American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| All My Relations |
1988 |
Buy |
| Narrative Chance |
1989 |
Buy |
| Other destinies |
1992 |
Buy |
| The Sharpest Sight |
1992 |
Buy |
| Dead Voices |
1992 |
Buy |
| Firesticks of Stories |
1993 |
Buy |
| Summer in the Spring |
1993 |
Buy |
| Faces in the Moon |
1994 |
Buy |
| Grand Avenue |
1994 |
Buy |
| Bone Game |
1994 |
Buy |
| The Massacre at Sand Creek |
1995 |
Buy |
| Only Approved Indians |
1995 |
Buy |
| Wolfsong |
1995 |
Buy |
| Eye Killers |
1995 |
Buy |
| Mediation in Contemporary Native American Fiction |
1995 |
Buy |
| Nightland |
1996 |
Buy |
| On Native Ground |
1997 |
Buy |
| Kiss of the Fur Queen |
1998 |
Buy |
| Mixedblood Messages |
1998 |
Buy |
| Dark River |
1999 |
Buy |
| Chancers |
2000 |
Buy |
| Briefcase Warriors |
2001 |
Buy |
| I Hear the Train |
2001 |
Buy |
| Other Words |
2001 |
Buy |
| The Mask Maker |
2002 |
Buy |
| American Gypsy |
2002 |
Buy |
| Where the Pavement Ends |
2003 |
Buy |
| Field of Honor |
2004 |
Buy |
| Silko |
2004 |
Buy |
| The Trickster of Liberty |
2005 |
Buy |
| A Pipe for February |
2005 |
Buy |
| The Marriage of Saints |
2006 |
Buy |
| Muting White Noise |
2006 |
Buy |
| The Singing Bird |
2007 |
Buy |
| The Cherokee Syllabary |
2011 |
Buy |
| Twenty Thousand Mornings |
2012 |
Buy |
| Literacy and Intellectual Life in the Cherokee Nation, 1820–1906 |
2013 |
Buy |
| The Native American Renaissance |
2013 |
Buy |
| Scalping Columbus and Other Damn Indian Stories |
2014 |
Buy |
| Progressive Traditions |
2014 |
Buy |
| Creative Alliances |
2014 |
Buy |
| Old Three Toes and Other Tales of Survival and Extinction |
2015 |
Buy |
| Wil Usdi: Novella |
2015 |
Buy |
| Imagining Sovereignty |
2016 |
Buy |
| Chenoo |
2016 |
Buy |
| Red Bird, Red Power |
2016 |
Buy |
| John Joseph Mathews |
2017 |
Buy |
| Back to the Blanket |
2017 |
Buy |
| Plastic Indian |
2018 |
Buy |
| Padoskoks |
2021 |
Buy |
| Watermelon Nights |
2021 |
Buy |
| Native Removal Writing |
2022 |
Buy |
Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Best of the American West II |
1999 |
Buy |
Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Rattlesnake Band & Other Poems |
1984 |
Buy |
| The Witch of Goingsnake |
1988 |
Buy |
Double D Western Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Bitter Grass |
1967 |
Buy |
| The Tan-Faced Children |
1978 |
Buy |
| The Tangled Web |
1983 |
Buy |
| The Last Buffalo Hunt |
1985 |
Buy |
| The Man Who Had Enemies |
1988 |
Buy |
| Break the Young Land |
1990 |
Buy |
| Keno |
1991 |
Buy |
| The Whipsaw Trail |
1991 |
Buy |
| Nickajack |
1992 |
Buy |
| Gambler’s Luck |
1993 |
Buy |
| The Law and Lynchburg |
2001 |
Buy |
| Farewell to Texas |
2008 |
Buy |
Native American Library Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Shoshone History and Culture |
2011 |
Buy |
| Hopi History and Culture |
2011 |
Buy |
| Creek History and Culture |
2011 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Cherokee |
2002 |
Buy |
| Cherokee Medicine Man |
2005 |
Buy |
| The Cherokee Nation |
2005 |
Buy |
| A Cherokee Encyclopedia |
2007 |
Buy |
| Cherokee Thoughts |
2008 |
Buy |
Sheriff Go-Ahead Rider Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Go-Ahead Rider |
1990 |
Buy |
| To Make a Killing |
1994 |
Buy |
| Outside the Law |
1995 |
Buy |
Short Stories/Novellas#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Yellow Bird: An Imaginary Autobiography |
1988 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Back to Malachi |
1986 |
Buy |
| The Actor |
1987 |
Buy |
| Killing Time |
1988 |
Buy |
| Wilder & Wilder |
1988 |
Buy |
| Colfax |
1989 |
Buy |
| The Saga of Henry Starr |
1989 |
Buy |
| Quitting Time |
1989 |
Buy |
| Ned Christie’s War |
1991 |
Buy |
| Strange Company |
1991 |
Buy |
| Mountain Windsong |
1992 |
Buy |
| Border Line |
1993 |
Buy |
| The Long Trail North |
1993 |
Buy |
| Geronimo |
1994 |
Buy |
| Zeke Proctor |
1994 |
Buy |
| Crazy Snake |
1994 |
Buy |
| Captain Dutch |
1995 |
Buy |
| The Meade Solution |
1998 |
Buy |
| Incident at Buffalo Crossing |
1998 |
Buy |
| Brass |
1999 |
Buy |
| Barjack |
2000 |
Buy |
| Broke Loose |
2000 |
Buy |
| Medicine War |
2001 |
Buy |
| The Gunfighter |
2001 |
Buy |
| No Need for a Gunfighter |
2008 |
Buy |
| Barjack and the Unwelcome Ghost |
2009 |
Buy |
| Rio Loco |
2011 |
Buy |
| The Brothers |
2013 |
Buy |
| Walking the Trail |
2015 |
Buy |
Texas Outlaw Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Fugitive’s Trail |
2000 |
Buy |
| A Cold Hard Trail |
2001 |
Buy |
| The Devil’s Trail |
2002 |
Buy |
The Real People Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Way of the Priests |
1992 |
Buy |
| The Dark Way |
1993 |
Buy |
| The White Path |
1993 |
Buy |
| The Way South |
1993 |
Buy |
| The Long Way Home |
1994 |
Buy |
| The Dark Island |
1995 |
Buy |
| The War Trail North |
1995 |
Buy |
| War Woman |
1997 |
Buy |
| The Peace Chief |
1998 |
Buy |
| Cherokee Dragon |
2000 |
Buy |
| Spanish Jack |
2001 |
Buy |
| Sequoyah |
2002 |
Buy |
Robert J. Conley was the most acclaimed Cherokee novelist of his generation. An enrolled citizen of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, born in Cushing, Oklahoma, he published over 70 books spanning Westerns, historical fiction, mystery, poetry, and Cherokee cultural scholarship. His work drew consistently on Cherokee history and perspectives, even when writing in traditionally white genres like the Western.
His Real People series reimagines precontact Cherokee life through historical fiction, while his Western novels bring Native American characters and viewpoints to a genre that historically marginalized them. He also wrote non-fiction on Cherokee history and contributed to the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies series. He received the Cherokee Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement and was inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Robert J. Conley written?
Robert J. Conley has written 122 books across eleven series.
What was Robert J. Conley's first book?
Robert J. Conley’s first book is Bitter Grass, published in 1967.
What awards did Robert J. Conley win?
Conley won three Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America — for the short story “Yellow Bird” (1988), the novel Nickajack (1992), and The Dark Island (1995). He was named Oklahoma Writer of the Year in 1999 and received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.