Memoirs by Indigenous AuthorsLike this list

18 items

• Crazy Brave

  a Memoir

  Harjo, Joy

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  Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Harjo, the first Indigenous Poet Laureate of the US, takes the reader through her younger years, including becoming a single teenage mother and developing her creative voice. American Book Award Winner.

• Heart Berries

  a Memoir

  Mailhot, Terese Marie,

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  Seabird Island Band. Mailhot was given a notebook following her diagnoses of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II. This notebook originated 'Heart Berries' and its study of shame, memory, and autonomy.

• My Body Is a Book of Rules

  Washuta, Elissa

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  Cowlitz. Washuta's first memoir exists between mental illness, trauma, body shame and reclamation, Indigenous identity, and coming of age.

• You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

  a Memoir

  Alexie, Sherman, 1966-

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  Spokane-Coeur d'Alene. Alexie grieves the loss of his mother through writing, revisiting his experiences being raised on the Spokane Reservation by parents suffering from alcoholism.

• Lakota Woman

  Mary Crow Dog • Erdoes, Richard

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  Lakota. Crow Dog's (nee Brave Bird) memoir recounts her childhood on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation and her involvement in the American Indian Movement of the 60s and 70s. American Book Award Winner.

• Honor the Grandmothers

  Dakota and Lakota Women Tell Their Stories

  Penman, Sarah

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  Dakota and Lakota. In this written collection of oral histories, four Grandmothers share their life stories.

• Dog Flowers

  a Memoir

  Geller, Danielle,

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  Tsi'naajinii. Following the death of her mother, Geller collects her mothers documents and photographs, beginning a journey into the past ending on the Navajo Reservation.

• Life Among the Qallunaat

  Mini Aodla Freeman

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  Inuk. Freeman documents her experiences growing up in the Inuit communities of James Bay and her time living with the Qallunaat. Freeman's memoir further explores the sweeping changes experienced by Inuit communities in the 40s and 50s.

• Spirit Car

  Journey to a Dakota Past

  Wilson, Diane

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  Dakota. Wilson grew up in suburban Minneapolis, completely separate from her mother's past and Dakota heritage. Once in her thirties, Wilson traveled to South Dakota and Nebraska in search of her family's histories.

• They Called Me Number One

  Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

  Sellars, Bev

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  Xat'sull. Chief Bev Sellars recounts the part of her childhood spent at St. Joseph's Mission, a Christian-run residential school in British Columbia.

• A History of My Brief Body

  Belcourt, Billy-Ray

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  Driftpile Cree. Belcourt's memoir unpacks the vast and complicated world he inhabits through themes of love, survival, sexual exploration and intimacy, and writing as a subversive act of survival. Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

• Bad Indians

  A Tribal Memoir

  Miranda, Deborah A.

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  Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen. Miranda takes the reader on a journey through California Indigenous history with a grab bag of literary styles. Winner of the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Award and the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award.

• An Indian Among Los Indígenas

  a Native Travel Memoir

  Pike, Ursula, 1968-

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  Karuk. Pike recounts her time with the Peace Corps working with Indigenous populations in Bolivia. She explores the unique position of being both the colonizer and the colonized.

• From the Ashes

  My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way

  Thistle, Jesse,

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  Métis-Cree. Thistle shares his journey through abandonment, the foster-care system, addiction, and experiencing homelessness. However, through these experiences, Thistle finds his way back to his family, culture, and Indigenous identity through…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Abandon Me

  Memoirs

  Febos, Melissa,

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  Wampanoag. Febos' second memoir explores the need for connection and bonding, whether with family, lovers, friends, or self.

• The Turquoise Ledge

  a Memoir

  Silko, Leslie, 1948-

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  Laguna Pueblo. Silko shares her daily walks through the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, weaving the arroyos and ledges with personal stories, pulling these separate threads together through the turquoise stones she finds on her walks.

• How to Lose Everything

  A Memoir about Losing My Children, My Leg, My Marriage, and My Voice

  Couture, Christa

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  Cree - Nehiyawak. Couture delves into the nature of loss and the synchronous compassion and love she experiences.

• Approaching Fire

  Porter, Michelle

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  Métis. Porter creates a portrait of her great-grandfather, the fiddler Léon Robert Goulet, through exploration of musicology, archival reels, poetry, photographs, and fire ecology.