Columbia, SC herbologist and tea business owner, Angela Queen, shares her insights on books and authors that have shaped her as a Native American woman.
Angela Queen, Columbia Business Owner
Not only an expert at herbology, as a member of the Native American community, Angela is also a fierce advocate of educating others and herself about the marginalized. Recently, she created custom tea blends for an event for patrons at the Cooper Branch, which received rave reviews. She shares with us her favorite books and authors that have influenced her life and business.
Angela Queen's Handcrafted Grassroots Herbal Teas
As a mother of two and a Native American woman belonging to the Lumbee tribe of Eastern North Carolina, I bring my culture into my everyday life through my work with regional herbalism, education, and tea making.
As the owner of Grassroots Herbal Teas, I use herbs in a creative way making loose leaf herbal teas that nourish the body and the soul, specifically the nervous system to decrease stress response and assist with deeper sleep.
Grassroots started through my love of gardening which I have fond memories of doing with my Grandmother as a child. My hope is to pass these traditions and knowledge to my children and community.
As a Native American woman, what books/authors have been impactful in your life?
Growing up in Savannah, Georgia, I was separated from my tribe. A tribe is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, “a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.” Basically, I did not share a common culture with the peers around me. This left me feeling lost without a true sense of identity. With a mother who was Caucasian and a father who also grew up away from his people, I had very little “passed down” to me.
"Growing up in Savannah, Georgia, I was separated from my tribe...This left me feeling lost without a true sense of identity."
The real gift for me as a Lumbee woman was when I found the books by Malinda Maynor Lowery and Adolf L. Dial.
As a tribe that was never forced onto a reservation, the Lumbee history is set apart and is a story of determination and resilience. Many do not realize that the 9th largest non-federally recognized tribe in the United States is situated in the Eastern part of North Carolina and are unaware of the rich history that is also entangled with southern history. Lowery showcases this in her two books The Lumbee Indian in the Jim Crow South and The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle.
Strong but Not Forgotten
Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South
Vastly unknown by most Americans is the identity crisis many Native Americans face as a result of lack of education and information about their cultures. This stems from a long history of the education system and American laws prohibiting tribes to gather, speak their language, gain access to basic resources, perform, and pass down their tribal traditions and knowledge, and the effect this had upon generation after generation and continues today.¹
Many tribes, such as the Lumbee tribe, are not even legally recognized by Congress as of yet, which has had its own repercussions.
According to the Official Lumbee website:
"The ancestors of the Lumbee came together in the shelter of this land hundreds of years ago - survivors of tribal nations from the Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan language families, including the Hatteras, the Tuscarora, and the Cheraw. The ancestors of the Lumbee were recognized as Indian in 1885 by the State of North Carolina. In 1956, Congress recognized the Lumbee as an Indian tribe while denying the People any federal benefits that are associated with such recognition – an action that the Lumbee continue to fight today." ²
Self Discovery
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
When I left home for the first time and moved all the way to Germany at 20 years old, it was a time of self-discovery. On a trip to Amsterdam I discovered The American Book Center. This two story bookstore had a huge Native American history section. This is where I purchased titles such asIn TheSpirit of Crazy Horse, Like a Hurricane, Where White Men Fear to Tread and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. These books gave me a glimpse of the persecution and racism experienced by Natives especially in the western part of America. They taught me of the activism by the American Indian Movement that was happening the very year I was born (1979) and they gave me leaders from Native groups to look up to.
I also really enjoyed Native American nonfiction writers and poets like Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich. Alexie’s work is so provocative and honest; often his retelling of his life growing up on the reservation was heart wrenching and eye opening. Through his work I learned how the history of colonialism left waves of indescribable damage through generations for Indian people on reservations. Erdrich’s poetry is some of my favorite. I love how she brings in First Peoples’ history, her personal heritage as a mixed race woman and the natural world to help the reader have greater reference, understanding, and awe of the elements around them.
" I love that she was writing from the perspective of a woman who also spent most of her life in an environment dominated by white culture."
Kaitlin Curtice photo by Amy Paulson
Self-Identity
The most recent Native American book I’ve enjoyed is Native, Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God by Kaitlin B. Curtice. I love that she was writing from the perspective of a woman who also spent most of her life in an environment dominated by white culture. She shares how she has had to mourn the loss of her culture as well as find new ways to bring her culture into her everyday life with her own children so they can grow up knowing they come from the Potawatomi people. Curtice put to words some of the emotions I have felt nearly my whole life and shares the truth that is sometimes uncomfortable to hear. Through poetry and imagery she encouraged me to embrace my very own origin story.
Footnotes and References
"Tribe". OED Online. September 2020. Oxford University Press
The owner of Grassroots Herbal Teas, you can connect with Angela locally at the Well Café and Loveland Coffee in Columbia, SC. She is also available through Instagram and her exclusive Facebook group “A Grassroots Movement” where she goes more in depth about the herbs she cultivates at home, in the wild and through other networks.
Recommended reading
Check out Angela's full list of recommended reading for all ages below.
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie delivers a captivating, semi-autobiographical account of oneSpokane Indian's struggle against incredible obstacles. Born poor and hydrocephalic, Arnold Spirit survives brain surgery. But his enormous skull, lopsided eyes, profound stuttering, and frequent seizures target him for abuse on his Indian reservation. Protected by a formidable friend, the book-loving artist survives childhood. And then?convinced his future lies off the rez?the bright 14-year-old enrolls in an all-white high school 22 miles away. "... delivers a positive message ..."?School Library Journal, starred review
The story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the reservation to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
-- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven This ebook features an illustrated biography including rare photos from the author?s personal collection.
"Thunder Boy Jr. wants a normal name ... one that's all his own. Dad is known as Big Thunder, but Little Thunder doesn't want to share a name"-- Provided by publisher.
Thunder Boy Jr. is named after his dad, but he wants a name that's all his own. Just because people call his dad Big Thunder doesn't mean he wants to be Little Thunder. He wants a name that celebrates something cool he's done, like Touch the Clouds, Not Afraid of Ten Thousand Teeth, or Full of Wonder. But just when Thunder Boy Jr. thinks all hope is lost, he and his dad pick the perfect name...a name that is sure to light up the sky. National Book Award-winner Sherman Alexie's lyrical text and Caldecott Honor-winner Yuyi Morales's striking and beautiful illustrations celebrate the special relationship between father and son.
-- The Toughest Indian in the WorldCountless other brilliant creations leap from Alexie?s mind in these nine stories. Upwardly mobile Indians yearn for a more authentic life, married Indian couples push apart while still cleaving together, and ordinary, everyday Indians hunt for meaning in their lives. The?Toughest Indian in the World? This ebook features an illustrated biography including rare photos from the author?s personal collection.
In his darkly comic short story collection, the author brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a complex, grimly ironic portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. These twenty-four interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet are filled with passion and affection, myth and dream. There is Victor, who as a nine-year-old crawled between his unconscious parents hoping that the alcohol seeping through their skins might help him sleep, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who tells his stories long after people stop listening, and Jimmy Many Horses, dying of cancer, who writes letters on stationary that reads "From the Death Bed of Jimmy Many Horses III," even though he actually writes then on his kitchen table. Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and mostly poetically between modern Indians and the traditions of the past.
In this darkly comic short story collection, Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a complex, grimly ironic portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. These twenty-two interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet are filled with passion and affection, myth and dream. There is Victor, who as a nine-year-old crawled between his unconscious parents hoping that the alcohol seeping through their skins might help him sleep, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who tells his stories long after people stop listening, and Jimmy Many Horses, dying of cancer, who writes letters on stationary that reads "From the Death Bed of Jimmy Many Horses III," even though he actually writes then on his kitchen table. Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and mostly poetically between modern Indians and the traditions of the past.
The rise to fame of Coyote Springs, an all-Indian rock-and-roll band, tracing its journey from a Spokane reservation all the way to New York. A humorous exploration of serious subjects: the effect of Christianity on Native Americans, cultural assimilation and its impact on relations between Indian men and Indian women. By the author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Native is about identity, soul-searching, and the never-ending journey of finding ourselves and finding God. As both a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, Kaitlin Curtice offers a unique perspective on these topics. In this book, she shows how reconnecting with her Potawatomi identity both informs and challenges her faith. Curtice draws on her personal journey, poetry, imagery, and stories of the Potawatomi people to address themes at the forefront of today's discussions of faith and culture in a positive and constructive way. She encourages us to embrace our own origins and to share and listen to each other's stories so we can build a more inclusive and diverse future. Each of our stories matters for the church to be truly whole. As Curtice shares what it means to experience her faith through the lens of her Indigenous heritage, she reveals that a vibrant spirituality has its origins in identity, belonging, and a sense of place.
Native is about identity, soul-searching, and being on the never-ending journey of finding ourselves and finding God. As both a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, Kaitlin Curtice offers a unique perspective on these topics. In this book, she shows how reconnecting with her identity both informs and challenges her faith. Drawing on the narrative of her personal journey through poetry, imagery, and stories of the Potawatomi people, Curtice addresses themes at the forefront of today's discussions of faith and culture in a positive and constructive way. She encourages us to embrace our own origins and to share and listen to each other's stories so we can build a more inclusive and diverse future. Each of our stories matters for the church to be truly whole. As Curtice shares what it means to experience her faith through the lens of her Indigenous heritage, she reveals that a vibrant spirituality has its origins in identity, belonging, and a sense of place.
In 1866, Omakayas's son Chickadee is kidnapped by two ne'er-do-well brothers from his own tribe and must make a daring escape, forge unlikely friendships, and set out on an exciting and dangerous journey to get back home.
In this literary masterwork, Louise Erdrich, the bestselling author of the National Book Award-winning The Round House and the Pulitzer Prize nominee The Plague of Doves wields her breathtaking narrative magic in an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice, and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture. North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence?but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich. The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux's wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty's mother, Nola. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition?the sweat lodge?for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them. LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new "sister," Maggie, welcomes him as a coconspirator who can ease her volatile mother's terrifying moods. Gradually he's allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches' own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal. But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole. Inspiring and affecting, LaRose is a powerful exploration of loss, justice, and the reparation of the human heart, and an unforgettable, dazzling tour de force from one of America's most distinguished literary masters.
For over half a century, Father Damien Modeste has lived a secret life as a woman, while serving his beloved people, the Ojibwe, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse. Now nearing the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical identity. To complicate his fears, his quiet life changes when a troubled colleague comes to the reservation to investigate the life of the perplexing, difficult, possibly false saint, Sister Leopolda. Father Damien alone knows the strange truth of Sister Leopolda's piety, but the facts are bound up in his own secret. He is forced to choose: Should he reveal all he knows and risk everything? Or should he manufacture a protective history? In a masterwork that both deepens and enlarges the world of her previous novels set on the same reservation, Louise Erdrich captures the essence of a time and the spirit of a woman who feels compelled by her beliefs to serve her people as a priest. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is a work of an avid heart, a writer's writer, and a storytelling genius.
The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
In the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe sets out to get some answers of his own. The quest takes him first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning. Louise Erdrich's novel embraces tragedy, the comic, a spirit world very much present in the lives of her all-too human characters, and a tale of injustice that is, unfortunately, an authentic reflection of what happens in our own world today.
The Round House won the National Book Award for fiction. One of the most revered novelists of our time-a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life-Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family. Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich's The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction-at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.
When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family.
North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence - but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich. The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux's wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty's mother, Nola. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition - the sweat lodge - for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them.
North Dakota, 1999. Landreaux Iron accidentally shoots and kills five-year-old Dusty Ravich, the son of his neighbors. The two families have always been close; Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's son LaRose. Horrified, Landreaux turns to tradition--prayer in an Ojibwe sweat lodge--for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of atonement, he and his wife will give LaRose to the grieving Ravich family. "Our son will be your son now," they say.
Presents a vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.
A stunning historical account of the battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West-in the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
"In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all. S.C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches"--Publisher's website.
With more than 50,000 enrolled members, North Carolina's Lumbee Indians are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself, describes how, between Reconstruction and the 1950s, the Lumbee crafted and maintained a distinct identity in an era defined by racial segregation in the South and paternalistic policies for Indians throughout the nation. They did so against the backdrop of some of the central issues in American history, including race, class, politics, and citizenship.Lowery argues that "Indian" is a dynamic identity that, for outsiders, sometimes hinged on the presence of "Indian blood" (for federal New Deal policy makers) and sometimes on the absence of "black blood" (for southern white segregationists). Lumbee people themselves have constructed their identity in layers that tie together kin and place, race and class, tribe and nation; however, Indians have not always agreed on how to weave this fabric into a whole. Using photographs, letters, genealogy, federal and state records, and first-person family history, Lowery narrates this compelling conversation between insiders and outsiders, demonstrating how the Lumbee People challenged the boundaries of Indian, southern, and American identities.
Using illustrations that show the diversity in Native America and spare poetic text that emphasizes fry bread in terms of provenance, this volume tells the story of a post-colonial food that is a shared tradition for Native American families all across the North American continent. Includes a recipe and an extensive author note that delves into the social ways, foodways, and politics of America's 573 recognized tribes.
On a hot June morning in 1975, a fatal shoot-out took place between FBI agents and American Indians on a remote property near Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Four members of the American Indian Movement were indicted on murder charges for the deaths of two federal agents killed that day. Leonard Peltier, the only one to be convicted, is now serving consecutive life sentences in a federal penitentiary. Behind this violent chain of events lie issues of great complexity and profound historical resonance. In this controversial book, Peter Matthiessen brilliantly explicates the larger issues behind the shoot-out, including the Lakota Indians' historical struggle with the U.S. government, from Red Cloud's war and Little Big Horn in the nineteenth century to the shameful discrimination that led to the new Indian wars of 1970s.
"This is the story of a determined Ojibwe Grandmother (Nokomis) Josephine Mandamin and her great love for Nibi (Water). Nokomis walks to raise awareness of our need to protect Nibi for future generations, and for all life on the planet. She, along with other women, men, and youth, have walked around all of the Great Lakes from the four salt waters - or oceans - all the way to Lake Superior. The water walks are full of challenges, and by her example Josephine inspires and challenges us all to take up our responsibility to protect our water and our planet for all generations. Her story is a wonderful way to talk with children about the efforts that the Ojibwe and many other Indigenous peoples give to the protection of water - the giver of life."-- Provided by publisher.
