2021 American Indian and Native Alaskan Authored Leadership Books

In celebration of American Indian and Alaskan Native heritage Month, we’ve compiled a list of leadership books written by American Indian and Alaskan Native authors to be read, explored, and studied. This list is meant to be a resource, not an official endorsement. The books are not ranked in any particular order.

Download the full list below.

1. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie
2. Recovering the Sacred: The power of naming and claiming by Winona LaDuke
3. Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
4. The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir by Ernestine Hayes
5. Black Indian: A memoir by Shonda Buchanan
6. Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian manifesto by Vine deLoria Jr. 
7. Where White Men Fear to Tread: The autobiography of Russell Means by Russell Means and Marvin J. Means
8. Prison Writings: My life is my Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier
9. The School Days of an Indian Girl, and an Indian Teacher Among Indians by Zitkala-Sa
10. The Man Made of Words: Essays, stories, passages by N. Scott Momaday
11. Muscogee Daughter: My sojourn to the Miss America Pageant by Susan Supernaw 
12. Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by himself by Black Hawk
13. Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenoious Resistance by Nick Estes
14. Code Talker: The first and only memoir of the original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez
15. Abandon Me: Memoirs by Melissa Febos
16. Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
17. As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
18. Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
19. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
20. God is Red: A Native View of Religion by Vine deLoria Jr. 
21. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
22. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King
23. Lakota Woman by Mary Brave Bird
24. #Not Your Princess: Voices of Native American Women by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale (editors)
25. The Turquoise Ledge by Leslie Silko
26. Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward 
27. Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World by Linda Hogan
28. Bad Indians: a Tribal Memoir by Deborah Miranda 
29. Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative by Ignatia Broker
30. Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller
31. Portage Lake: Memories of an Ojibwe Childhood by Maude Kegg
32. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer
33. The Assassination of Hole in the Day by Anton Treuer
34. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
35. Nooping: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
36. The People and the Word: Reading Native Nonfiction by Robert Warrior
37. Tribal Secrets: Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions by Robert Warrior
38. Like a Loaded Weapon by Robert A. Williams Jr. 
39. Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point by Gerald Vizenor
40. The Third Space of Sovereignty by Kevin Bruyneel
41. Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law: A Tradition of Tribal Self-Governance by Raymond D. Austin
42. Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England by Jean O’Brien
43. X-Marks by Scott Richard Lyons
44. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition by Glen Sean Coulthard
45. The Queerness of Native American Literature by Lisa Tatonetti
46. Speaking of Indigenout Politics: Conversations with Activists, Scholars, and Tribal Leaders by J. Kehaulani Kauanui and Robert Warrior
47. Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement by Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon
48. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson
49. Written by the Body: Gender Expansiveness and Indigenous Non-Cis Masculinities by Lisa Tatonetti
50. Remembering Our Intimacies: Mo’olelo, Aloha ‘Aina, and Ea by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osario
51. Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong by Paul Chatt Smith
52. Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation by Nick Estes, Melanie K. Yazzi, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and David Correia
53. Wiping the War Paint off the Lens: Native American Film and Video by Beverly Singer
54. The People Shall Continue by Simon Ortiz
55. Poet Warrior: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
56. The Four Hills of LIfe: Ojibwe Wisdom by Thomas Peacock and Marlene Wisuri
57. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions by Paula Gunn Allen
58. Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies by Joanne Barker
59. For indigenous Eyes only: A Decolonization Handbook by Waziyatawin and Michael Yellow Bird
60. Mark My Words: Native Women Mapping Our Nations by Mishuana Goeman
61. The Beginning and End of Race: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America by Sarah Deer
62. When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz
63. A History of my Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
64. Starvation Mode by Elissa Washuta
65. The Roots of Ticasuk by Ticasuk (Emily Ivanoff Brown)

We are continually adding to this list. If you have any recommended additions please send us an email at info@curiositybased.com so we can add it here.

Interested in reading more? Check out our Authors with Disabilities Leadership Booklist!

Read our other leadership booklists too! 

• Leadership Books Authored by Women
• Black-Authored Leadership Booklist 
• Hispanic/Latino/Latinx-Authored Leadership Booklist
• LGBTQ-Authored Leadership Booklist
• AAPI-Authored Leadership Booklist