Native / Indigenous Authors: Nonfiction

Memoirs, poetry, and more from authors with Native or Indigenous heritage

Updated June 9, 2023
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Bury my heart at Chuck E. Cheese's
Midge, Tiffany
Paper Book
Why is there no Native woman David Sedaris? Or Native Anne Lamott? Humor categories in publishing are packed with books by funny women and humorous sociocultural-political commentary--but no Native women. There are presumably more important concerns in Indian Country. More important than...
Calling My Spirit Back
Alec, Elaine
Paper Book
Indigenous Peoples have always carried the knowledge necessary to heal. When our people heal, our families heal, our communities heal and our land will heal. You cannot have one without the other. These stories are teachings, prophecy and protocols shared throughout the years by elders,...
Code talker : [the first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII]
Nez, Chester.
Paper Book
The Navajo code is the only unbroken code in modern warfare. It ensured the end of WWII by assuring the US victory in Japan. Only one original Navajo code talker still survives; Code Talker is his story. The Japanese had managed to crack every code the United States used. US military intelligence...
Heart berries : a memoir
Mailhot, Terese Marie
Paper Book
A powerful, poetic memoir of an Indigenous woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Band in the Pacific Northwest--this New York Times bestseller and Emma Watson Book Club pick is "an illuminating account of grief, abuse and the complex nature of the Native experience . . . at once raw...
One story, one song
Wagamese, Richard.
Paper Book
"The short pieces in One Story, One Song remind us of human beingsï?? place in the world: We are a part of it, not masters of it. And by sharing our stories we share ourselves. By listening to othersï?? stories, we share their lives and perhaps gain connections. One Story, One Song is all about...
Poet warrior : a memoir
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
National bestseller An ALA Notable Book Three-term poet laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical, and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life. Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites...
Rez life : an Indian's journey through reservation life
Treuer, David.
Paper Book
Celebrated novelist David Treuer has gained a reputation for writing fiction that expands the horizons of Native American literature. In Rez Life, his first full-length work of nonfiction, Treuer brings a novelist’s storytelling skill and an eye for detail to a complex and subtle...
The turquoise ledge
Silko, Leslie Marmon
Paper Book
A highly original and poetic self-portrait from one of America's most acclaimed writers. Leslie Marmon Silko's new book, her first in ten years, combines memoir with family history and reflections on the creatures and beings that command her attention and inform her vision of the...
Warrior princesses strike back : how Lakota twins fight oppression and heal through connectedness
Eagle Heart, Sarah
Paper Book
Interspersing personal memoir with radical notions of self-help and collective recovery, Warrior Princesses Strike Back focuses how Indigenous activist strategies can be a crucial roadmap for contemporary truth and healing. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is home to the original people of...
Weaving sundown in a scarlet light : fifty poems for fifty years
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
A magnificent selection of fifty poems to celebrate three-term US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's fifty years as a poet. Over a long, influential career in poetry, Joy Harjo has been praised for her "warm, oracular voice" (John Freeman, Boston Globe) that speaks "from a deep and...
Whereas
Long Soldier, Layli
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: What did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language...

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