How Should Native American Names Be Treated In Works-cited-list ...

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How should Native American names be treated in works-cited-list entries?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

If you are citing a work by a Native American author and the author’s name consists of a first name and a last name, invert the names at the start of your works-cited-list entry:

Tall Mountain, Mary. Nine Poems. Friars Press, 1977.

If the name consists of a two-part first name with no last name, do not invert the parts:

Black Hawk. Black Hawk: An Autobiography. Edited by Donald Jackson, U of Illinois P, 1955.

The entry would be listed alphabetically in the works-cited list according to the first letter of the name: b.

If an author’s name includes a Native American name between the first and last name, begin the entry with the last name. The work documented in the following entry lists the authors as Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star”:

Custalow, Linwood “Little Bear,” and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star.” The Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History. Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.

If “Silver Star” were the first author, the entry would begin with the Native American name:

“Silver Star,” Angela L. Daniel, and Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow. The Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History. Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.

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