Native Bookshelf Archives » Native America Calling

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...

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,...

“ Python’s Kiss ” by Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) is a collection of short stories that are just as poignant and rich as her novels. In “Domain,” Erdrich imagines an afterlife run like a corporate business. In “Wedding Dresses”, the protagonist relives her past marriages and what led to pain and heartbreak. Each creative story is brilliantly told through Erdrich’s wide range o...

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...

Henry is an aspiring ghost hunter on the cusp of social media fame in the novel, " The Whistler ", by Nick Medina (Tunica-Biloxi). As the title suggests, he tempts fate by intentionally whistling into the night, provoking an evil entity that turns his life upside down and forces him to confront his past wrongdoing. Daniel H. Wilson (Cherokee) imagines a frightening alien invasion where first conta...

Lucy Smith just aged out of the foster care system but finds she needs to protect herself and her family against persistent threats from her past. She relies on the survival skills she’s learned the hard way: a lack of trust in others and a readiness to run. Along the way she connects with her own Anishinaabe identity. “ Sisters in the Wind ” is the third mystery by author Angeline Boulley (Sault...