Visit the John Wilson Special Collections at Central Library and be inspired by items from the Native American literature collection.
The library added the Native American literature collection in 2004, with curation support from Elizabeth Woody (Navajo, Warm Springs, Wasco, Yakama), a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and Poet Laureate of Oregon from 2016-2018.
Here are five highlights from the Native American Collection:
1. Rain by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo) and her photographer father, Lee Marmon (Laguna Pueblo), is an artist book. Developed in 1996, the book comes with a photograph signed by Lee Marmon. The book is made with handmade paper from the Dieu Donné paper mill and has a deckle edge. The binding is hand stitched in a vertical pattern that references a downpour. The book offers meditations and is not a linear story. This copy is number 80 out of 130 ever made.
2. Manuscripts by both Elizabeth Woody and Janice Gould (Koyangk'auwi Maidu) offer scholars the opportunity to learn more about the thought processes of these writers; these manuscripts provide insight as to what their pieces looked like before they were finalized.
3. In the Presence of the Sun: Sixteen Plains Indian Shield Drawings by N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) is a folio of loose pages and images. Opening the folder, you’ll find a sheet with letterpress printed images that are hand colored, accompanied by a short story on the following page. Only 48 complete suites of drawings were created by Momaday, the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel House Made of Dawn in 1969.
4. Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo (Muscogee Nation, belongs to Oce Vpofv) is available in a single sheet of printed paper, also known as a broadside. Only 150 copies were printed for the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival in Berkeley, California on September 29, 2012. Harjo was selected as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate and was the first Native American to serve in the role.
5. Luminaries of the humble by Elizabeth Woody is a book of poems published in 1994. Although this book can be found in the library’s circulating collection for you to check out, the copy in the special collections room is signed by the author. Woody was Oregon’s first Native American Poet Laureate and received an American Book Award in 1990 for her poetry book Hand into Stone.
Visit the John Wilson Special Collections room to see these and more items for yourself. You can also check out material by and about Indigenous authors and cultures within the library’s circulating Indigenous Collection.
The John Wilson Special Collections is supported by gifts to The Library Foundation, a local nonprofit dedicated to our library's leadership, innovation and reach through private support.