Dog People

In Dog People, acclaimed Abenaki storyteller Joseph Bruchac explores the profound and ancient connection between Native Americans and their canine companions. Set in the woodlands of the Northeast 10,000 years ago, this collection of interconnected stories follows the adventures of several children and their loyal dogs. Through these narratives, Bruchac illuminates how dogs were not merely pets, but essential partners in survival, spiritual guardians, and beloved members of the tribal circle.

Drawing on extensive research and traditional oral histories, Bruchac weaves a rich tapestry of Pre-Columbian life. Readers are transported into a world where the bond between human and animal is tested by the challenges of the wilderness and celebrated through shared triumphs. This lyrical work serves as both a thrilling adventure for young readers and a reverent tribute to the enduring "dog people" who have walked alongside indigenous nations since the dawn of time.

A citizen of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation, Joseph Bruchac has authored over 170 books in numerous genres and his poems, fiction, and essays have appeared in hundreds of publications from American Poetry Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Parabola, and National Geographic to Junior Scholastic and Highlights for Children. His ground-breaking book Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), which uses traditional Native American stories to teach about science, has sold over a million copies and been adopted in schools throughout the United States and Canada.

A graduate of Cornell University, he received his Master's Degree in Literature from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. from the Union Institute (Ohio).

His numerous awards include a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship, a CCLM Editors Fellowship, a NYS CAPS Writing Fellowship, the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers.

A traditional Native musician and storyteller, he has performed throughout the United States and abroad, including as a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival, the Sierra Storytelling Festival, and the British Storytelling Festival.

His experiences include 3 years of teaching in Ghana and 8 years of running a college program inside a maximum security prison for Skidmore College. He has also been studying and teaching various martial arts for over four decades and holds black belts in Pentjak-silat and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. With his two sons James and Jesse, he runs the Ndakinna Education Center which offers programs in traditional Native survival skills, outdoor awareness, storytelling, and Abenaki language on their 90-acre nature preserve in the Adirondack mountain foothills near Saratoga Springs, NY.