Celebrating Indigenous Nonfiction

We all live on Indigenous land, even on Martha’s Vineyard. Aquinnah Wampanoag journalist Joseph Lee had to watch his people find it increasingly difficult to afford to live on their ancestral homeland. In Nothing More of This Land, Lee juxtaposes the experiences of her people with debates about what it means to be Indigenous for Indigenous people in the 21st century.

Julian Brave NoiseCat grew up with a Secwepemuk and Statimuk father and a non-Native mother. However, when his father disappeared, Noisecat immersed himself in researching Native American history. in we survived the nightNoiseCat presents centuries of history as Indigenous peoples confront ongoing colonization and move toward a better future.

in girl warriorformer U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo speaks directly to Native girls coming of age. She encourages people to use artistic expression as a way to heal from the difficult events they experience in life. She emphasizes that art is a tool that encourages empathy and self-expression.

Carrie Laurie Schuettepeltz, an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, examines ideas about Native “enough,” Native sovereignty, and the politics of tribal registration. Schuettpeltz touches on the core of Indigenous peoples’ desire to belong in a society dominated by colonial violence.

in By the fire we carry, Cherokee author Rebecca Nagle delves into the history of the Muskogee Reservation in Oklahoma, which the U.S. government has determined no longer exists. The outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision had a significant impact on the Muscogee Nation and other Native American tribes.