18 Books to Learn about California’s Indigenous History

Whether you’re new to the subject or looking to deepen your understanding, these recommendations cover Native history, culture, ecology, and contemporary Indigenous voices.

As POST’s Stewardship Project Manager, I spend a lot of time thinking about the land. Specifically, I contemplate how it changes, what it needs, and who has cared for it across time. The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realized how incomplete my own understanding of California’s Indigenous history once was. If you, like me, are not Native to this region, your education probably neglected some of the area’s most important communities and histories. For generations, Indigenous peoples have tended, protected, and shaped the local landscapes we now call home. Their deep relationships with these ecosystems continue today, even if our institutions haven’t always acknowledged that truth.

As Californians, we enrich our viewpoints by taking the time to understand these deeper stories. Learning about Indigenous history helps us see the continuity of stewardship that has always existed here. It also reminds us that conservation is not a new idea brought to the region by settlers. Instead, deep care of and connection to the land is an ancient lifeway rooted in reciprocity and respect.

The books in this list are an invitation to listen and learn. They offer different perspectives that deepen our understanding of the people who have lived in connection with this place for millennia. Whether you’re starting from scratch or expanding your existing knowledge, I hope this reading list sparks curiosity and humility. The more we learn about the first stewards of this land, the better equipped we are to care for it today.

A Century of Dishonor

Helen Hunt Jackson
First published in 1881, Jackson offers a seminal read still relevant to this day. This was her attempt to change government ideas and policy toward Native Americans at a time when the effects of the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act had begun to draw public attention.

A is for Acorn: A California Indian ABC

Analisa Tripp & Lyn Risling
This alphabet board book welcomes children into the abundant world of Native California. Beautiful illustrations of animals, plants, and cultural objects show off the spectacular diversity of California’s indigenous cultures and environments.

An American Genocide, The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846 –1873

Benjamin Madley
As the first historian to uncover the full extent of California’s genocide, Benjamin Madley provides a well-researched, complex and chilling history into this largely untold American atrocity.

Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

Deborah A. Miranda
Part tribal history of the California Mission Indians and part memoir of the author’s family experiences, this book is a powerful blend of oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, poems and personal reflection.

Becoming Story: A Journey Among People, Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors

Greg Sarris
Through personal essays that move between his childhood and his work as a tribal leader, Greg Sarris explores the deep connections between land, memory, and identity. With warmth and insight, he invites readers to consider how history, culture, and care for the land shape our sense of home.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Wall Kimmerer
Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, mother, and scientist, calls for an awakening to a wider ecological consciousness. Follow along as she reunites with her own cultural traditions, the teachings of native plants — one of our staff’s favorites that had to make the list.

California Indians & Their Environment: An Introduction

Kent G. Lightfoot and Otis Parrish
This book introduces what research reveals about Indigenous peoples’ vibrant cultures and sustainable practices—like prescribed burning—and deep knowledge of local plants and animals. It’s a powerful reminder that these traditions still hold lessons for California’s future.

California Through Native Eyes: Reclaiming Territory

William J. Bauer Jr.
Using oral histories of Concow, Pomo, and Paiute workers, Bauer reveals how Native peoples have experienced and interpreted the history of California. Combining oral histories with creation myths, he illustrates the importance of sacred landscapes, animals and other nonhuman actors in the formation of place and identity.

 

I Love Salmon & Lampreys: An Indigenous Story of Resilience

Brook M. Thompson (author) and Anastasia Khmelevska (Illustrator)
With charming illustrations and fascinating facts, the book celebrates the successful effort to remove four dams from the Klamath—restoring the river for salmon, lampreys, and future generations.

Gathering Moss: A Natural & Cultural History of Mosses

Robin Wall Kimmerer
This series of linked personal essays guides readers through an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer clearly and artfully explains the biology of mosses, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.

Murder State: California’s Native American Genocide, 1846 –1873

Brendan C. Lindsay
A comprehensive examination of the state’s mass genocide, Lindsay provides a picture into one of the most painful parts of our shared history.

 

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources 

M. Kat Anderson
This unparalleled examination of Native Californian’s land management practices helped to reshape our collective understanding of the state’s Indigenous cultures and their profound influence on the landscape.

The Study of Indigenous Landscape and Seascape Stewardship on the Central California Coast

Kent G. Lightfoot, Michael A. Grone, and Gabriel M. Sanchez
Learn how Indigenous peoples have cared for the Central California coast for over 7,000 years. This research highlights the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, whose deepening knowledge of their ancestors’ practices helps guide efforts to restore Indigenous land care today.

The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs and Reminiscenes

Malcolm Margolin
This collection of personal histories, songs, chants, and stories illuminates California’s original sense of itself. Margolin’s exploration of the remarkable revitalization of the state’s Indigenous cultures over the past thirty years is especially noteworthy.

There There

Tommy Orange
A novel that weaves together the story of twelve Native Americans all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow and all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.

We Are Not Animals 

Martin Rizzo Martinez with a forward by Valentin Lopez
Drawing on historical records and oral histories, this book traces how Ohlone and Yokuts families navigated the challenges of Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. colonization. Through these personal accounts, it reveals how community, culture, and resilience helped them endure and adapt amid great upheaval.

We Are the Land

Damon B. Akins & William J. Bauer Jr.
The first and most comprehensive text of its kind, contextualizing the first encounters with Europeans, Spanish missions, Mexican secularization, the devastation of the Gold Rush and statehood, genocide and efforts to reclaim stolen land.

 

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry

This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries.

The land in POST’s working area has been home to many distinct communities of Native people since time immemorial. Learn more here.