Kendra Winchester is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot where she writes about audiobooks and disability literature. She is also the Founder of Read Appalachia, which celebrates Appalachian literature and writing. Previously, Kendra co-founded and served as Executive Director for Reading Women, a podcast that gained an international following over its six-season run. In her off hours, you can find her writing on her Substack, Winchester Ave, and posting photos of her Corgis on Instagram and Twitter @kdwinchester.
It’s Native American Heritage Month! This month, we celebrate Indigenous stories from across Turtle Island. There are Native researchers, Poet Laureates, memoirists, historians, and more. Whether these Indigenous storytellers are sharing their own story or looking into the concepts around Native identity—or both!—these books are must-reads.
If you’re looking for a place to start, here are a few titles from the last couple of years to get you going.
Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity by Joseph Lee
We all live on Native land, even on Martha’s Vineyard. Aquinnah Wampanoag journalist Joseph Lee has had to watch as his people increasingly struggle to afford living in their ancestral homeland. In Nothing More of This Land, Lee parallels his people’s experience with discussions about what it means to be Indigenous for Native Peoples in the 21st century.
We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat
Julian Brave NoiseCat grew up with a Secwépemc and St’at’imc father and a non-Native mother. But when his father disappeared, NoiseCat threw himself into studying Native history. In We Survived the Night, NoiseCat presents the history of First Peoples across the centuries as they face ongoing colonization and press forward toward a better future.
Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age by Joy Harjo
In Girl Warrior, former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo speaks directly to Native girls as they come of age. She encourages them to use artistic expression as a way to heal from the difficult things they experience in their lives. She emphasizes that art is a tool for encouraging empathy and self-expression.
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The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz
Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz, an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, examines ideas around being Native “enough,” Native sovereignty, and the politics of tribal enrollment. Schuettpelz gets to the heart of Indigenous peoples’ need for belonging in a society ruled by ongoing colonial violence.
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle
In By the Fire We Carry, Cherokee writer Rebecca Nagle delves into the history of a Muscogee reservation in Oklahoma that the American government decided no longer existed. The results of the Supreme Court decision had a significant impact on the Muscogee and other Native American nations.
You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
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