Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
A big pink truck cruised the streets of the Southwest this spring with stops in New Mexico, distributing over 10,000 books to the Navajo Nation to help improve literacy and support Indigenous writers.
The truck is from the founders of the NDN Book Club, Kinsale Drake, Navajo, and Pte San Win Little Whiteman, Oglala Lakota. The club truck hit the road April 1-5. In addition to distributing books, the team handed out product donations curated by sponsor Amy Denet Deal from 4KINSHIP, a Navajo brand that uses runway fashion to fund social good projects on Navajo Nation like the Yilta Book Drop.
NDN Book Club is a nonprofit, literary organization run by and for Indigenous peoples that hosts free youth workshops, author talks, uplifts Indigenous literature, supports Indigenous booksellers, and sends out free Native books. They are supported by Native actress Amber Midthunder (“Prey”) and model activist Quannah Chasinghorse.
In 2023, they distributed more than 2,000 free books by Indigenous authors to Native youth across Turtle Island, supplied by diverse Indigenous booksellers, publishers and authors. From Muckleshoot in Washington to Piscataway lands in the Northeast, they lead workshops in classrooms, tribal libraries, tribal colleges, book festivals and museums.
“I’m just a good relative. I’m a good auntie,” Amy Denet Deal told ICT from Santa Fe. “The Book Club girls are just spectacular literary talent. I met them when they were still in college, and even at that point when they were in school at Yale, they still found time to do community service. Kinsale had done poetry readings for a lot of our fundraisers during COVID-19, had come out all the way from Navajo Nation just to film her portion to help other relatives. She raised over $10,000 for the shelters. So just a true community leader at a very young age.”
Denet Deal says an opportunity came up with Cellular One to sponsor a tour and “get the funding they needed to do this in a much broader way than they could have ever imagined. It’s not just one event, it’s four events over a whole week. They hit their goal, 10,000 books that are Indigenous authors. They went out to all four directions of Navajo Nation, and we’re talking young people in their 20s managed to do that sort of incredible work.”
“I’ve been a writer and a reader since I was a little girl,” Drake told ICT. “My love of storytelling came from my maternal grandmother, who would tell us stories and writing was a way for me to try to capture it. My family descended from medicine people. That’s the job we’re born into in our clan and in our community. Preserving stories and songs since time immemorial, that importance has always been with me since I was a child. I started doing workshops and training spaces for youth when I was 17. I was a National Student Poet, a role set up by the Library of Congress to create ambassadors for literature in five regions of the country.”
Now 24, Drake met like-minded readers and community helpers and started mobilizing all of the platforms she had access to.
“I’m very creative and I’m also very restless. Students came up to me and said we need more books. So, I thought, how do we get more books into the classroom? How do we connect this teacher to somebody that I know that can get them resources? It’s very much work that I care about very deeply.”
Denet Deal says, “They are going to open the doors to so many others through the work they do. My job is to help with financing. I know how to move things around in Navajo Nation, that’s where I’m trying to be of service to let them do what they do, which is creating all the vibes that are going to bring so many of our young people together in a safe space that is Native-led, Native-run, all Indigenous-authored books. These are not just donated books from random places. These are books written by all the people of Turtle Island in a complete decolonization view that has no borders.”
The truck, painted pink and plastered with logos and signs, pulled up to various schools and libraries in Pine Ridge, New Mexico, and other towns.
“We started in the east part of New Mexico with a stop at the Hopi Reservation inside of the Navajo Reservation. There’s a history of land conflict and water rights. Hopi artists and authors deserve a spotlight as well. They were super excited that we came there. It’s four main stops at a variety of different spaces. We had vendors and readers, music and 1,600 free books at every stop.
“We told people to bring their trucks, boxes and bags, and teachers are coming to bring books for their students. People came on field trips with their schools. Then to Tuba City, then our last official stop was Shiprock, the Dine College Library. We had a spin on a college fair because Native students have the highest dropout rates in the country in high school and college. We want to show there are mentors in place, ways that Native students can pursue higher education and stay in school in ways that heal that relationship they have to education.”
The NDN Book club has books for both children and elders that they hope will be read with the youth and people in their family.
“We’re fostering intergenerational conversations because that was something that was really important to me growing up, showing them that there are gathering spots for literature already in their communities,” Drake says. “Some of these places don’t have internet, kids could not go to school on Zoom. That’s why Cellular One is involved. A lot of the work that they’re concerned with is getting these physical resources out to remote parts of the reservation.”
Some of the Indigenous authors they have worked with include Taté Walker, Amber McCrary, Boderra Joe, Chelsea Tay Hicks, Darcie Little Badger, Kimberly Blaeser, Halee Kirkwood, Heid E. Erdrich, Dawn Quigley, Brian Young, Traci Sorrell and Stacie Denetsosie.
Drake was excited to get on the road.
“Our 26-foot truck is completely wrapped in pink, rolling through with all these books,” she says. “Everyone is excited. I’ve been working with teachers on tribal nations and now I get to come back to my family and relatives who are still with us. A medicine man that we know is giving the opening blessing at our kickoff event. It really feels like the community is rallying around us.”
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