November is Indigenous Peoples’ Month and in the reading community it’s also “nonfiction November.” This month I’ll be sharing books, both nonfiction and fiction, written by Indigenous authors. I’m hoping to highlight Indigenous voices, both from North America and around the world. Indigenous people exist all over the world, and not just within countries formed through colonialism.

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Indigenous Peoples have existed on the North American continent for thousands of years, for many centuries before colonialism reached their shores.

However, once colonizers arrived everything changed. The idea of living peacefully together, which most Indigenous People were open to since they already co-existed with many other Indigenous nations, was not what the colonizers wanted.

Ever since the start of colonialism in North America, the Indigenous Peoples have been under attack. When two people groups fundamentally disagree with how resources and land should be treated, a contrast of being owned and tamed versus shared and respected, conflict is inevitable.

Historical fiction

The history of Indigenous Peoples and the land is a long one, and it deserves to be told from the Indigenous perspective. Nonfiction books about history are important, but historical fiction is another way that we can experience history.

Historical fiction can be a powerful tool to understand the context of our modern lives. It can place you in the midst of an era you know little about and you’ll learn all about the daily life and attitudes of the characters.

I believe historical fiction can never replace historical nonfiction books, but they are a great supplement to learning about history and can be a gateway to learning more.

Not everyone is willing or able to read lengthy nonfiction, and to be fair, it can be boring. Whereas historical fiction can be much more accessible and interesting. It can also get you to start researching about various events or details, helping you to learn even more along the way.

The books below are historical fiction told from an Indigenous perspective. They focus on both modern and far reaching historical events that have impacted Indigenous Peoples.

If you know anything about the history of Indigenous Peoples in North America, you know that it’s a history of being treated horribly by the settlers to this land. If there is any content you wish to avoid reading about, it might be best to check content warnings for all of these books.

Five historical fiction novels by Indigenous authors

Here’s a list of five historical fiction novels by Indigenous authors.

1. Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis (1993)
   Gwich’in Athabascan Indian
2. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (2020)
   Red Pheasant Cree Nation
3. All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Issac (2021)
   Okanagan Indian Reserve
4. The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling (2023)
   Bitterroot Salish
5. Stealing by Margaret Verble (2023)
   Cherokee Nation

Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.

Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival (1993)
Gwich’in Athabascan Indian

by Velma Wallis

Based on an Athabascan legend passed along from mother to daughter for many generations on the upper Yukon River in Alaska, this is the tragic and shocking story–with a surprise ending–of two elderly women abandoned by a migrating tribe that faces starvation brought on by unusually harsh Arctic weather and a shortage of fish and game. The story of survival is told with suspense by Velma Wallis, whose subject matter challenges the taboos of her past. Yet, her themes are modern–empowerment of women, the graying of America, Native American ways.

Twenty years after its first publication, Two Old Women continues to be a publishing phenomenon, despite scant national publicity. This word-of-mouth book has been translated into seventeen languages, selling more than 1.5 million copies. This twentieth anniversary edition includes a new introduction by the author, new afterword by the editor, and a discussion guide for book-group readers.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Wikipedia
    • On the author
    • About the book
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Five Little Indians (2020)
Red Pheasant Cree Nation

by Michelle Good

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.

Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.

Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.

With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
  • Wikipedia
    • On the author
    • About the book
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

All the Quiet Places (2021)
Okanagan Indian Reserve

by Brian Thomas Issac

Brian Isaac’s powerful debut novel All the Quiet Places is the coming-of-age story of Eddie Toma, an Indigenous (Syilx) boy, told through the young narrator’s wide-eyed observations of the world around him.

It’s 1956, and six-year-old Eddie Toma lives with his mother, Grace, and his little brother, Lewis, near the Salmon River on the far edge of the Okanagan Indian Reserve in the British Columbia Southern Interior. Grace, her friend Isabel, Isabel’s husband Ray, and his nephew Gregory cross the border to work as summer farm labourers in Washington state. There Eddie is free to spend long days with Gregory exploring the farm: climbing a hill to watch the sunset and listening to the wind in the grass. The boys learn from Ray’s funny and dark stories. But when tragedy strikes, Eddie returns home grief-stricken, confused, and lonely.

All the Quiet Places is the story of what can happen when every adult in a person’s life has been affected by colonialism; it tells of the acute separation from culture that can occur even at home in a loved familiar landscape. Its narrative power relies on the unguarded, unsentimental witness provided by Eddie.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea (2023)
Bitterroot Salish

by Debra Magpie Earling

Raised among her people, the Lemhi Shoshone, the young Sacajewea is fierce and bold, growing strong from her relationships to the nonhuman world and from the hard work of “learning all ways to survive”: gathering berries, water, roots, and wood; preparing buffalo, antelope, deer, and fish; snaring rabbits, weaving carry baskets, and listening to the stories of her elders. Her universe, however, is on the brink of upheaval. When her village is marauded by enemy raiders, and her Appe and Bia are killed, Sacajewea is stolen and then gambled away to Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper and trader.

Heavy with grief, Sacajewea learns how to survive at the edge of a strange new world teeming with Native and non-Native fur trappers and traders. When Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery arrives, Sacajewea knows she must cross a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her, and a company of men who wish to conquer the world she loves. Her story is a gift of triumph, perseverance, and resistance—the Native woman’s story that hasn’t been told.

With lyrical, dreamlike prose that collapses space and time, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is an immersive, astonishing work of art and a powerful reclamation, recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Wikipedia
    • On the author
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Stealing (2023)
Cherokee Nation

by Margaret Verble

A gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee child removed from her family and sent to a Christian boarding school in the 1950s—an ambitious, eye-opening reckoning of history and small-town prejudices from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble.

Since her mother’s death, Kit Crockett has lived with her grief-stricken father, spending lonely days far out in the country tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile.  One day when Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road, she is intrigued.

Kit and her new neighbor Bella become fast friends. Both outsiders, they take comfort in each other’s company. But malice lurks near their quiet bayou and Kit suddenly finds herself at the center of tragic, fatal crime.  Soon, Kit is ripped from her home and Cherokee family and sent to Ashley Lordard, a religious boarding school.

In swift, sharp, and stunning prose, Margaret Verble spins a powerful coming-of age tale and reaffirms her place as an indelible storyteller and chronicler of history.

Links:

• You can find out more on:
  • Goodreads
  • Storygraph
  • Author’s Website
  • Wikipedia
    • On the author
• You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Final thoughts

I hope you found something of interest in this list of books.

I’m always looking for more suggestions of books to read. I’d love to know which historical fiction books by Indigenous authors that you love. Let me know in a comment below!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of the book?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below.