Cover Image: Notable Native People

Notable Native People

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Member Reviews

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adore this book. I loved that Keene chose people who aren't really known to the general population. Almost all but two or three people I didn't know and that's because I follow one on Instagram and the other is known in an area I lived.

Every entry is amazing and feels like no one can be omitted. You know how these types of books could use some editing? This was definitely not the case with this one.

The use of "currently known as [colonized state name]" was like a chef's kiss on amazing material.

If you're a teacher, this is highly recommended for your classroom.

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Thank you, NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a great tool for learning about Native individuals from American Indian tribal nations, as well as Kānaka Maoli and Alaska Native people. I don't know a lot about Native American history or culture, so I've been doing my best to continue to educate myself, and this book has been a great resource. Not only does it tell about important historical figures, but it includes current individuals as well. I also appreciated how Keene made a point to include disabled, LGBTQ+, and Black figures, as well as other Native people with mixed identities.
This book was written with a lot of care and thought poured into it, and I think it's a great resource for everyone. I enjoyed the artwork as well, and the author did a great job at explaining different cultural references that non-Natives might not understand. As a future educator, this is a book I'd definitely love to have in my classroom.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4010554112?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

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I thought this was a great biography about all kinds of different native people. I like how they also included natives from both Alaska and Hawaii. I know it must have been difficult to pick just 50 native people to talk about. I learned a lot about different native tribes. I wrote down names of some of the people I learned about in this book so that I may research and learn more about them and the causes they fight for. I also think the illustrations are so stunning.

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Phenomenal people! What a diverse range of people from so many nations, eras, and walks of life. Activists, politicians, authors, athletes, educators, and artists. The descriptions are just long enough to get you interested to google or find their works online so you can fly through them or read a few in a sitting. The illustrations are beautiful, I could see prints of these in offices, Friendship Centres, classrooms, museums, etc. Happy this exists.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc of this title!

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This was a really great read! I’ve always found Native cultures incredibly fascinating and beautiful since I was young and I feel like this book is a great ‘intro to’ for white readers (especially non-Americans) I adored the illustrations and the colour pallet used. It was really easy to understand and spoke of such a broad range of topics and people.
My one non-positive comment is the wording of one person being nonbinary. ‘Gender nonbinary’ isn’t a term used or accepted by nonbinary people (coming from a nonbinary person) but also I am aware there may be differences among Native and Indigenous nonbinary people. So I would just recommend this be spoken about with the person the chapter centred. Otherwise I think this was great and I hope it’s a success :)

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“To be indigenous is to be of a place, to have creation stories of how your people emerged from the land, and to be connected to a community from that place.”

Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read an arc version of this book!

Ahh, the art and cover are gorgeous! There’s that fantastic balance of simple lines and solid coloring that really makes each persons’ features pop and helps ground the reader in who we are exploring.

While all authors/creators create with intention, this book felt exceptionally purposeful in its message and goals of sharing stories and bringing different voices to the forefront. I think this book is valuable, and my only critiques are more personal preference. While the idea of a brief biography can be significant, I am more captured by looking at what people are doing now. Each bio includes information about college attended, where someone was born, and background information at times (ex. Two-Spirit definition, Aleut incarceration, colonialism). At times, I felt the focus could have been on what a person is doing NOW and what impact they are having, potentially connected to others in the book, or things that the reader could respond to/become more involved with.

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This is an incredible resource filled to the brim with native people. It presents a mix of tribes, backgrounds, and different inspirational roles from activists to artists, educators to community leaders. The beautiful illustrations and concise descriptions are a great combination, and this is absolutely something I would come back to again. I highly recommend this as a gift for kids looking to learn about native role models and the contributions they’ve made. Interspersed between the stories of people are descriptions and definitions of settler colonialism, missing and murdered ingenious women, and more. This is a resource that hopefully leads kids and adults to seek out more native representation.

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I really enjoyed this one. It's incredibly well curated, with an interesting mixture of modern and historical people, and the contributions made by each person range from drag artists, basket weavers, activists, translators, curators, seed keepers, and myriad more. All of the bios are informative enough to give a good idea of the person's contributions, but not so thorough that you can't do your own reading afterwards. I've bought the work of quite a few of the people mentioned in it and look forward to learning more about them. The artwork style is bold and complements the profiles of each person really effectively, giving a nice insight into their character and background. All of the additional information about Native culture and history was also very enlightening; I've read up on Native history and experiences a fair amount in the past, but there were a huge amount of new things to learn here. I could honestly have read another 150 pages of it quite happily, and my only real critique of it would be that it's so short, at under 150 pages, with an extra list of 'Native people you should also know' tacked onto the back, with just a one sentence bio given to each. I would have liked full profiles on all of those people, too.

This is the sort of book that I think pretty much any age would benefit immensely from reading as it's definitely accessible enough to span a wide age group, and I really hope that it gets a good reach when it's published. I can see this being an enormously useful resource and reference.

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This is a great book for an introduction to native people. I had hardly heard of any of these individuals, and I think it would be a nice resource for teachers to quickly and easily incorporate stories of Indigenous people into their curriculum. It also would help students gain an appreciation for perspective and context in history; the biographies are short enough that students can grapple with the main ideas surrounding each person and incorporate them into historical narratives.

For those who want to read a history of "ordinary people" this is a great book to dive into

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If the only native Americans you are aware of are Sitting Bull and Pocahontas, then you really need to read this book.

This is a wonderful collection of one page bios of Indigenous people of the United States (Canada and Mexico are left out, though, Turtle Island was really all of North America, but that's ok)

An amazing mix of men and women, past and present, from Sequoyah, who created Cherokee written script, to Sharice Davids, of the Ho-Chunk people, who is a member of congress, from Kansas.

This book also include people from Alaska as well as Hawaii. And because 50 is not enough, at the end of the book others are mentioned that the reader will hopefully look up. Interspersed between all of this are notes on how representation matters, and how we live on stolen land.

Really good collection, and the author is a member of the Cherokee Nation.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

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Notable Native People 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene was an eye opening and informative book. I think it is very important for Americans to know more about Native people, Native Culture and Native history. I am really glad that I got the chance to read this book and learn even more about Native people with diverse tribes and individuals. This book was very inclusive and something I plan on rereading in my future. I would recommend this book to any reader that is an adult or young adult/teen that would love to learn about Native people throughout history.

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I reviewed a copy made available by the publisher via Netgalley - Thank you very much for that!

First of all, I would like to mention that I try as best I can not to take a place that I am not entitled to as a Kurd, therefore I will not be able to go deeper into the matter, but only comment on what I am entitled to comment.

"Notable Native People" is a really nice collection of incredible people who belong to various native tribes and cultures.

50 natives who come from different regions, tribes and cultures and
have done or are still doing great things that make them noteable people.
The book refers not only to what was and is being achieved on an activist level, but also to fields in which these people were and still are, be it as poets, LGBTQ activists, engineers, teachers, protectors or artists.

The illustrations are beautiful.

In between the pages are informations on important current topics, such as a 101 on settler colonialism, representation, environmental problems, missing indigenous women or the question “Whose Land are you on?” Where the reader is encouraged to research whose land he is on.
I have to say that it is really well thought out, that the author does not give any more detailed information about which land belongs to who and does not relieve the reader of searching, but encourages them to do research theirself.

Given that indigenous peoples are always talked about as if they were extinct or no longer exist, it is all the more important to publish such books and to remind non-indigenous people that all of this is not the past, but indigenous peoples after all the genocides still exist and thrive

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I will admit to being a very ignorant white woman who lives on Sioux land. I didn't know about any of these amazing people, save one or two. Thank you for this book to help amplify the voices that have been silenced over the years. Will be buying a physical copy of this book so that my kids can read their stories in the future.

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I wish I could give this book a rating higher than five. It is a wonderful compilation of stories about indigenous people, their roots, and their contributions to their communities and lands I love everything about it. Can't recommend enough..

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Thank you to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for granting my wish, and NetGalley!

I am white, and writing my review on occupied Munsee Lenape land, and from what I know, the original inhabitants of my specific area have been erased, though related tribes and peoples still absolutely exist to this day. This has absolutely inspired me to try to look into it further, rather than a few quick internet searches here and there. It too is something that I will carry out if I ever move, and for when I travel.

I truly appreciated learning about all Indigenous people spotlighted in this book. To my surprise, I found that i was aware of some of them and their accomplishments. I had also been aware of some of the movements discussed, particularly the modern ones. i much appreciated the resources given, as well as the suggestions on how to be sure to be inclusive and recognize Native sovereignty. This is absolutely a book I will be recommending to peers, professors, and when I start teaching.

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Notable Native People by Adrienne Keene is an excellent resource for those wanting to learn more about the contributions of Indigenous People. Each mini biography is accompanied by an artistic portrait to bring the person to life. It would make an excellent addition to a classroom or personal library to increase perspective taking and teach history of these notable people.

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