History of Native American Writers:

Native American Literature
& History

50,000 B.C.	Myths: Native Americans bring shamanic religion and core Earth-Diver and Trickster myths to North America.
7,000 B.C.	Myths: Emergence myth develops in conjunction with agriculture in Mesoamerica.
1560s	Oral Lit: Fray Bernardino de Sahagun records Aztec oral literature.
1665	History: Caleb Chaesahteamuk (Natick), the first Native American college graduate, leaves Harvard Indian College (fd. 1656), fluent in Latin, Greek, and English.
1680	History: The Pueblo Revolt drives the Spanish from New Mexico for twelve years.
1772	Literature: Samson Occum (Mohegan) publishes his “Sermon on the Execution of Moses Paul . . . ” and his Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1774), first works in English by a Native American.
1790	History: Through Trade and Intercourse Acts, the United States government asserts sole responsibility for relations with Indian nations as foreign sovereignties.
1823	Literature: Poor Sarah . . . , by Elias Boudinot (Cherokee), a fictionalized conversion story, possibly first Native American fiction.
1824	History: Office of Indian Affairs created in War Department; moved as Bureau to new Department of Interior in 1849.
1827	History: David Cusick (Tuscarora) publishes Ancient History of the Six Nations, first historical work by Native American author.
1829	Literature: William Apes (Pequot) publishes A Son of the Forest, the first autobiography written by a Native American.
1831–1832	History: The United States Supreme Court, in “the Cherokee cases,” affirms sovereignty of Indian tribes as “domestic dependent nations.”
1833	Literature: The first “as-told-to” autobiography, that of Black Hawk (Sauk), is published.
1837	History: President Andrew Jackson begins enforcing the Indian Removal Act of 1830, driving southern tribes on Trail of Tears across the Mississippi River.
1854	Literature: John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee) publishes fictional Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta.
1868	Literature: The same Ridge's Poems becomes the first volume of poetry published by a Native American.
1871	History: Congress ends treaty-making; refuses to recognize Indian tribes as independent nations.
1876	History: Custer defeated at Little Bighorn.
1879	History: Bureau of American Ethnology established to study native cultures.
1885	Literature: Daniel Crane Brinton begins publishing Library of Aboriginal Literature aimed at preserving “classics” of Native American oral literature.
1887	History: The General Allotment (Dawes) Act, aimed at the assimilation of Native Americans by subdividing and individually assigning communal reservation land.
1890	History: Massacre of Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee, S.D.
1899	Literature: Queen of the Woods, novel, published posthumously by Simon Pokagon (Potowatomi).
1902	Literature: Charles Eastman (Yankton Sioux) publishes Indian Boyhood, followed by The Soul of an Indian (1911).
1924	History: Indian Voting Rights Act.
1934	History: The Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act provides means for tribal self-government.
1936	Literature: D'Arcy McNickle (Salish) publishes The Surrounded.
1946	History: Congress establishes Indian Claims Commission.
1953	History: House C.R. 108 directs “termination” of Federal-Indian trust relationship; policy later reversed.
1969	Literature: N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) wins Pulitzer Prize for novel House Made of Dawn; special issue of South Dakota Review, “The American Indian Speaks.”
1973	History: Occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., by AIM members.
1974	Literature: Winter in the Blood, by James Welch (Blackfeet/Gros Ventre), hailed in New York Times as “best first novel of the season.”
1975	Literature: Carriers of the Dream Wheel, first substantial collection of contemporary Native American poetry.
1977	Literature: Leslie Silko (Laguna) publishes widely acclaimed novel Ceremony; awarded prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1981 for her achievement.

The Most Prominent Works
in
Native American Literature Today

N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1969)

James Welch, Winter in the Blood at amazon.com (1974)

Reading Questions for Winter in the Blood

Leslie Marmo Silko, Ceremony (1977)

Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine (1993)

LINKS

Native American Authors
Superior Discussion on the politics of “Being Native American,” especially who and how one decides