November marks National American Indian Heritage Month, a time dedicated to celebrating the rich cultures, diverse traditions, and enduring heritage of Indigenous peoples. To honor this observance, we've curated a list of must-read books, both about and authored by Native American voices.

If The Dead Belong Here by Carson Faust 

When six-year-old Laurel vanishes, her sister Nadine's haunting visions lead her deep into family history and Indigenous folklore, where uncovering buried truths may be the only way to bring Laurel home and heal generations of unresolved grief.

To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage 

Steph Harper is on the run. When she was five, her mother fled an abusive husband—with Steph and her younger sister in tow—to Cherokee Nation, where she hoped they might finally belong. In response, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis 

Abe Jacobs is Kanien’kehá:ka from Ahkwesáhsne—or, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen, Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back. Now forty-three, Abe is suffering from a rare disease—one his doctors in Miami believe will kill him. Running from his diagnosis and a failing marriage, Abe returns to the Rez, where he’s persuaded to undergo a healing at the hands of his Great Uncle Budge. But Abe’s time off the Rez has made him a thorough skeptic. To heal, Abe will undertake a revelatory journey, confronting the parts of himself he’s hidden ever since he left home and learning to cultivate hope, even at his darkest hour.

 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 

A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits.

Mask of the Deer Woman by Laurie L. Dove 

Haunted by her daughter's murder, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr, now marshal of her father's childhood reservation, investigates college student Chenoa Cloud's disappearance--but when Deer Woman from her father's stories appears, is she there to guide Starr or seek vengeance for the lost daughters?

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich 

In Argus, North Dakota, a wedding intertwines the lives of Gary, Kismet, Hugo, and Crystal. Amidst personal struggles and love triangles, they face broader themes of time, climate change, and economic turmoil. The novel explores the complexities of ordinary people in a prairie community, highlighting their dreams, struggles, and resilience.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters 

July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries; weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie vanishes mysteriously, last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe. Joe will remain deeply affected by his sister's disappearance for years to come. In Boston, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions; as she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren't telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

Big Chief by Jon Hickey 

Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe's Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack's reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack's estranged sister and Mitch's former love. The campaigns resort to bare-knuckle political gamesmanship, testing the limits of how far they will go--and what they will sacrifice--to win it all.

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns 

A young Cree woman is tormented by vivid dreams from before her sister's untimely death and wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands before returning to her rural hometown in Alberta seeking answers.

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power 

Details the story of three women from different generations, told through the stories of the dolls they carried in 1888, 1925 and 1961 bringing to light the damage done to indigenous people through history.

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty 

Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty -- with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight -- breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of an Indigenous community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.

The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk

The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, as a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America. Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century. Blackhawk's retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America. 

The Lumbee Indians by Malinda Maynor Lowery 

As the largest tribe east of the Mississippi and one of the largest in the country, the Lumbees have survived in their original homelands, maintaining a distinct identity as Indians in a biracial South. The Lumbees' journey as a people sheds new light on America's defining moments, from the first encounters with Europeans to the present day. Their fight for full federal acknowledgment continues to this day, while the Lumbee people's struggle for justice and self-determination continues to transform our view of the American experience. 

By the Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle

Reporter and member of the Cherokee Nation Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country. 

Beneath the Swamp's Shadow by Kelvin Ray Oxendine 

In 1958 Robeson County, North Carolina, the swamps run deep -- and so does the bloodline of resistance. When the Ku Klux Klan targets the Lumbee and Tuscarora people with threats of violence and intimidation, Cecil Lowery, a quiet young man burdened by doubt, finds himself at a crossroads. The memory of his ancestor, Henry Berry Lowrie-the legendary revolutionist who defied white supremacy during the Reconstruction era -- calls to him from the shadows of the past. Guided by the wisdom of his father, grandfather, and great grandmother and strengthened by the stories of his people, Cecil begins to realize that the same fire that once burned in Henry Berry Lowrie still lives within him. Inspired by true events, Beneath the Swamp's Shadow is a powerful historical fiction novel that weaves generational memory, Indigenous pride, and the enduring legacy of Henry Berry Lowrie into a timeless tale of unity and defiance.