Read, Return, Reflect: Books to Check Out for Indigenous Peoples' Day
There are so many books to discover by Indigenous authors. Stories of personal history and cultural traditions to fiction and inspiring poetry that stays with you long after you finish reading. In recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we’ve rounded up 10 titles to explore through your library, today and any day of the year.
Indigenous Stories and Authors to Discover:
Nothing More of This Land
by Joseph Lee
In Nothing More of This Land, Lee weaves his own story and that of his family into a panoramic narrative of Indigenous life around the world. He takes us from the beaches of Martha's Vineyard to the icy Alaskan tundra, the smoky forests of Northern California to the halls of the United Nations, and beyond. Along the way he meets activists fighting to protect their land, families clashing with their own tribal leaders, and communities working to reclaim tradition.
Together, these stories reject stereotypes to show the diversity of Indigenous people today and chart a way past the stubborn legacy of colonialism.
Sisters in the Wind
by Angeline Boulley
Ever since Lucy Smith's father died five years ago, "home" has been more of an idea than a place. She knows being on the run is better than anything waiting for her as a "ward of the state". But when the sharp-eyed and kind Mr. Jameson with an interest in her case comes looking for her, Lucy wonders if hiding from her past will ever truly keep her safe. Five years in the foster system has taught her to be cautious and smart. But she wants to believe Mr. Jameson and his "friend-not-friend", a tall and fierce-looking woman who say they want to look after her. They also tell Lucy the truth her father hid from her: She is Ojibwe; she has – had – a sister, and more siblings, a grandmother who'd look after her and a home where she would be loved. But Lucy is being followed. The past has destroyed any chance at safety she had. Will the secrets she's hiding swallow her whole and take away any hope for the future she always dreamed of? When the past comes for revenge, it's fight or flight.
The Gift of the Great Buffalo
by Carole Lindstrom
Rose is a young Métis-Ojibwe girl who has traveled far with her family for the biannual buffalo hunt made up of hundreds of other Métis families. The ritual of the hunt has been practiced for generations, and each hunt must see the community through the next six months. But in recent years, the buffalo population has dwindled, and after days on the hunt, there are no buffalo to be found. Can Rose help her family find the herd that will enable them to survive the long winter? Before there was a little house on the prairie, there was a tipi on the prairie. In this beautiful and dramatic story, bestselling author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Aly McKnight show readers how life was lived by Indigenous communities, offering the true history of life on the prairie.
The Mires
by Tina Makereti
A literary page turner that explores the intertwined lives of three neighboring families in a small coastal New Zealand town—a blend of Little Fires Everywhere and The Island of Missing Trees, combining domestic drama, suspense, Indigenous folklore, and the threat of extremism on ordinary lives.
The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket
by Kinsale Drake
The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket traverses the Southwest landscape, exploring intricate relationships between Native peoples and the natural world, land, pop culture, twentieth-century music, and multi-generational representations. Oscillating between musical influences, including the repercussions of ethnomusicology, and the present/past/future, the collection rewrites and rerights what it means to be Indigenous, queer, and even formerly-emo in the twenty-first century.
Passing Through a Prairie Country
by Dennis E. Staples
For decades, a dark force has terrorized the Languille Lake reservation. Spoken of only in whispers as “the sandman,” he lurks in the Hidden Atlantis Lake Resort and Casino, the reservation’s main attraction and source of revenue, leeching its patrons’ dreams and preventing the ghosts that linger there from moving on. Fleeing a breakup, Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties Ojibwe, seeks solace in the slot machine’s siren song. Here he falls afoul of the sandman, an encounter he barely escapes through the timely intervention of his cousins Alana and Cherie, who both work at the casino and are intimately aware of the sandman’s power. Meanwhile, Glenn Nielan, an aspiring documentarian, hopes to capture the faces of the Ojibwe land while experiencing the casino’s thrills. But he will learn that all who choose to play the sandman’s games are in danger of falling into his grasp.
a body more tolerable
by jaye simpson
Ferocious and vulnerable poems about redefining acts of creation, destruction, deconstruction, and recreation, from a singular Indigiqueer point of view. A body more tolerable is a collection of powerful and haunting poems combining faerie tales, mythology, and a self-divinized female rage. Divided into three parts, the book examines Indigenous grief, trans identity, and frustrated desires in ways that reject perception.
By the Fire We Carry
by Rebecca Nagle
Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and tribal sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary Supreme Court case and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country. This landmark work of investigative journalism and legal history delivers an unforgettable story of injustice and resilience.
Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes, she circles toward a central argument: The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.
Blood Sisters
by Vanessa Lillie
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.
Published Oct 12, 2026
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