Indigenous YA Authors
There are an increasing number of YA books by Indigenous authors, centering their stories and perspectives. I’d love for there to be even more, so be sure to read these to support Native authors and let publishers, booksellers, and librarians know that these are books you love to read.
The books below are set in the past, the present, and the future. But they all hold great respect for their cultures. I appreciate getting to learn about these traditions. I like the idea of making decisions based on what they will mean seven generations into the future. What choices would you make if that was how you thought about it?
Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017)
Frenchie lives in a post-apocalyptic North America where water is scarce and people have stopped dreaming. Non-Indigenous people kidnap Indigenous people for their bone marrow, the key to restore dreams. After losing his family, Frenchie joins with a multi-generational group on the run. They keep moving north, hoping to avoid being captured, and learning their histories. Dimaline is a member of the Metis Nation of Ontario.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (2020)
Elatsoe is a Lipan Apache teen with the talent of calling back the spirits of the deceased. For example, her best friend and companion is a ghost dog named Kirby. When her uncle Trevor is killed. The death is ruled an accident, but Elatsoe and family believe he was murdered and come together to prove it. Little Badger is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (2021)
Daunis is the daughter of a Native father and a white mother. She lives on Sugar Island off the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and loves hockey and chemistry. When Daunis witnesses a murder, she reluctant agrees to go undercover to help take down a drug ring. Boulley does an amazing job balancing Daunis’s coming of age story with a mystery while weaving in the elements of the Indigenous culture that defines Sugar Island. Beautifully written and hard to put down. Boulley is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (2023)
A companion novel to Firekeeper’s Daughter, this book by Boulley focuses on Daunis’s niece Perry. Perry’s been strong-armed into an internship for the summer. Despite her initial hesitation, she is moved by the cultural artifacts she sees in museums and private collections and vows to bring them back to her community. As in Firekeeper’s Daugher, Boulley inserts mystery as well: a character familiar from the first book is killed and young native women are going missing. Perry wants to become a warrior for her people — to do the things that others won’t.
Where Wolves Don’t Die by Anton Treuer and Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley (2024)
When trouble finds 15-year-old Ezra at home in Minneapolis, the teen — a member of the Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation in Canada — goes north to live with his grandfather until things quiet down. He spends the winter helping his grandfather set trap lines and learning the ways to live in the wilderness. I loved the detail given about the intricacies of survival. Treuer is a Leech Lake and White Earth Ojibwe descendant.