Think Indian is a collection of essays and presentations that Mr. Johnston has delivered to numerous educational conferences and gatherings across Canada and the United States. Topics covered, while all relating to the critical need to protect and encourage our language include how we are One Generation Away From Extinction, Cowboys and Indians to You can't tell stories in the summertime and the title essay Think Indian. Think Indian bumper stickers pleaded and advocated in the 60's, Think Indian. And while the plea may have been intended for general consideration, it represented in many instances a personal appeal for the exercise of a greater degree or intensity of Indianness, particularly by those who were prevented, for a variety of reasons, from practicing real Indianness. (Excerpt from book)

Basil Johnston has written 15 books in English and 5 in Ojibway to show that there is much more to North American Indigenous life than social organization, hunting and fishing, food preparation, clothing, dwellings and transportation. Among the books that Basil has written are Ojibway Heritage, Indian School Days, Crazy Dave, and Honour Earth Mother (Kegedonce Press). Basil believes the key to understanding culture is language and to this end he has developed audio programs on cassette and CD. For his work Johnston has received numerous awards including the Order of Ontario and Honourary Doctorates from the University of Toronto and Laurentian University.

Basil H. Johnston's profile page

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. Kateri is an Assistant Professor, teaching Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions in the English Department at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. She has taught creative writing and Indigenous literatures at the University of Manitoba, the Banff Centre's Aboriginal Arts Program, and the En'owkin International School of Writing in partnership with the University of Victoria. Her publications encompass poetry, fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, libretti, graphic novels, and spoken word. Her teaching and creative work is firmly decolonial, a practice of cultural resurgence, affirmation and survivance. She is a recipient of a REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award for writing, her 2015 book of short stories, The Stone Collection, was a finalist for the Sarton Literary Book Awards, and her collaborative recording A Constellation of Bones was a nominee for a 2008 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award. Kateri was the 2011-2012 Poet Laureate for Owen Sound and North Grey. She founded and coordinated the first Honouring Words: International Indigenous Authors Celebration Tour in 2003 and initiated and was a co-organizer for the first Indigenous Comics Symposium in 2021. She is the founder, publisher, and art director for Kegedonce Press. (Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, selected and edited by Dallas Hunt, was released in August 2021. She is currently completing work on a new collection of poetry and a collection of humourous short stories.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm's profile page

Basil Johnston has long been one of my favorite writers. His is always a unique and truly indigenous voice whether his focus is on storytelling or the sacred, the history and culture of his own nation or his inspiring personal journey out of the labyrinth of the Indian boarding schools into prominence as an internationally known author. I always expect the best from Basil, but this new book exceeds my expectations. THINK INDIAN is at once amusing and thought-provoking, a fine blend of scholarship and storytelling. These well-crafted essays--ranging explorations of the importance of Native languages and prescription for their preservation to personal musings on the ironic positions in which modern native people find themselves--are a pure delight.- Joseph Bruchac (Author of the best-selling Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children from his Keepers series)