Native American literature reflects the culture, history, and contemporary issues of the people who are Indigenous to what is now the United States. Each author has a different perspective based on the tribe they come from, which makes this genre a diverse one. Get a taste of some great Native American fiction with this list!
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
This literary fiction focuses on a young American Indian, Abel, returning form service in World War Two. Upon returning to his reservation in New Mexico, he struggles with emotional baggage. The book outlines his struggle to find spiritual and physical wholeness and connectedness to the land and his people.
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There There by Tommy Orange
This fast-paced novel tackles the complex history of Native Americans. The book follows 12 characters, who each have a private reason for attending the Big Oakland Powwow. Orange weaves the stories together to create a symphony of dialog about common problems that plague Native American people and communities.
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My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
The main character in this horror novel, Jade Daniels, is a half-Indian outcast who’s only solace is in 1980s slasher movies. The reader gets pulled into her dark mind when her knowledge of these films seems to play out in real life. Blood will spill on the waters of Indian lake. Content warning: sexual abuse and suicide.
The Removed by Brandon Hobson
In this mystical and character-driven novel, a Cherokee family is grieving the loss of a family member, Ray-Ray, who was unjustly killed by a police officer. The family takes in a remarkable foster child on the eve of a Cherokee National Holiday and of Ray-Ray’s death, who seems to embody Ray-Ray. How will this play into the family’s grief and a family member’s fight with Alzheimer’s?
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The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Rosalie Iron Wing is pregnant and married to John, a white man, who lives on land that was stolen from Rosalie’s Dakhota ancestors. John’s farming practices isolate Rosalie from her only friend, Gaby, who is an anti GMO activist. Decades later, John dies from cancer. Rosalie then returns to her father’s cabin and delves into stories of her family’s painful past and the traditions of the Dakhota.
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Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
Don’t knock this teen historical fiction until you try it. Adults can read teen fiction too! Ned Begay is taken from his Navajo home and placed in a boarding school where speaking his native language is off limits. After enlisting in the Marines during World War Two, he finds that his native language is useful as a code talker.
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
A post-apocalyptic fantasy with a strong female lead? Sign us up! It’s the near future, and a cataclysmic flood has drowned two thirds of the planet. The remainder of dry land is home to the Navajo people. With the waters came the monsters of old, and Maggie Hoskie is a monster hunter. When a small town needs her help finding a missing girl, she teams up with an unconventional medicine man to find the truth of the girl’s disappearance.
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
Cedar Hawk Songmaker lives in a strange dystopian world of reversing evolution and a growing police state. The 26-year-old has decided to return to her monther’s Ojibwe reservation to investigate her biological family, and to wait for the birth of her child. The child, who may emerge as a member of a primitive human species.
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Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon
Renee Blackbear, a 19-year-old member of the White Earth Reservation, has had an uneasy childhood. After being in and out of foster homes, she is now a farm laborer and pool shark. One day in August, she follows a radio report about a dead body that came from the rez. The sheriff has no jurisdiction, but Renee, driven by her vivid walking dreams, helps the sheriff navigate this mystery.