Ten Books to Read During Native American and Native Alaskan Heritage Month

November is National Native American and Native Alaskan Heritage Month. First approved by former President George H. W. Bush in November 1990, it has been observed yearly as both "Native American Heritage Month" and "National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month" since 1994. 

Below are ten books that celebrate Native American and Indigenous voices and history of North America. 

Fiction

1.  Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline: To save her father’s job at the crematorium and the only home she’s ever known, Winifred and her con-artist cousin start offering ghost tours until Winifred meets an actual ghost who causes her to question everything she believes about life, love and death.

2. Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers: Horror fans will get their thrills in this collection – from werewolves to vampires to zombies – all the time-worn horror baddies are there. But so are predators of a distinctly American variety – the horrors of empire, of intimate partner violence, of dispossession. And so too the monsters of Rogers' imagination, that draw upon long-told Cherokee stories – of Deer Woman, fantastical sea creatures, and more. Following one extended Cherokee family across the centuries, from the tribe's homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period that will leave readers longing for more.

3. Rez Ball by Byron Graves: When the varsity basketball team members take him under their wing, Tre Brun, representing his Ojibwe reservation, steps into his late brother’s shoes as star player but soon learns he can’t mess up?—?not on the court, not in school and not in love. 

4. Those Pink Mountain Nights by Jenny Ferguson: While working at Pink Mountain Pizza, three teens--overachiever Berlin, high school dropout Cameron and rich girl Jessie--find their weekend taking unexpected turns, forcing them all to acknowledge the various ways they've been hurt--and how much they need each other to hold it all together.

5. Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley: Forced into a summer internship, sixteen-year-old Perry Firekeeper-Borch discovers the local university holds sacred Ojibwe artifacts and remains, and with the help of her twin sister and fellow interns she embarks on a journey to repatriate the remains and uncovers a deadly mystery involving missing Indigenous women.

Non-Fiction

1. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer: Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day. 

2. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer: An Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist answers the most commonly asked questions about Native Americans, both historical and modern.

3. Notable Native People : 50 indigenous leaders, dreamers, and changemakers from past and present by Adrienne Keene: An accessible and educational illustrated book profiling 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, from NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota to Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. 

4. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee : life in Native America by David Treuer: Since the late 1800s, it has been believed that Native American civilization has been wiped from the United States. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee argues that Native American culture is far from defeated—if anything, it is thriving as much today as it was one hundred years ago. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee looks at Native American culture as it exists today—and the fight to preserve language and traditions. 

5. This Indian Kid : a Native American memoir by Eddie D Chuculate: Award-winning author Eddie Chuculate brings his childhood to life with spare, unflinching prose in a book that is at once a love letter to his Native American roots and an inspiring and essential message for young readers everywhere who are coming of age in an era when conversations about acceptance and empathy, love and perspective are more necessary than ever.