose first was Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir. The book comprises essays that combine memory and food, from those hunted, fished, and gathered to commodity foods distributed by the government – all of it “survival food.” Wild rice, maple syrup, and twice-baked cheesy potatoes are all here. And stories!

 

From memoir to poetry, we come to Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First People’s Poetry (Norton, 2021), collected and introduced by Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation, also known as Creek). Harjo was the 23^rd U.S. Poet Laureate and gathered the contemporary Native voices in this book together in the form of a map. Open this book anywhere. I’m not kidding. 

 

A novel for young people, Eagle Drums (Roaring Brook Press, 2023), is by Nasugraq Rainey Hopson (Inupiaq). Angeline Boulley (and you read her Firekeeper’s Daughter, didn’t you?) says that Hopson, who also illustrated her story, “has accomplished something truly monumental” with this book. I’m happy to report that she also says it is for “readers of all ages,” although the target audience is middle grades. More than a young man’s vision quest, Eagle Drums is a retelling of a creation myth. Kidnapped by golden eagles, the protagonist must learn lessons (where his two older brothers failed) in making drums, singing and dancing and writing his own songs, building large sod gathering halls, and bringing small, isolated groups together to form a community and a people.

 

*****

 

I will stop here today with these six titles, only because I have a lot of reading to catch up on, only adding only a quick reminder that Bonnie Jo Campbell’s long-anticipated new novel, The Waters, is also now on sale at Dog Ears Books. 

Many Came From Peshawbestown

 

A lot of people ask me for books about the history of Peshawbestown, but other than The Eagle Returns: The Legal History of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, by Matthew L. M. Fletcher, a rather specialized and impersonal view, I don’t know of Ottawa-Chippewa books specific to our township locale. I welcome information from anyone who knows of any I haven’t seen.

 

Meanwhile, I’m happy to stock and offer in my shop Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army: Native American Soldiers Who Fought in the Civil War, by Quita V. Shier. Many members of Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters have descendants still in our area, and Shier’s book gives as much detail as she could gather on the lives of these men, both in and outside their military service, making it a valuable contribution to Michigan history and the history of Native Americans in northern Michigan.

 

Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army: Native American Soldiers Who Fought in the Civil War, 

by Quita V. Shier

Hardcover with dust jacket, 555pp.

Illustrated; index.

$39.95

And remember, if you download audio books, please do it through Libro.fm and choose Dog Ears Books as your indie. Thanks!

Civil War Again, for Young and Old

Sally M. Walker's new book on Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters, the legendary Company K, is written for a young audience, especially ages 10 to 14, but like so many well-done treatments of history for young people (right away I think of The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Van Loon, the very first Newbery winner, so popular with adults that a mass market paperback edition was issued), this one can serve as an introduction to the subject for anyone of any age, joining other new Civil War titles with Michigan themes that have come out this year. 

Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters is a narrative account of Company K, while Warriors in Mr. Lincoln's Army, by Quita V. Shier (see here), gives documentary detail on individual soldiers. A couple of more general parallel Civil War books are John Mitchell's Grand Traverse: the Civil War Era (narrative) and Michigan's War: The Civil War in Documents (archival detail) edited by John W. Quist. 

The author, who makes her home in Illinois, is a winner of the Sibert Medal for a previous book, Secrets of a Civil War Submarine. She makes clear to young readers that this particular group of Civil War soldiers joined the fight to end slavery and preserve the union even though they themselves were not citizens and despite years of broken treaties and harsh treatment (to put it mildly) of their people by the American government. 

Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters
by Sally M. Walker
Hardcover, 288pp w/ index
$19.99

A New Civil War Book Comes to Town

Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army, by Quita V. Shier, to quote from the book’s dust jacket, “offers a comprehensive profile study of each officer and enlisted American Indian soldier in Company K, First Michigan Sharpshooters, who served in the Civil War from 1863 to 1865.” Many Native Americans served in the military during the Civil War, on both sides and in various companies, but Company K from Michigan was the only company with all and only indigenous enlisted men on its roster. 

The author of this book has gathered together information from military service records, medical files, pension files, and personal interviews with descendants of some of the men profiled. A scrupulous researcher, she offers a detailed index, as well. 

Sample pages from index

Since several of the men in Company K came from Leelanau County, Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army is an important addition to local Leelanau history, as well as to Native American history, Anishnabe history, and the history of the State of Michigan. A large format, with generous typeface, line spacing, and margins also make for very readable text in the physical sense.

Detail from cover: Payson Wolf from Northport

Sample text pages

Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army: 

Native American Soldiers Who

Fought in the Civil War

by Quita V. Shier

Hardcover with dust jacket

555pp w/ index

$39.99