Indigenous people have lived in the Americas for time immemorial, and too often they are written about in the past tense. But Native people still live and thrive here, and eat traditional foods like manoomin, or wild rice, as well as newer foods that evolved from the loss of their traditional lands and foods, like fry bread. Learn more about past and present Native American food and foodways with these books from the Water Library!

Our Ancestors’ Kitchen, by Willie Poll and illustrated by Shaikara David. Toronto: Annick Press, 2025.

Ancient Indigenous Cuisines: Archaeological Explorations of the Midcontinent, edited by Susain M. Kooiman, Jodie A. O’Gorman, & Autumn M. Painter. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 2025.

Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Heartdrum/HarperCollins, 2025.

Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir, by Thomas Pecore Weso. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2016.

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, by Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2019.

Mnoomin maan’gowing / The Gift of Mnoomin, by Brittany Luby, illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, and translated by Mary Ann Corbiere. Toronto: Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 2023.

Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan, by Barbara J. Barton. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2018.

The Sacred Harvest: Ojibway Wild Rice Gathering, by Gordon Regguinti. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1992.

In the Three Sisters Garden: Native American Stories and Seasonal Activities for the Curious Child, by JoAnne Dennee, Jack Peduzzi, and Julia Hand and illustrated by Carolyn Peduzzi. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1996, reprinted by Common Roots Press, 2001.