In the books available to Patricia Riley as a child, Native Americans were almost always depicted as exotic, cultural artifacts from the past, the stereotypical "Vanishing Americans," sometimes noble, but always backward savages on their way out, and soon to be no more. It was only later in life that she discovered that the experience of growing up Native American has produced some of the most moving and powerful works of fiction and nonfiction ever written. Now, for the first time ever, these writings about childhood have been collected in an anthology that makes connections across history - while speaking to the enormous diversity of lives that make up Native America today.

Selections range from recollections of first buffalo hunts to a story of a rebel girl in the 1960s, from remembrances of the mandatory boarding schools in the early part of the century to tales of modern suburban alienation. Here are short stories, excerpts from novels, and autobiographical sketches, from Canada and the United States, by the best-loved names in Native American writing. And here, too, are funny and haunting stories from provocative new and lesser-known voices. A collection of pain, love, youthful passion, mischief, anger, betrayal, and healing, Growing Up Native American is essential reading for anyone interested in the experiences of Native American people. Including selections from acclaimed works by some of the most accomplished prose stylists and story-tellers writing today it is an excellent introduction to one of the world's great literatures.