November is Native American Heritage Month

Happy Native American Heritage Month! Below are five novels with Native American or Indigenous main characters, and five non-fiction titles to help you learn more about Native American and Indigenous cultures. 

FICTION

1. Rez Ball by Byron Graves: When the varsity basketball team members take him under their wing, Tre Brun, representing his Ojibwe reservation, steps into his late brother’s shoes as star player but soon learns he can’t mess up?—?not on the court, not in school and not in love.

2. The Rez Doctor by Gitz Crazyboy: Ryan Fox dreams of becoming a doctor. But when university takes him away from the support of his family and Siksikaitsitapi community, his grades start to slip, his bills pile up, and getting into med school feels impossible. And now his beloved uncle is in jail. Can Ryan regain his footing to walk the path he saw so clearly as a young boy?

3. Those Pink Mountain Nights by Jenny Ferguson: While working at Pink Mountain Pizza, three teens—overachiever Berlin, high school dropout Cameron and rich girl Jessie—find their weekend taking unexpected turns, forcing them all to acknowledge the various ways they’ve been hurt—and how much they need each other to hold it all together.

4. Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley: With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance.

5. Where Wolves Don't Die by Anton Treuer: After a terrible fight with bully Matt Schroeder, Ezra becomes the prime suspect when Matt’s house burns down and is sent away to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada while the investigation is ongoing, but the Schroeders are looking for him.

NON-FICTION

1. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults : Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer: Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.

2. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer: From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from "Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween?" to "Why is it called a 'traditional Indian fry bread taco'?" to "What's it like for natives who don't look native?" to "Why are Indians so often imagined rather than understood?", and beyond.

3. Imaginary Borders by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: In this personal, moving essay, environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez uses his art and his activism to show that climate change is a human issue that can't be ignored.

4. Notable Native People by Adrienne Keene: An accessible and educational illustrated book profiling 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, from NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota to Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

5. This Indian Kid : a Native American memoir and Eddie Chuculate: Award-winning author Eddie Chuculate brings his childhood to life with spare, unflinching prose in a book that is at once a love letter to his Native American roots and an inspiring and essential message for young readers everywhere who are coming of age in an era when conversations about acceptance and empathy, love and perspective are more necessary than ever.