A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and Esquire From Kliph Nesteroff, "the human encyclopedia of comedy" (VICE), comes the important and underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy.It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill's stand-up routine: "My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem." In We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy's most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form. The account begins in the late 1880s, when Native Americans were forced to tour in wild west shows as an alternative to prison. (One modern comedian said it was as "if a Guantanamo detainee suddenly had to appear on X-Factor.") This is followed by a detailed look at the life and work of seminal figures such as Cherokee humorist Will Rogers and Hill, who in the 1970s was the first Native American comedian to appear The Tonight Show. Also profiled are several contemporary comedians, including Jonny Roberts, a social worker from the Red Lake Nation who drives five hours to the closest comedy club to pursue his stand-up dreams; Kiowa-Apache comic Adrianne Chalepah, who formed the touring group the Native Ladies of Comedy; and the 1491s, a sketch troupe whose satire is smashing stereotypes to critical acclaim. As Ryan Red Corn, the Osage member of the 1491s, says: "The American narrative dictates that Indians are supposed to be sad. It's not really true and it's not indicative of the community experience itself...Laughter and joy is very much a part of Native culture." Featuring dozens of original interviews and the exhaustive research that is Nesteroff's trademark, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem is a powerful tribute to a neglected legacy.

Negotiation, understood simply as "working things out by talking things through," is often anything but simple for Native nations engaged with federal, state, and local governments to solve complex issues, promote economic and community development, and protect and advance their legal and historical rights. Power Balance builds on traditional Native values and peacemaking practices to equip tribes today with additional tools for increasing their negotiating leverage. As cofounder and executive director of the Indian Dispute Resolution Service, author Steven J. Haberfeld has worked with Native tribes for more than forty years to help resolve internal differences and negotiate complex transactions with governmental, political, and private-sector interests. Drawing on that experience, he combines Native ideas and principles with the strategies of "interest-based negotiation" to develop a framework for overcoming the unique structural challenges of dealing with multilevel government agencies. His book offers detailed instructions for mastering six fundamental steps in the negotiating process, ranging from initial planning and preparation to hammering out a comprehensive, written win-win agreement. With real-life examples throughout, Power Balance outlines measures tribes can take to maximize their negotiating power-by leveraging their special legal rights and historical status and by employing political organizing strategies to level the playing field in obtaining their rightful benefits. Haberfeld includes a case study of the precedent-setting negotiation between the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and four federal agencies that resolved disputes over land, water, and other natural resource in Death Valley National Park in California. Bringing together firsthand experience, traditional Native values, and the most up-to-date legal principles and practices, this how-to book will be an invaluable resource for tribal leaders and lawyers seeking to develop and refine their negotiating skills and strategies.

Lone Bull's Mistake: A Lodge Pole Chief Story, is the account of Black Otter, a Pikuni (or 'Blackfoot') Indian cast out from his tribe for breaking the hunting rules and forced to wander the wilderness in search of redemption.

The stories of the Cherokee people presented here capture in written form tales of history, myth, and legend for readers, speakers, and scholars of the Cherokee language. Assembled by noted authorities on Cherokee, this volume marks an unparalleled contribution to the linguistic analysis, understanding, and preservation of Cherokee language and culture. Cherokee Narratives spans the spectrum of genres, including humor, religion, origin myths, trickster tales, historical accounts, and stories about the Eastern Cherokee language. These stories capture the voices of tribal elders and form a living record of the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' oral tradition. Each narrative appears in four different formats: the first is interlinear, with each line shown in the Cherokee syllabary, a corresponding roman orthography, and a free English translation; the second format consists of a morpheme-by-morpheme analysis of each word; and the third and fourth formats present the entire narrative in the Cherokee syllabary and in a free English translation. The narratives and their linguistic analysis are a rich source of information for those who wish to deepen their knowledge of the Cherokee syllabary, as well as for students of Cherokee history and culture. By enabling readers at all skill levels to use and reconstruct the Cherokee language, this collection of tales will sustain the life and promote the survival of Cherokee for generations to come.

Herder Warfare in East Africa presents a regional analysis of the spatial and social history of warfare among the nomadic peoples of East Africa, covering a period of 600 years. The long duree facilitates understanding of how warfare among pastoralist communities in earlier centuries contributed to political, economic and ethnic shifts across the grazing lands in East Africa. The book discusses herder warfare from the perspective of warfare ecology, highlighting the interrelations between environmental and cultural causalities - including droughts, famine, floods, ritual wars, religious wars and migrations - and the processes and consequences of war. Regional synthesis concentrates on frontiers of conflicts extending from the White Nile Basin in south Sudan - into the southern savannas of East Africa, the Great East African Rift Valley, and the northern and southern Horn of Africa - examining historical military power shifts between diverse pastoralist cultures. Case studies are set in the coastal hinterland of East Africa and the Jubaland-Wajir frontiers. Warfare combined with environmental disasters caused social-economic breakdowns and the enslavement of defeated groups. The dynamics of herder warfare changed after colonial entry, response to pastoralist resistance and slave emancipation. The book is of interest to specialist and non-specialist readers exploring pastoralism, social anthropology and warfare and conflict studies; and is suitable for introductory graduate courses in environmental and social history of warfare .

At once deeply personal and yet universal, the poet's reflections, musings, and chronicles of life from birth to death impart a plethora of emotions, from tenderness to outrage, but also an intellectual grasp and appreciation of the astronomically low odds of being born at all. His poems both celebrate and commiserate, embrace and embroil, tantalize and deny, but, always and in all ways, depict what it means to be human.