Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Often, courses in American literature may not include Indigenous American storytellers in the curriculum. What novels written by Indigenous Americans have you read in the past? What themes and key ideas do you recall?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may or may not have encountered texts written by Indigenous American authors in past classes. Readers who cannot recall having read many or any works by Indigenous Americans might instead research and generate a list of works they would like to investigate further or read in the future. Helping them generate this list also helps to fill in the gaps of the types of literature they have encountered. This question provides an opportunity to introduce the theme of The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity.

• “Indigenous American Authors for Your Reading List” is an article from the Library of Congress that includes many prominent Indigenous American writers and information about their work.
• “Indigenous American Author Tommy Orange Feels a ‘Burden to Set the Record Straight’” is an NPR article in which Orange discusses what it means to be an Indigenous American author.