This anthology contains 22 essays and fictional writings about childhood by well-known Native American writers of the United States and Canada, from the 19th century to the 1990s. Selections include short stories, excerpts from novels, autobiographical sketches, and essays about the relationship between language and culture, family relationships, traditional child-rearing and educational practices, children's perspectives on first contacts between Native Americans and Whites, a young boy's first (and last) buffalo hunt, experiences in mandatory boarding schools, experiences of child abuse and racism, identity formation, and children's resistance and survival. Following "Foreword: Reflections on Identity and Culture" (Ines Hernandez) and an introduction by Patricia Riley, selections are "The Language We Know" (Simon Ortiz); "The Warriors" (Anna Lee Walters); excerpt from "Waterlily" (Ella Cara Deloria); excerpt from "Life among the Piutes" (Sara Winnemucca Hopkins); "Ni-Bo-Wi-Se-Gew" (Ignatia Broker); "Wasichus in the Hills" (Black Elk, as told to John G. Neihardt); "At Last I Kill a Buffalo" (Luther Standing Bear); excerpt from "The Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe" (Francis La Flesche); excerpt from "Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions" (Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes); excerpt from "Love Medicine" (Louise Erdrich); "A Day in the Life of Spanish" (Basil Johnston); excerpt from "Sundown" (John Joseph Mathews); excerpt from "Mean Spirit" (Linda Hogan); excerpt from "The Names: A Memoir" (N. Scott Momaday); "Notes of a Translator's Son" (Joseph Bruchac); "Turbulent Childhood" (Lee Maracle); "The Talking That Trees Does" (Geary Hobson); "Water Witch" (Louis Owens); "Grace" (Vicki L. Sears); "Uncle Tony's Goat" (Leslie Marmon Silko); excerpt from "Yellow Raft in Blue Water" (Michael Dorris); and "The Ballad of Plastic Fred" (Eric L. Gansworth). (SV)