Best Books for Native American Heritage Month: Great Fiction, Nonfiction and Kids Books By Native and Indigenous Authors

Mar. 15, 2025

Some of the best books for Native American Heritage Month.

November marks Native American Heritage Month, also known asNational American Indian Heritage Month. Since it was federally recognized for the first time in 1990, we’ve spent the month recognizing the history, culture and contributions of Indigenous people to our culture and communities.

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‘Fire Exit’.

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‘Heart Berries’.

In this gorgeous elegy for the author’s lost parents, Mailhot explores her trauma, a deeply dysfunctional family and the unreliability of memory as she writes her way toward her version of the truth.

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‘White Magic’.

What doTwin Peaks, theOregon Trailvideo game and Stevie Nicks have in common? In this braided essay collection, the author traces her legacy of cultural inheritance, colonization and her journey toward becoming a witch, including those cultural touch points that have shaped her. It’s a powerful look at the legacy and where some of the now-trendy spiritual practices find their origins.

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‘Wandering Stars’.

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‘The Only Good Indians’.

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‘Never Whistle at Night’.

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‘The Berry Pickers’.

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‘The Mighty Red’.

A wedding between terrified North Dakota farmer Gary and former goth Kismet —notwithstanding aspiring home-wrecker Hugo— forms the crux of this powerful and deeply relatable story. It’s about the costs of things on a mundane and cosmic scale, how time moves in planetary and human terms, not to mention hope, despair and the life we carve out in between.

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‘A Council of Dolls’.

This poignant, moving novel with elements of magical realism follows three generations of Native women and their treasured playthings: Cora, shipped off to a brutal boarding school with only her doll for comfort; Lillian, who endures unspeakable horrors at the hands of punishing nuns; and Sissy, whose mother’s unpredictable anger keeps her on the edge of danger.

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‘White Horse’.

Turn the Metallica up to 11, crack open a cold one and pull on a well-loved band T-shirt for this gritty, supernatural novel about the importance of family and what it means to be haunted. It’s spooky, scary and a great introduction to the author’s prowess before her next one arrives in March 2025.

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‘The Plot Against Native America’.

While a number of the fiction favorites on this list explore the horrors of the Native American boarding schools that abused generations of Native and Indigenous children and decimated their communities, this gripping nonfiction breaks down what really happened. In exacting, incisive prose, it details the development, operation and harmful legacy of these institutions from their first formation in the 1800s to the reparations that are being sought today.

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‘The Truth According to Ember’.

Ember Lee Cardinal hides her Chickasaw identity to land a job and once there, she even gets a crush on the Native IT guy, Danuwoa Colson. But when they get caught violating the no-dating-coworkers policy and a colleague starts blackmailing Ember, she has to decide: should she come clean and risk losing it all?

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‘Braiding Sweetgrass’.

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‘Sisters of the Lost Nation’.

Darkness descends on the Native American reservation where Anna was raised, and her ability to see a nameless entity suddenly takes on even more horrifying meaning. As women begin disappearing, including Anna’s sister, she must face the forces encroaching upon her community in this unforgettable, chilling debut.

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‘Buffalo Dreamer’.

In this gorgeousNational Book Award finalist, a young girl named Summer starts having vivid dreams about the reservation where her mom’s family lives, her grandfather’s heartbreaking history and how learning about a painful past can hold hope for a better future. A beautiful way to teach middle school-aged readers about Native, Indigenous and American Indian history.

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‘This Land’.

An adorable primer on the history of land and who lived where we do before we got here, this engaging book is a great way to introduce kids to the idea that everyone comes from somewhere — and that even Disney World was something else once, too.

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‘Fry Bread, A Native American Family Story’.

This 2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal honoree and 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Winner (among many other accolades) teaches kids about the traditions of a Native American family through lyrical verse and beautiful illustrations. Grab a snack — it might just make you hungry!

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‘Remember’.

source: people.com