Read these 8 great books to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day
Indigenous Peoples' Day arrives Monday and, with it, another chance for readers to become enmeshed in Native American stories.
Book lovers face a beautiful, sometimes staggering — and ever-growing — contemporary canon of Native American writing. Here are just a few recent titles perfect for adding to your library holds or bookstore haul.
Billy-Ray Belcourt, 'A Minor Chorus' (2022)
Genre: Fiction
Through line: A student comes home — and somehow doesn't — to his northern Alberta town, ostensibly to work on his thesis but also to more fully understand the place and people who have shaped him.
About the author: A Canadian author from the Driftpile Cree nation, Belcourt has also penned books of essays and poetry.
One reviewer says: "... He delivers incendiary reflections on the costs, scars, and power of history and community" — Publishers Weekly
Louise Erdrich, 'The Sentence' (2021)
Genre: Fiction
Through line: Set against the doubly destabilizing circumstances of COVID-19 and George Floyd's murder, "The Sentence" follows a bookstore employee as she deals with the ghost of a former customer — and the greater ghosts haunting her.
About the author: A celebrated writer of books for adults and children (her "Birchbark" series is well worth reading alongside the kids in your life), Erdrich has won prizes ranging from the Pulitzer to the National Book Award; the Minnesota native belongs to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
One reviewer says: "All is tumultuous in The Sentence — the spirits, the country, Erdrich's own style. One of the few constants this novel affirms is the power of books" — Maureen Corrigan, NPR
Danielle Geller, 'Dog Flowers' (2021)
Genre: Memoir
Through line: Geller tells quietly harrowing true stories of her youth, family ties, and of mental health and memory, using her twinned skills as a lyrical writer and trained librarian and archivist.
About the author: A graduate of, and eventual faculty at, the University of Arizona, Geller's work has appeared across some of North America's great magazines; Geller is a member of the Navajo Nation.
One reviewer says: "In less capable hands, Geller’s story might be too grim to read ... Geller does does not settle into the mire, though she shares her own experiences with remarkable candor. Instead, she brings a professional objectivity to the narrative and illustrates how the threads of addiction can weave through generations" — Joan Gaylord, The Christian Science Monitor
Joy Harjo, 'Weaving Sundown' (2022)
Genre: Poetry
Through line: This curated set of 50 poems brushes the scope of Harjo's career, as vast and gorgeous as the American West, as intimate and electric as one moment of revelation.
About the author: Our national poet laureate from 2019-22, the Tulsa native — and Muscogee Nation member — has won an array of awards and earned her place as an influence on generations of poets.
One reviewer says: "Harjo is a national treasure, perhaps even a national resource, and this important book is an essential addition to contemporary poetry collections everywhere" — Herman Sutter, Library Journal
Tommy Orange, 'There There' (2018)
Genre: Fiction
Through line: Orange's first novel keeps company with a sprawling cast of characters as they navigate spaces in and around Oakland, California and their self-expression as Native Americans.
About the author: The Oakland native earned a Pulitzer nomination for his debut; Orange, a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, will publish his next book, "Wandering Stars," next year.
One reviewer says: "What Orange is saying is that, like all people, Native Americans don’t share a single identity; theirs is a multifaceted landscape, made more so by the sins, the weight, of history" — Kirkus Reviews
Jake Skeets, 'Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers' (2019)
Genre: Poetry
Through line: Following its title, Skeets' collection is a sharp and gorgeous look at identity, masculinity and sexuality among those who collect in Drunktown, New Mexico; Skeets paints lyrical portraits of the Southwest as well as dangerous and endangered characters.
About the author: A Navajo poet, Skeets teaches at the University of Oklahoma and earned multiple awards for this, his debut collection.
One reviewer says: "Skeets atomizes written language into its raw materials, the very shapes of the marks on the page, and then reassembles them into a liminal space where he wrenches Diné identity, masculinity, queerness, and the legacy of colonialism against each other" — Paige Welsh, Tinderbox Poetry Journal
Morgan Talty, 'Night of the Living Rez' (2022)
Genre: Fiction
Through line: This series of interwoven short stories examines both the strong and fraying cords that bind residents in a Maine community.
About the author: A citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation, Talty is an editor and professor who put the literary world on notice with this, his first book.
One reviewer says: "The book builds on itself and climaxes in waves, culminating in an ending that is simultaneously devastating, satisfying, and heart-stopping" — Sarah Neilson, Shondaland
Margaret Verble, 'Stealing' (2023)
Genre: Fiction
Through line: Kit, a young girl with a white father and Cherokee mother, keeps a diary of her harrowing encounters at a 1950s boarding school.
About the author: Verble, the author of this year's Daniel Boone Regional Library One Read title, is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who has spent most of her life in the American South; her first novel, "Maud's Line," was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
One reviewer says: "(The character's) ability to cut through the adult gaze to see the world as it is lends remarkable strength to Verble’s spare prose and is ultimately what makes Kit so endearing," Leah Tyler, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 8 great books to read and celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day
