You may have heard of Sherman Alexie. Or you may have heard of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a PEN/Hemingway Award winner. But did you know that Sherman Alexie is a local celebrity? He was just awarded the National Book Award for young people's literature for his first young adult and semi-autobiographical book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Alexie is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. The Absolutely True Diary... is an autobiographical story of a 14-year-old Spokane Indian who leaves his poverty-stricken reservation school and moves to a wealthy, all-white school.
As Debbie Reese mentions in her blog, you can also read about these tribes on the Internet. They produce their own websites, unfiltered through the eyes of an outsider. That is always the best way to get accurate, respectful, and authentic information about individual tribes. Read and enjoy!
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