{"id":25672,"date":"2026-04-22T13:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=25672"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:10:41","slug":"steph-littlebird-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/steph-littlebird-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Steph Littlebird spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The author poses with Steph Littlebird
after a guest speaker presentation. | Photo by Jaylin Emond-Hardin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 22, 2026 | Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor<\/p>\n

Growing up as a Native kid, I didn\u2019t have many books that were for me. As a tiny tot, I had one called \u201cThirteen Moons on Turtle\u2019s Back,\u201d which told the story of the 13 moon cycles of the year on the back of Turtle Island. By the time I got into chapter books, there were more, but not by much \u2014 \u201cIndian in the Cupboard,\u201d \u201cThe Birchbark House\u201d and \u201cThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian\u201d were titles I was more than familiar with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But now, Native authors are becoming a greater part of the author demographics, and with that, so are their stories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among these authors is Steph Littlebird, a Kalapuya and Chinook artist, who recently published \u201cYou Are the Land.\u201d Released Feb. 24, 2026, \u201cYou Are the Land\u201d is Littlebird\u2019s first published children\u2019s book, though she has illustrated for other works before. These books include \u201cMy Powerful Hair,\u201d \u201cBody Beautiful\u201d and \u201cFierce Aunties,\u201d all celebrations of the power of indigenous people and their cultures. Littlebird also did the illustrations for the book \u201cThe Summer of the Bone Horses,\u201d a chapter book written by Virginia Driving Hawke Sneve.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just children\u2019s book illustrations, however, that Littlebird pours her love into. As an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde community, she curated the exhibit \u201cThis IS Kalapuyan Land,\u201d which opened in 2019 at the Five Oaks Museum\u00a0 and in 2023 at the Pittock Mansion, both in Portland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the exhibit, Littlebird annotated panels from the museum\u2019s previous exhibit on the Kalapuyan peoples, curated modern Native artwork into the exhibit and added historical pieces from David Lewis, who has a doctorate in anthropology and is a preeminent scholar on the tribes of Western Oregon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In her spare time, Littlebird creates art for her Instagram, @artnerdforever, most of which is protest art and aims to bring awareness to the movements that she supports. She especially focuses on reinterpreting vintage imagery, often reworking historically problematic depictions with a modern, critical perspective. Among these are her interpretations of the Land O\u2019Lakes Native woman, Pocahontas and Tiger Lily from \u201cPeter Pan,\u201d along with Land Back themes and other works that reflect her perspectives on contemporary political issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Littlebird announced her collaboration with author Karina Iceberg on the book \u201cFree to Fly,\u201d a multigenerational story that pushes and reminds readers to look towards the future with hope, even with the knowledge of the pain the past brings us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFree to Fly\u201d is set to release in June this year, while \u201cYou Are the Land,\u201d \u201cSummer of the Bone Horse,\u201d \u201cBody Beautiful,\u201d \u201cFierce Aunties\u201d and \u201cMy Powerful Hair\u201d are available in bookstores and online.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 22, 2026 | Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor Growing up as a Native kid, I didn\u2019t have many books that were for me. As a tiny tot, I had one called \u201cThirteen Moons on Turtle\u2019s Back,\u201d which told the story of the 13 moon cycles of the year on the back of Turtle Island. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Steph Littlebird spotlight","_seopress_titles_desc":"Kalapuya and Chinook artist Steph Littlebird brings Indigenous stories to life through children\u2019s books, exhibitions and activist art","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5590,9702,10477,55,854,10508,10482,10512,2651,10483,3456,10484,4003,1123,282,1936,9435,2464,10502,10486,10471,10481,3206,6416,10510,443,10474,10480,10487,9629,1786,9236,9237,10514,10472,10473,4762,938,5571,10496,10513,10492,10504,6471,10470,10494,10490,10479,2460,8628,10489,4142,569,3929,6836,1581,10498,10500,10493,4745,10491,643,7234,975,6378,10475,10506,10488,10469,1691,6715,962,3291,10511,3625,10478,10148,6427,2458,10468,10485,684,1556,608,39,10476],"class_list":["post-25672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-activist","tag-anthropology","tag-are","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-artnerdforever","tag-aunties","tag-available","tag-awareness","tag-beautiful","tag-body","tag-bone","tag-bones","tag-books","tag-bookstore","tag-children","tag-childrens","tag-chinook","tag-david","tag-driving","tag-exhibitions","tag-fierce","tag-five","tag-fly","tag-forever","tag-free","tag-grand","tag-hair","tag-hawke","tag-historical","tag-history","tag-horse","tag-horses","tag-iceberg","tag-illustration","tag-illustrations","tag-indigenous","tag-instagram","tag-kalapuya","tag-kalapuyan","tag-karina","tag-land","tag-lewis","tag-lily","tag-littlebird","tag-mansion","tag-museum","tag-my","tag-native","tag-nerd","tag-oaks","tag-of","tag-online","tag-or","tag-oregon-2","tag-people","tag-peoples","tag-pieces","tag-pittock","tag-pocahontas","tag-port","tag-portland","tag-powerful","tag-protest","tag-purchase","tag-ronde","tag-scholar","tag-sneve","tag-steph","tag-stories","tag-story","tag-summer","tag-support","tag-supports","tag-the","tag-the-land","tag-tiger","tag-to","tag-tribe","tag-tribes","tag-virgina","tag-western","tag-western-oregon","tag-western-oregon-university","tag-wou","tag-you"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}