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Indigenous stories to diversify your bookshelf
Decolonize your digital bookshelf with these stories about life on the rez, Native history, mythology, and more.
Published on September 26, 2023
Trail of Lightning
Rebecca RoanhorseRoanhorse brings to life Navajo folktales in this electrifying novel about the apocalypse brought on by climate change. Searching for a missing girl, monster hunter Maggie Hoskie must battle witchcraft, as well as the ancient gods and monsters who walk the earth once again.
The Night Watchman
Louise ErdrichErdrich’s sweeping family novel, based on her grandfather’s life fighting against America’s Indian termination policies in the 1950s, won the Pulitzer Prize. The titular night watchman, Thomas Wazhashk, protects a factory full of precious gemstones and women workers who are members of the Turtle Mountain clan from would-be thieves (like the United States government). Familial love sustains the interconnected cast of characters through both personal and political turmoil.
Jonny Appleseed
Joshua WhiteheadWhitehead’s debut novel won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and quickly became a contemporary classic when it won “Canada Reads” in 2021. The story follows Jonny, a Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer man exploring sex in the city who has to return home for his stepfather’s funeral. Whitehead, who’s Oji-Cree/nehiyaw and Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, told the CBC, “Jonny is the better parts of me, hyperbolized. From that came this shiny, glittered figure of light for myself.”
The Only Good Indians
Stephen Graham JonesStephen Graham Jones’ horror novel, one of the buzziest books of 2020, is “scary good” according to author Tommy Orange, who says: “[‘The Only Good Indians’] is full of humor and bone chilling images. It’s got love and revenge, blood and basketball. … It also both reveals and subverts ideas about contemporary Native life and identity.” Years after four young friends go hunting on forbidden land, an eerie supernatural being stalks them, hellbent on vengeance in this gory thriller.
The Clown Brigade
Stephen Graham JonesWhen Kyle plans to surprise Jenna with a romantic weekend to help him get over Steph — who's still his go-to spin cycle instructor — he doesn’t anticipate the turbulent flight, uncooperative security, or so many clowns creeping around. Jones takes on the maddening and sometimes deadly consequences of living and loving online, and the power of our delusions, in this chilling Scribd Original.
Night of the Living Rez
Morgan TaltyCalled a “smart and gritty debut” in a starred review by Publishers Weekly, “Night of the Living Rez” offers a dozen interconnected stories that explore the life of narrator David and his childhood and early-adulthood on a Penobscot reservation. Themes of addiction and poverty play a strong role in David's stories, all of which give readers a glimpse of the Native American coming-of-age experience in modern America.
Firekeeper's Daughter
Angeline BoulleyBoulley spent 10 years crafting this exquisite YA thriller, and all that writing and rewriting more than paid off. Daunis Fontaine is a biracial, unenrolled member of the Ojibwe tribe who’s determined to put an end to a new drug trafficking ring that’s devastating her community. There’s equal parts brutality and beauty to be found in this twisty, unique novel.
Winter Counts: A Novel
David Heska Wanbli WeidenA “fists-for-hire” vigilante takes justice into his own hands when the broken legal system fails his Native American reservation community in this #OwnVoices knockout. Tommy Orange calls “Winter Counts” “a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth … and a testament to just how much a crime novel can achieve.”
Heart Berries: A Memoir
Terese Marie MailhotA rare debut that will take your breath away with its poetic beauty. This memoir from Terese Marie Mailhot chronicles her time growing up on a Canadian First Nations reservation with a love of memory and language and an acute knowledge of their limitations.
Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life
David TreuerAs a professor in creative writing, Treuer (“The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee”) brings a novelist’s eye to this work of nonfiction, a piercing look at what life is like on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. A much-needed look at contemporary Native American life.
A Snake Falls to Earth: Newbery Honor Award Winner
Darcie Little BadgerModern technology meets Apache myths in this luscious story that bridges two worlds. Climate change is devastating the Earth, and the catastrophe bleeds into the Reflecting World. Nina, a Lipan Apache whose family still has connections to the Reflecting World, and Oli, a cottonmouth determined to save his spirit friends, team up to save those they love in this original adventure.
Monkey Beach: A Novel
Eden Robinson“Monkey Beach” blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, the living and the dead. The novel flashes forward and back through the life of 20-year-old Lisamarie, a member of the Indigenous community in Kitamaat, Canada, whose brother is assumed to be dead at sea. Robinson’s novel is moving and meticulously constructed to leave you feeling unmoored.
Five Little Indians: A Novel
Michelle GoodGood’s mother and grandmother were forced to attend Canadian residential schools, and the horrific stories that came out of those experiences have shaped the author’s life. As a lawyer, Good often represents residential school survivors; as a writer, she’s determined to accurately portray the myriad experiences of those survivors. “Five Little Indians” follows five children as they struggle to rebuild their lives after being ripped from their homes and unceremoniously re-released into society.
Empire of Wild: A Novel
Cherie DimalineJoan, a Métis woman in rural Canada, has been searching for her missing husband for months when a preacher who looks exactly like him shows up at a revival in a Walmart parking lot. But the preacher swears he’s never met Joan before. Convinced he’s under the thrall of the Rogarou, a mythical half-man, half-wolf, Joan sets off to track the beast and win back her husband. Fans of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” will find a lot to love in this gritty quest novel, where creatures of legend interact with everyday folks.
Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel
Waubgeshig RiceA short, slow-burn novel about the survival of the Anishinaabe community at the start of the apocalypse. The tension continues to escalate after the power and communication grids go down for unknown reasons, and only bits and pieces of what happened to the outside world makes it to the remote band of First Nations peoples. Author Waubgeshig Rice’s novel posits that Native communities, having been massacred by colonists and sent off to reservations, are always surviving an apocalypse.
White Magic: Essays
Elissa Washuta“What is your tolerance for ambiguity?” Washuta wants to know in the footnotes of her essays that defy categorization and cover everything from “Twin Peaks” to colonization. With a power even greater than witchcraft, Washuta mixes together tough topics and pop cultural references into a healing blend.
Buffalo Is the New Buffalo
Chelsea VowelVowel, a Métis (Indigenous Canadian) writer and lawyer, challenges the idea that Indigenous customs are a thing of the past and adaptation is necessary for survival. These deeply moving and imaginative short stories harness speculative fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy to bring Métis culture to life. “Buffalo is the New Buffalo” is a true work of art that celebrates Indigenous past and present while addressing the future with optimism. Gorgeous, thought-provoking prose is the cherry on top.
Indian Horse: A Novel
Richard WagameseThe late Wagamese wanted to write a novel about hockey, but he ended up writing a story that’s about so much more than a young man’s trials and triumphs on the ice. “Indian Horse” tells Canada’s dark history of sending First Nations children to Indian residential schools, where they lived removed from their community in an attempt to assimilate them into white, Catholic culture.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer“Braiding Sweetgrass” has been a mainstay on the New York Times bestseller list since its release, and Literary Hub named it one of the top 10 best essay collections of the decade (2010-2019). Author Robin Wall Kimmerer has built several bridges with this book — between modern science and Potawatomi traditions, and between humankind and the natural world.
The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
Thomas KingKing chronicles the long list of grievances Natives have about inhumane governmental treatment with equal parts humor and heartache. Part informing history, part impassioned rant, King’s book provides a new lens with which to understand legacy and contemporary Indigenous issues.
Where the Dead Sit Talking
Brandon HobsonBrandon Hobson’s novel about a young Native boy scarred by abuse and trapped in the foster care system was shortlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. This one will haunt you with its beautiful prose and dark tale.
The Almanac of the Dead: A Novel
Leslie Marmon SilkoA prophetic, sprawling, violent epic from Leslie Marmon Silko, one of the biggest writers during the first Native Renaissance from the 1960s-90s. This ambitious work bridges Silko’s identities as Laguna Pueblo, Mexican American, and Anglo American.
Crooked Hallelujah
Kelli Jo FordThis moving novel in stories from award-winning writer Kelli Jo Ford, a member of the Cherokee Nation, traces the lives of four generations of Native American women. Publishers Weekly calls it “a stunner,” writing “Ford’s storytelling is urgent, her characters achingly human and complex, and her language glittering and rugged.”
Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction
Joshua Whitehead“Love After the End,” an anthology of short stories, sees the silver lining in our dystopian future, where the planet has become hostile to human life because humans did not respect the planet. All the stories are written by members of the 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous) community, who each bring a unique take on what will, can, or should happen in our probable disastrous future. Each story is rooted in a deep love of Mother Earth and an understanding that sci-fi staples, like colonizing other planets, are paths that only lead to more destruction — or, at the very least, will deplete our souls.
Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising
Brandi MorinMorin is a French, Cree, Iroquois, and Canadian journalist who uses her platform to share Indigenous stories, particularly those of violence against native women. A survivor of violence herself, Morin shares her painful journey from a child in the foster system to becoming an award-winning storyteller. This powerhouse of a memoir, which is ultimately a call for recognition and justice, shines a light on the Indigenous experience.