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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As mentioned in our post last week, I’m interested in looking at Indigenous Peoples around the world. Last week I shared works of fiction and this week I want to share nonfiction recommendations. All of these books are from Indigenous authors from around the world.

Since many Indigenous communities have a close relationship with the land, they are often on the front lines of protecting our environment. They are also some of the most vulnerable communities to environmental degradation, either through destructive environmental practices that have been implemented without their consent (think resource extraction or energy development) or forced displacement from their native lands.

Another common theme around Indigenous nonfiction is traditional knowledge. There’s been huge disruptions to the transfer of traditional knowledge in North America through policies aimed to destroy Indigenous communities, such as residential schools or actively trying to assimilate Indigenous Peoples into the mainstream society through blood quantum or laws around being a “registered Indian.”

But despite all of this, so much traditional knowledge has remained and there are many efforts to preserve and capture Indigenous knowledge so that future generations can still utilize it.

Recent progress

I’m so happy to see that more and more Indigenous authors are getting published and that they are able to share their understanding with the world.

I do think it’s important that the cultural beliefs are respected and not all information should be shared publicly. However, when even some of the knowledge is captured publicly, there’s probably a lot more captured privately and the public work can often promote more community work or private record keeping.

Additionally, I think it’s vital that research and cultural preservation is done by those within the community, and I’m happy to see more and more Indigenous representation in academia or other forms of research. Big changes are needed throughout academia, and the impetus shouldn’t be on the Indigenous researchers, but I’m hopeful that new perspectives can help spark changes and challenge the norms.

I’ve selected five nonfiction books written by Indigenous authors from around the world. Obviously this is a tiny selection of the books available, but hopefully it sparks your interest and helps you explore new books.

Five nonfiction books from Indigenous authors around the world

Here’s a list of five nonfiction books from Indigenous authors around the world.

1. The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography by Tepilit Ole Saitoti (1985)
   Maasai
2. The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women’s Rights in Islam / Le Harem politique: Le Prophète et les femmes by Fatema Mernissi / فاطمة مرنيسي (in 1988)
   Morocco
3. As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker (2019)
   Colville Confederated Tribe
4. An Indian Among los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir by Ursula Pike (2021)
   Karuk Tribe
5. Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez (2022)
   Binnizá & Maya Ch’orti’

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

The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography (1985)
Maasai

by Tepilit Ole Saitoti

An autobiographical memoir revealing the traditional childhood, adolescence, and coming of age in Maasailond also documents the author’s life on the plains of the Serengeti and his education and experiences as he journeyed to Europe and America

Links:

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

The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women’s Rights in Islam / Le Harem politique: Le Prophète et les femmes (1988)
Morocco

by Fatema Mernissi / فاطمة مرنيسي,
Translated from the French by Mary Jo Lakeland

Convinced that the veil is a symbol of unjust male authority over women, in The Veil and the Male Elite, Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi aims to investigate the origins of the practice in the first Islamic community.

Links:

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

As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock (2019)
Colville Confederated Tribe

by Dina Gilio-Whitaker

The story of Native peoples’ resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions, and a call for environmentalists to learn from the Indigenous community’s rich history of activism

Through the unique lens of “Indigenized environmental justice,” Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long As Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.

Throughout 2016, the Standing Rock protest put a national spotlight on Indigenous activists, but it also underscored how little Americans know about the longtime historical tensions between Native peoples and the mainstream environmental movement. Ultimately, she argues, modern environmentalists must look to the history of Indigenous resistance for wisdom and inspiration in our common fight for a just and sustainable future.

Links:

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

An Indian Among los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir (2021)
Karuk Tribe

by Ursula Pike

When she was twenty-five, Ursula Pike boarded a plane to Bolivia and began her term of service in the Peace Corps. A member of the Karuk Tribe, Pike sought to make meaningful connections with Indigenous people halfway around the world. But she arrived in La Paz with trepidation as well as excitement, “knowing I followed in the footsteps of Western colonizers and missionaries who had also claimed they were there to help.” In the following two years, as a series of dramatic episodes brought that tension to boiling point, she began to ask: what does it mean to have experienced the effects of colonialism firsthand, and yet to risk becoming a colonizing force in turn?

An Indian among los Indígenas, Pike’s memoir of this experience, upends a canon of travel memoirs that has historically been dominated by white writers. It is a sharp, honest, and unnerving examination of the shadows that colonial history casts over even the most well-intentioned attempts at cross-cultural aid. It is also the debut of an exceptionally astute writer with a mastery of deadpan wit. It signals a shift in travel writing that is long overdue.

Links:

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

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science (2022)
Binnizá & Maya Ch’orti’

by Jessica Hernandez

An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn’t working–and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.

Despite the undeniable fact that Indigenous communities are among the most affected by climate devastation, Indigenous science is nowhere to be found in mainstream environmental policy or discourse. And while holistic land, water, and forest management practices born from millennia of Indigenous knowledge systems have much to teach all of us, Indigenous science has long been ignored, otherized, or perceived as “soft”–the product of a systematic, centuries-long campaign of racism, colonialism, extractive capitalism, and delegitimization.

Here, Jessica Hernandez–Maya Ch’orti’ and Zapotec environmental scientist and founder of environmental agency Piña Soul–introduces and contextualizes Indigenous environmental knowledge and proposes a vision of land stewardship that heals rather than displaces, that generates rather than destroys. She breaks down the failures of western-defined conservatism and shares alternatives, citing the restoration work of urban Indigenous people in Seattle; her family’s fight against ecoterrorism in Latin America; and holistic land management approaches of Indigenous groups across the continent.

Through case studies, historical overviews, and stories that center the voices and lived experiences of Indigenous Latin American women and land protectors, Hernandez makes the case that if we’re to recover the health of our planet–for everyone–we need to stop the eco-colonialism ravaging Indigenous lands and restore our relationship with Earth to one of harmony and respect.

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 books you love or that you would recommend. Let me know in a comment below!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of it?

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