Native American Nonfiction
National Native American Heritage Month, observed in November, honors the histories, cultures, and contributions – historical and ongoing – of American Indians and Alaska Natives. This list was created by a librarian at The Seattle Public Library; annotations by staff, or as cited. (Created October 2025)
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Ira Hayes
Holm (Cherokee Nation with Muskogee Creek ancestry) presents a "searching study of the psychically scarred Native American Marine Corps hero made famous for raising the American flag on Iwo Jima." (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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An Indigenous Present
"A monumental gathering of more than 60 contemporary artists, photographers, musicians, writers and more, showcasing diverse approaches to Indigenous concepts, forms and mediums." (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Serviceberry
"While picking serviceberries among singing birds doing the same, Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist, professor, MacArthur fellow, and writer renowned for Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), envisions a new take on a traditional way of living in sync with nature." (Booklist)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Thunder Song
"In this affecting collection, Coast Salish poet LaPointe (Red Paint) explores how she has navigated colonized spaces as a light-skinned Indigenous woman, and the strength she draws from ancestral knowledge. The result is a beautifully rendered snapshot of contemporary American Indigenous life." (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Becoming Little Shell
"Montana poet laureate La Tray [Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians] combines personal reflection and cultural history in his gripping debut memoir. La Tray’s crystalline prose and palpable passion for spreading Indigenous history bolster his account. Readers will be fascinated." (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Nothing More of This Land
In his memoir, award-winning journalist Lee, an Aquinnah Wampanoag person from Martha's Vineyard, grapples with what it means to be an Indigenous person in the world today. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Surviva
Interdisciplinary Native American artist Luger delivers a daring work of speculative fiction set in a future in which the wealthy and non-Indigenous have fled the Earth they ravaged. This audacious hybrid work, which adapts a vintage Army wilderness survival manual, alludes to the difficult work of thriving that follows for those left behind. (Publishers Weekly). Luger is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikar) and Lakota.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Blue Corn Tongue
Blue Corn Tongue is a mixtape from a thirty-something Diné punk girl with tracks about love and friendship as well as environmental destruction and language loss. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Dreamcatcher in the Wry
This irreverent memoir-in-essays from poet and satirist Midge, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, begins with mild musings on everyday frustrations before crescendoing into resonant commentary on colonialism and cultural appropriation. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Paranormal Ranger
Milford, who served as Chief Navajo Ranger and oversaw its special projects unit focused on reports of the paranormal and supernatural, writes about the cases of skinwalker and cryptid sightings, hauntings, and unidentified aerial phenomena. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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