A 2022 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Book
A 2022 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Twelve Native American kids present historical and contemporary laws,
policies, struggles, and victories in Native life, each with a powerful
refrain: We are still here!
Too often, Native American history is treated as a finished chapter
instead of relevant and ongoing. This companion book to the
award-winning We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga offers readers everything
they never learned in school about Native American people's past,
present, and future. Precise, lyrical writing presents topics including:
forced assimilation (such as boarding schools), land allotment and
Native tribal reorganization, termination (the US government not
recognizing tribes as nations), Native urban relocation (from
reservations), self-determination (tribal self-empowerment), Native
civil rights, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), religious freedom,
economic development (including casino development), Native language
revival efforts, cultural persistence, and nationhood.