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Sky Wolf's Call

The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge

Interest Age: 11+
Grade: 6+
Reading Level: Common Core Correlations
CCSS.ELA-Literacy Strand-Reading literature: RL.5.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9
W.5.1.1a.1b.1c.1d.1e.3.3a.3b.3c.3d.3e.4.5.6.7.8.9.9a.10
L.5.1,1a,1b,1c,1s,1e,2,2a,2b,2c,2d,3,3a,4,4a,4b,4c,,5,5a,5b,5c,6
SL.5.1,1a,1b,1c,1d,2,3,4,5,6

Reading Level: Lexile 1060L
Hardcover : 9781773216300, 120 pages, April 2022 , 9.25" x 7.5"
Paperback : 9781773216294, 120 pages, April 2022 , 9.25" x 7.5"
Ebook (EPUB) : 9781773216317, 120 pages, April 2022

Table of contents

Author’s Note

1: Sky Wolf’s Call: The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge: Foundational ideas behind Indigenous Knowledge and the importance of retaining, maintaining, and learning this sacred knowledge.

2: Water Knowledge Ways: Water links us all and is sacred. Indigenous people have fought to protect the gift of water from harm, and the critical role it has played in transportation, agriculture, irrigation, and food.

3: Fire and Smoke Knowledge: Fire and smoke are great gifts, including the burning of tobacco. In sacred ceremonies, smoke connects our breath with the heavens. Fire cooks our food, helps grow our crops, and even keeps our waters clean. Cultural burns are used to benefit the land.

4: Indigenous Knowledge and Food Security: Sharing, growing, and receiving food with family, community, and visitors is both an honour and a tradition. By understanding the traditional practices of salmon fishing, clam gardens, planting and harvesting certain crops, or hunting buffalo, Indigenous Peoples have respected what Mother Earth has to offer.

5: Healing Knowledge Ways: The use of the medicine wheel and the sweat lodge have been used over centuries and still help sick and troubled people. Games such as lacrosse and chunkey have helped in building individual strength and community spirit. And braiding together Indigenous healing and western science has opened new learning opportunities.

6: Sky Knowledge: From the earliest Indigenous astronomers to modern astrophysicists, these sky watchers have studied the sacred gifts of the sky: the sun, moon, planets, and stars that have produced maps, calendars, beliefs about how to govern, and even directions for building homes.

7: Keeping the Knowledge: Indigenous People hold oral narratives in high esteem because that was the way knowledge passed from one generation to the next. People in North America recorded important events with symbols, pictographs (paintings), and petroglyphs (carvings). Language Keepers and Knowledge keepers are making sure that Indigenous knowledge is never forgotten.

8: Sky Wolf’s Call: Indigenous knowledge is based on the idea that this world is a gift. Understanding the idea of connections (the skies with the earth, people with animals, the practical with the spiritual) is an important lesson with the challenges of climate change, pandemics, and wars. The wisdom of Indigenous Knowledge can help the whole world.

Thanks and Acknowledgments

Glossary

Selected Reading

Sources and Contacts

Description

From healing to astronomy to our connection to the natural world, the lessons from Indigenous knowledge inform our learning and practices today.

How do knowledge systems get passed down over generations? Through the knowledge inherited from their Elders and ancestors, Indigenous Peoples throughout North America have observed, practiced, experimented, and interacted with plants, animals, the sky, and the waters over millennia. Knowledge keepers have shared their wisdom with younger people through oral history, stories, ceremonies, and records that took many forms.

In Sky Wolf’s Call, award-winning author team of Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger reveal how Indigenous knowledge comes from centuries of practices, experiences, and ideas gathered by people who have a long history with the natural world. Indigenous knowledge is explored through the use of fire and water, the acquisition of food, the study of astronomy, and healing practices.

*A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Awards

  • Nominated, Yellow Cedar Award, OLA 2022
  • Joint winner, TD Summer Reading Club 2023
  • Joint winner, Best Books for Kids & Teens, Canadian Children’s Books Centre 2022
  • Joint winner, Kirkus Best Books List 2022
  • Joint winner, Best Bets List, Ontario Library Association 2023
  • Short-listed, Red Cedar Book Award 2023
  • Joint winner, Skipping Stones Honor Award 2023
  • Joint winner, White Ravens Collection, International Youth Library 2023

Reviews

“An authoritative tribute to Indigenous knowledge systems that’s a must-have for every library and classroom.”

- Kirkus Reviews, *starred review, 03/02/22

“SKY WOLF’S CALL has an astoundingly broad scope introducing Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in North America from time immemorial to the current day . . . This fast paced celebration of Indigenous innovation and technology is riveting.”

- The British Columbia Review, 03/22/22

“SKY WOLF’S CALL, with its variety of information types and sources, will make an excellent school resource for any student interested in Indigenous knowledge and practices themselves, but it’s also an important resource on any project or interest related to environmental issues, sustainability, environmental rehabilitation, and reconciliation, itself.”

- CM Reviews, 03/18/22

“This relevant, timely and appealingly designed book is highly recommended for young readers who are looking to learn more about the knowledge and contributions of Indigenous people.”

- Booklist, *starred review, 05/01/22