Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Must-Read Adult Fiction & Nonfiction

November is Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor the rich history, diverse cultures, and enduring traditions of Indigenous Peoples.

To delve deeper into the world of Indigenous experiences, consider exploring these captivating books by indigenous authors. Whether you're drawn to historical and current fiction, contemporary memoir, cookbooks, or thought-provoking nonfiction, these works offer unique perspectives and powerful storytelling.

By reading these books, you'll gain a deeper understanding of Indigenous history, culture, and contemporary issues. Let's celebrate Native American Heritage Month by supporting Indigenous authors and amplifying their voices.

Updated November 1, 2024
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Lewis and Clark Public Library
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And Then She Fell : A Novel
Elliott, Alicia
Paper Book
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER* *Indigenous Voices Award winner* *Amazon First Novel Award winner* *Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction* *Named a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year* From the bestselling author of A Mind Spread Out on the...
Bad Cree /
Johns, Jessica
Paper Book
2024 CBC CANADA READS SELECTION AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST A CBC BOOKS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ALEX AWARD WINNER AURORA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL SHORTLIST RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE FOR LITERARY FICTION SHORTLIST<...
Becoming Little Shell: Returning Home to the Landless Indians of Montana
La Tray, Chris
Paper Book
A People Magazine "Best New Book of the Month" Finalist for the 2024 Pacific Northwest Book Award "I'm in awe of Chris La Tray's storytelling. Becoming Little Shell creates a multilayered narrative from threads of personal, family, community,...
The Berry Pickers
Peters, Amanda
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family,...
Blood Sisters
Lillie, Vanessa
Paper Book
A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women...one of them her sister. There are secrets in the land. As an archeologist for the...
Braiding sweetgrass : [indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teaching of plants]
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...
Ceremony
Silko, Leslie Marmon.
Paper Book
A Penguin Vitae edition of the great Native American Novel of a battered veteran returning home to heal his mind and spirit, with a foreword by bestselling author Tommy Orange A Penguin Classic Hardcover More than 45 years after its original publication, Ceremony<...
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
A Council of Dolls
Power, Mona Susan
Paper Book
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEE The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award-winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day. From the...
Crooked hallelujah /
Ford, Kelli Jo
Paper Book
"A book that you want to share with everyone you know and one that you are desperate to keep in your own possession. A masterful debut and a new and thrilling voice for readers across the globe." --Sarah Jessica Parker, on Instagram It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen...
Earth keeper : reflections on the American land
Momaday, N. Scott
Paper Book
"Dazzling. . . . In glittering prose, Momaday recalls stories passed down through generations, illuminating the earth as a sacrosanct place of wonder and abundance. At once a celebration and a warning, Earth Keeper is an impassioned defense of all that our endangered...
Empire of wild.
Dimaline, Cherie, 1975-
Paper Book
INDIGO'S #1 BEST BOOK OF 2019 NATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE MARROW THIEVES, THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER, MULTI-AWARD WINNER AND CANADA READS FINALIST "Wildly entertaining and profound and essential." --Tommy Orange, The New York Times<...
A girl called Echo. Vol. 2, Red River resistance
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
Echo Desjardins is adjusting to her new home, finding friends, and learning about Métis history. She just can't stop slipping back and forth in time. One ordinary afternoon in class, Echo finds herself transported to the banks of the Red River in the summer of 1869. All is not well in the...
Grandmother Begins the Story : A Novel.
NULL
Paper Book
National Bestseller Winner of the 2024 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award Finalist for the 2023 Writers' Trust Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the...
The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : native America from 1890 to the present /
Treuer, David
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Named a best book of 2019 by The New York Times, TIME, The Washington Post, ...
If I ever get out of here. [online electronic book]
Gansworth, Eric L.
Ebook
"A heart-healing, mocs-on-the-ground story of music, family and friendship." -- Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize and Rain is Not My Indian Name.Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the...
Indian Burial Ground
Medina, Nick
Paper Book
All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on - just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her - things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend's apparent suicide brings...
Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller Now part of the HBO docuseries "Exterminate All the Brutes," written and directed by Raoul Peck Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples ...
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age
McLeod, Darrel J.
Paper Book
As a small boy in remote Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod is immersed in his Cree family's history, passed down in the stories of his mother, Bertha. There he is surrounded by her tales of joy and horror--of the strong men in their family, of her love for Darrel, and of the cruelty she and her sisters...
My heart is a chainsaw /
Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-
Paper Book
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that "will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course"...
Native nations : a millennium in North America
DuVal, Kathleen
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE * "An essential American history" (The Wall Street Journal) that places the power of Native nations at its center, telling their story from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to fights for sovereignty that continue today
Never Whistle at Night: an Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology : Are You Ready to Be Un-Settled?
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection that dares to ask the question: "Are you ready to be un-settled?" Featuring stories by: Norris Black * Amber Blaeser-Wardzala * Phoenix Boudreau * Cherie Dimaline * Carson Faust * Kelli Jo Ford...
Night of the living rez
Talty, Morgan
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Winner of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection New England Book Award Winner, Fiction A Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction, The Story Prize, B&N Discover Book Prize A New York...
Poet Warrior: A Memoir
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of...
Probably Ruby : a novel /
Bird-Wilson, Lisa
Paper Book
For readers of Tommy Orange's There There and Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries, Probably Ruby is an audacious, brave and beautiful book about an adopted woman's search for her Indigenous identity. Relinquished as an infant, Ruby is placed in a foster home...
Prudence : a novel
Treuer, David.
Paper Book
A haunting and unforgettable novel about love, loss, race, and desire in World War II–era America.   On a sweltering day in August 1942, Frankie Washburn returns to his family’s rustic Minnesota resort for one last visit before he joins the war as a bombardier, headed...
Reclaiming Two-Spirits : sexuality, spiritual renewal, and sovereignty in Native America
Smithers, Gregory D.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2023 Prose Award in Cultural Anthropology and SociologyFinalist for the 2023 Publishing Triangle Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction A sweeping history of Indigenous traditions of gender, sexuality, and resistance that reveals how, despite centuries of colonialism,...
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 ...
The removed : a novel
Hobson, Brandon
Paper Book
"A haunted work, full of voices old and new. It is about a family's reckoning with loss and injustice, and it is about a people trying for the same. The journey of this family's way home is full--in equal measure--of melancholy and love." --Tommy Orange, author of There There ...
The round house
Erdrich, Louise.
Paper Book
One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels The Round House won the National Book Award for fiction. One of the most revered novelists of our time--a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life--Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize...
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation
Peart-Smith, Paul
Paper Book
In stunning full color and accessible text, a graphic adaptation of the American Book Award winning history of the United States as told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples-perfect for readers of all ages Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's influential New York Times bestseller...
Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky : Modern Plant-based Recipes Using Native American Ingredients
Frank, Lois Ellen
Paper Book
This enriching cookbook celebrates eight important plants Native Americans introduced to the rest of the world: corn, beans, squash, chile, tomato, potato, vanilla, and cacao--with more than 100 recipes. When these eight Native American plants crossed the ocean after 1492, the world's...
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Paper Book
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. As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding...
Sisters of the lost nation
Medina, Nick
Paper Book
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation's casino and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step - an ancient tribal myth come to life, one that's intent on devouring her whole. With strange and...
There there.
Orange, Tommy, 1982-
Paper Book
Here is a voice we have never heard--a voice full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with stunning urgency and force. Here is a story of several people, each of whom has private reasons for travelling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and...
This town sleeps : a novel
Staples, Dennis E.
Paper Book
A "tender, suspenseful, irresistible first novel" that explores Indigenous legend, queer relationship, and the power of landscape and lineage to shape our lives (Louise Erdrich, author of The Round House). An unsolved murder becomes the fixation of an Indigenous...
To Shape a Dragon's Breath
Blackgoose, Moniquill
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . WINNER OF THE NEBULA AND LODESTAR AWARDS . FINALIST FOR THE ASTOUNDING, LOCUS, AND BRITISH FANTASY NEWCOMER AWARDS . "My favorite book of the year . . . a coming-of-age story that is cozy and hair-raising in equal measure."-Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post
Wandering Stars : A Novel
Paper Book
The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Orange's breakout best seller There There--winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the John Leonard Prize, the American Book Award, and one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year--Wandering Stars traces the...
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...
Whiskey tender : a memoir
Taffa, Deborah Jackson
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Award Longlisted for a Carnegie Medal for Excellence An Oprah Daily "Best New Book" and "Riveting Nonfiction and Memoir You Need to Read" * A New York Times "New Book to Read" * An Esquire "Best Nonfiction Book" * A Washington Post "Book to read this...
White horse
Wurth, Erika T.
Paper Book
"This ghost story is a perfect example of new wave horror that will also satisfy fans of classic Stephen King." --Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic Erika T. Wurth's White Horse is a gritty, vibrant debut novel...
Winter counts /
Weiden, David Heska Wanbli, 1963-
Paper Book
ANTHONY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL THRILLER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL "Winter Counts is a marvel. It's a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth."  --Tommy Orange, author of There There ...
Winter in the blood. [online electronic book]
Welch, James, 1940-
Ebook
A contemporary classic from a major writer of the Native American renaissance -- "Brilliant, brutal and, in my opinion, Welch's best work." --Tommy Orange, The Washington Post One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years ...
Woman of Light
Fajardo-Anstine, Kali
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical" (Roxane Gay) epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina  ...

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