Books Archives » Native America Calling

A mining company unleashes an evil entity as the Arctic village of Chukchi falls into polar night in “ It Looks Like You in the Dark ", the debut horror novel from Mathilda Zeller. It’s among several new books by Native writers that are especially fitting during the annual spooky season. Dr. Mat RudeWalker’s story, “Party at the Alvarez Ranch”, is included in the horror anthology, “ Back for Blood...

The new poetry collection " Cloud Runner " from Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) is the culmination and curated expression of her own personal grief. The poems spring from the aftermath of her daughter’s death in 2023 and range from devastating to hopeful. Harjo, musician, artist, and the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, explores a mother’s anguish and the time and work it takes to reconcile it. Harjo...

The number of books dropped from school reading lists and public library shelves is the highest since the organization, PEN America, started keeping track . Fueled mainly by conservative pressure groups and elected leaders at the school board and state legislative levels , the challenges to books target what opponents consider obscenity and themes that are too mature for younger readers. But books...

Aliet Paul learns traditional sacred birthing practices of her Mi’kmaq through her grandmother. But the outside world is changing and drives a wedge between her and her community. " The Birthing Tree " is the second novel from Amanda Peters (Mi’kmaq). It is a story of identity, overcoming tragedy, and redemption through one’s connections to family and culture. " How Settlers Get Away with Murder "...

After centuries of having their stories told by outsiders, Indigenous people made considerable progress in having their voices represented in the media in recent decades. The 2012 book, “ American Indians and the Mass Media ,” co-edited by Meta Carstarphen, documented that growth in authentic Native voices. Now, a new book edited by Carstarphen and Cristina L. Azocar picks up where the original bo...

Eliza "Lyda" Conley was a strong, independent Wyandot woman who is credited with preserving the cemetery where her family and other tribal members were buried in the face of mounting commercial development pressure. Conley defended the Huron Indian Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas in the courts as well as from a makeshift shack where she and her sister took up residence with their father’s Civil Wa...

Set against the backdrop of a historic time in Métis history, a young boy’s disappearance begins a tense story of justice and defiance in Métis author Blair Palmer Yoxall’s debut novel, " Treat Them as Buffalo ". It all takes place during the 1885 Northwest Resistance — a conflict between Métis and the Canadian federal government. When those entrusted to enforce the law turn a blind eye to a distu...

Sweden’s surging demand for electricity to power its mid 20th Century modernization had life-changing consequences for the country’s Indigenous Sámi people. In her new novel, “ The Home of the Drowned ”, Elin Anna Labba tells the fictional account of a family forced out of their village by the construction of a series of hydroelectric dams that flood their village. It’s based on the real account o...

Iñupiaq poet Joan Kane explores themes of home and colonial dispossession in her new poetry collection, " with snow pouring southward past the window ". Kane’s poems center on Iñupiaq worldviews and language, featuring masterful experimentation with form and imagery. Her critically acclaimed work has led to faculty appointments at Harvard University, Tufts University, and Reed College. She also re...

Diné author Brian Lee Young puts much of his own experience in his first young adult novel, “ Shards of Silence ”. Protagonist Derrick Hoskie struggles with a grueling class schedule, homesickness, and the frustration over his classmates’ ignorance at a prestigious prep school. At the same time, he is researching the life of his ailing great-grandmother. It’s a story about coming of age, identity,...

Through interviews with relatives, community knowledge keepers, and her work as a climate activist and lawyer, Katłı̨̀ą Catherine Lafferty (Yellowknives Dene) shares Dene wisdom and perspectives about the land that provide possible solutions for the climate crisis in her new book, “ Mother Earth is Our Elder: A Northern Indigenous Path Toward Sustainable Living ”. Her primary sources for the book...

The Oneida Nation went from having nearly all of their land stripped from them to being one of the most powerful political and economic entities in Wisconsin. In " Unsettling Territory: The Resurgence of the Oneida Nation in the Face of Settler Backlash ", Oneida author and historian Douglas Metoxen Kiel reveals how the tribe turned displacement into opportunity and managed to strengthen and grow...

Choctaw homicide detective Perry Antelope works on a missing persons case alongside the Choctaw Lighthorsemen tribal police in Devon Mihesuah ’s (Choctaw) new mystery novel, " Blood Relay ". The story of the disappearance of a young athlete is set against the backdrop of the competitive bareback horse relay racing. The fictional fast-paced thriller also takes on the real-life issue of missing and...

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Sicangu Lakota and Ponca) mistook her first interaction with racism — a separate gas station outhouse reserved for “Indians” — as a privileged courtesy for her and her people. It is one of the “ Special Places, Sacred Circles ” that she recalls in the account of her life on the dry, windy plains of South Dakota. She tells of the Great Depression, grandmothers who taugh...

New York Times best-selling author Angeline Boulley (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) made a number of best-of-2025 lists with the third book in her series centered in the Ojibwe community, Sugar Island, titled “ Sisters in the Wind .” Another favorite comes from young adult author and editor, Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee), who challenged more than a dozen other Native authors to ima...

New works by two best-selling Cherokee writers intertwine riveting fictional narratives with a dose of Native American historical reality. Vanessa Lillie ’s “ The Bone Thief ” continues the suspenseful trajectory of Syd Walker, a BIA archaeologist first introduced in Lillie’s novel, “Blood Sisters.” This time, the setting for the story is present-day Narragansett territory in New England and colon...

Julian Brave Noisecat ’s re-established relationship with his estranged father is the jumping off point for recounting the lives of the author and his family. " We Survived The Night " is a story both unique and familiar that Noisecat delivers with a mix of journalism, memoir, and his Secwepemc people’s traditional storytelling. Coming off the acclaim that includes an Oscar nomination for his docu...