NAH Book Club

Through a wide-ranging selection of books, the NAH Book Club invites participants to explore diverse peoples, histories, contemporary issues, and creative expressions across Native Nations and Indigenous communities. Topics may include identity, sovereignty, culture, history, resilience, futurity, and lived experience, with each text offering an opportunity to learn, question, and connect.

At its core, the NAH Book Club is about creating a reading community. Meetings are designed to foster thoughtful interdisciplinary discussions, mutual respect, and shared learning in a welcoming and inclusive environment. The Book Club is open to students, faculty, staff, and community members and welcomes readers of all levels of familiarity with Native and Indigenous peoples and topics.

This program is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, or national origin. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request. Please contact the Native American House at nah@illinois.edu.

This semester, the NAH Book Club will read Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq, an internationally acclaimed Inuk artist from Nunavut, Canada. This powerful, genre-defying work invites readers into meaningful conversations about Indigenous identity, survivance, land, and lived experience.

Registration is limited to 15 participants due to space constraints at the NAH:

Register Now

Participants will receive a FREE copy of the book!

Content Advisory

Please note that Split Tooth contains extensive and graphic content related to violence, abuse, and trauma. Participants are encouraged to care for themselves and engage at a level that feels appropriate.

Facilitators

Book Club discussions will be co-facilitated by:

• Dr. Charlotte Davidson (Diné / Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation)
  Director, Native American House
• Morgan Bear (Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa)
  Assistant Director, Native American House

Meeting Dates, Location & Format

The NAH Book Club will meet from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Native American House (1206 W. Nevada Street, Urbana, IL) on the following dates:

• Wednesday, February 18
• Wednesday, March 25
• Wednesday, April 22 — Virtual Book Club conversation with the author!

Each meeting will follow the same structure:

• 5:00 p.m. — Check-in and food available in the kitchenette
• 5:30–6:30 p.m. — Guided book discussion and group photo