Books by Indigenous Authors (Nonfiction)

Updated July 3, 2025
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Living resistance : an indigenous vision for seeking wholeness every day
Curtice, Kaitlin B.
Paper Book
In an era in which "resistance" has become tokenized, popular Indigenous author Kaitlin B. Curtice reclaims it as a basic human calling. Resistance is for every human who longs to see their neighbors' holistic flourishing. We each have a role to play in the world right where we are, and our everyday...
Braiding sweetgrass
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member...
Heart berries : a memoir
Mailhot, Terese Marie
Paper Book
*A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & EDITORS' CHOICE* Winner of the Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for English-Language Nonfiction Selected by Emma Watson as the Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick for...

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The serviceberry : abundance and reciprocity in the natural world
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world....

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We had a little real estate problem : the unheralded story of Native Americans in comedy
Nesteroff, Kliph
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and Esquire From Kliph Nesteroff, "the human encyclopedia of comedy" (VICE), comes the important and underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy. It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill's...

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When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native nations poetry
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathers the work of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, into one momentous volume. This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back...
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...
Dream drawings : configurations of a timeless kind
Momaday, N. Scott
Paper Book
"[Momaday] must be ranked among the greatest of our contemporary writers."--American Scholar "Momaday's poems are rich with description, lush with dreaming, and filled with magic." -- Library Journal (starred review) From Pulitzer Prize winner and...
Postcolonial love poem
Diaz, Natalie
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY Natalie Diaz's highly anticipated follow-up to When My Brother Was an Aztec, winner of an American Book Award Postcolonial Love Poem is an...
Living nations, living words : an anthology of first peoples poetry
Harjo, Joy
Ebook
A powerful, moving anthology that celebrates the breadth of Native poets writing today. Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, has championed the voices of Native peoples past and present. Her signature laureate project gathers the work of contemporary Native...

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Abandon me : memoirs
Febos, Melissa
Paper Book
Named One of the Best Books of the year by:Esquire, Refinery29, LitHub, BookRiot, Medium, Electric Literature, The Brooklyn Rail, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Largehearted Boy, The Coil and The Cut.Winner of the Lambda Literary Jeanne...
The rediscovery of America : native peoples and the unmaking of U.S. history
Blackhawk, Ned
Paper Book
National Bestseller Winner of the 2023 National Book Award in Nonfiction * Finalist for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Award in History * Winner of 2024 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction * Winner of the 2024 Mark Lynton History Prize ...

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The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : native America from 1890 to the present
Treuer, David
Paper Book
Beginning with the tribes' devastating loss of land and the forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools, he shows how the period of greatest adversity also helped to incubate a unifying Native identity. He traces how conscription in the US military and the pull of urban...
Thinning blood : a memoir of family, myth, and identity
Myers, Leah
Paper Book
Leah Myers may be the last member of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in her family line, due to her tribe's strict blood quantum laws. In this unflinching and intimate memoir, Myers excavates the stories of four generations of women in order to leave a record of her family. Beginning with her great...

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Come home, Indio : a memoir
Terry, Jim (Artist)
Paper Book
"a tour de force of comics" --Ed Park, The New York Times One of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2020, as chosen by the American Library Association One of the Best Books of 2020, as chosen by Publishers Weekly "Fortunately for readers of...
Dog flowers : a memoir
Geller, Danielle
Paper Book
A daughter returns home to the Navajo reservation to retrace her mother's life in a memoir that is both a narrative and an archive of one family's troubled history.   "A candid and achingly fractured memoir of [Geller's] mother, her family, her Navajo heritage and her own...
Becoming Little Shell : a landless Indian's journey home
La Tray, Chris
Paper Book
Winner of the Reading the West Book Award Winner of the Pacific Northwest Book Award A People Best Memoir of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of the Year Selection A Book Riot Best Book of the Year<...

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Ira Hayes : the Akimel O'odham Warrior, World War II, and the price of heroism
Holm, Tom
Paper Book
The gripping, forgotten tale of Ira Hayes--a Native American icon and World War II legend who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima but spent the latter half of his life haunted by being a war hero. IRA HAYES tells the story of Ira...
Whiskey tender : a memoir
Taffa, Deborah Jackson
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Award Longlisted for a Carnegie Medal for Excellence Winner of the Southwest Book Award A Best Book of the Year: Washington Post, Esquire, Time, The Atlantic, NPR, and Publishers Weekly An Oprah Daily "Best New Book" and "Riveting...

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The cost of free land : Jews, Lakota, and an American inheritance
Clarren, Rebecca
Paper Book
Winner of the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction Winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Nonfiction Finalist for The Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize Shortlisted for The William Saroyan International Prize A Kirkus Reviews...

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By the fire we carry : the generations-long fight for justice on native land
Nagle, Rebecca
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 * A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year * An NPR 2024 "Books We Loved" Pick * An Esquire Best Book of the Year  * A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the...

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We will be jaguars : a memoir of my people
Nenquimo, Nemonte
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year by Library Journal "An unforgettable memoir about fighting for your home and your heart." --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club November '24 Pick) ...

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