Exciting news—Samish citizen Abigail Bergan, representing her organization Papaji’s Pages, has gifted the Samish Library a very generous donation of $1500 to purchase educational books and materials for our library. This is the third gift that our library has received from Ms. Bergan’s organization. It is an honor, and our hands go up to Abigail and Papaji’s Pages for this continued support of Samish Indian Nation Library. Look for new books and materials to be arriving soon!

In this current edition of Reader’s Window, we will be highlighting two of our newer titles, ones that will hopefully capture your imagination for summer reading. The first title is Plants of Haida Gwaii, 3rd Edition by Nancy J. Turner. Author Turner is a “Distinguished Professor Emerita in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. …For over 50 years she has worked closely with indigenous elders, her teachers, collaborators, and friends, to document the critically important heritage of indigenous botanical and ecological knowledge.”

Beautifully illustrated with photographs, this book is a reference for harvesting plants and plant materials for food and medicine and it also speaks to the spiritual and ceremonial aspects of gathering plants and plant materials. There is a section on harvesting cedar bark and spruce roots for basket making.

From the back cover: “Plants of Haida Gwaii, written with the cooperation and collaboration of the Haida, is a detailed and insightful record of the uses and importance to the Haida of over 150 species of native plants. Moreover, it draws on the knowledge and understanding that enabled the Haida to use the resources of their islands sustainably from one generation to the next for thousands of years.”

The second newer title is All the Real Indians Died Off: And 20 Other Myths about Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker. Author Dunbar-Ortiz also wrote An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Written in 2016, this thought-provoking book challenges commonly held beliefs. Different myths discussed as chapters include: “Columbus Discovered America, Indians Were Savage and Warlike, The United States Gave Indians Their Reservations and The United States Did Not Have a Policy of Genocide.” From the Author’s Note: “…To know personally the myths and stereotypes about Indians is to grow up hearing the narratives behind those myths, knowing that they were lies being told about you and your family and that you were expected to explain yourself at the demands of others. That lived Native experience, however, is also about reclamation. For us as scholars it is reclaiming stolen pasts through scholarship, storytelling, relationship building and acknowledging our ancestry.”

Welcome summer—and sunnier days ahead!