For American Indian authors, you could start with any work by any of the following. (I've suggested titles that might match the idea of "a mainstream classic" - although that terminology's hard to work with in this case.)
Louise Erdrich - Love Medicine LeAnne Howe - Shell Shaker James Welch - Fools Crow N. Scott Momaday - House Made of Dawn Leslie Marmon Silko - Ceremony Thomas King - Green Grass Running Water Joseph Boyden - Through Black Spruce (although that's since 2000) Sherman Alexie - Reservation Blues (Tonto and the Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven is somewhere between a set of short stories and a novel, since all the stories are interconnected) Susan Power - The Grass Dancer Linda Hogan - Mean Spirit
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Date: 2011-02-13 02:16 pm (UTC)Louise Erdrich - Love Medicine
LeAnne Howe - Shell Shaker
James Welch - Fools Crow
N. Scott Momaday - House Made of Dawn
Leslie Marmon Silko - Ceremony
Thomas King - Green Grass Running Water
Joseph Boyden - Through Black Spruce (although that's since 2000)
Sherman Alexie - Reservation Blues (Tonto and the Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven is somewhere between a set of short stories and a novel, since all the stories are interconnected)
Susan Power - The Grass Dancer
Linda Hogan - Mean Spirit