Tribal member publishes children’s book

 

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Grand Ronde Tribal member and artist Steph Littlebird has published her first children’s book as an author and illustrator.

Littlebird has been illustrating children’s books for the last five years but writing as well as illustrating a book was an entirely new project.

“YOU ARE THE LAND,” written in honor of Littlebird’s grandmother, “Mickey,” is “a love letter to Grand Ronde,” she said.

Featuring her bright, evocative illustrations, “It’s ultimately, at its core, a story about a young person learning from their family and their community about their connection to the earth and how they’re responsible for caring for the earth; not just that they’re connected to it, but that there are things that go along with that, like protest. … I feel really lucky to be from a culture that teaches us about our connection to the earth,” Littlebird said.

The book review magazine Kirkus Reviews calls the book “simultaneously a story of intergenerational bonds, a tale of growing up and building self-confidence, and an appreciation of our planet and its resources. … A powerful look at Indigenous identity and a loving reminder that ‘everyone can be a place keeper.’”

Littlebird said she’s speaking to multiple cultures with her book: Her beloved Grand Ronde Tribe, Tribal members across the United States and Americans who are not from an Indigenous background.

“We’re just lucky that our culture teaches us that but that connection to nature is really important,” she said. “I think that a lot of humans, particularly in American culture, don’t have language for that, don’t understand how to describe it and so this book is me trying to teach those values through the lens of Indigenous culture, but hopefully to a broader audience of young people who probably feel that connection and need to know that they are part of the land as well.”

All of that, Littlebird said, had to be packed into remarkably few words.

“Children’s books have to be under 500 words,” she said. “And so, every word has to be chosen really intentionally. You can’t have extra words. And so it is actually really challenging to simplify down. I had to really also put my mind, my sort of, self into the shoes of a child and how would they experience it. So yeah, it was lots of challenges and being a storyteller visually is very different from writing words and having them make sense to other people.”

The book is marketed for the 3- to 7-year-old age range, although Littlebird hopes that people of all ages can enjoy it. It was published by Penguin Random House and released Tuesday, Feb. 24. It is widely available at area bookstores and through Amazon.

Littlebird said she is already working on a second children’s book, this one “teaching what the history of the powwow really is, because a lot of people, they love to look at the regalia but don’t really understand the laws that essentially stopped us from dancing for 100 years. So, I’m writing a manuscript that sort of teaches about that history through the lens of dance.”

Littlebird credited the Tribe’s scholarship program for giving her the start that enabled her to become a successful commercial artist.

“I’m just so grateful to Tribal Council and all of our leadership for prioritizing that stuff for us and giving us the opportunity because it totally transformed my life and who I could grow up to be,” she said.