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Indigenous Memoirs and Biographies

Read these books to discover fascinating stories about your favorite Indigenous icons, musicians, authors, and historical figures.

Wood Buffalo Regional Library

25 items

  • Stephen Kakfwi was born in a bush camp on the edge of the Arctic Circle in 1950. In a family torn apart by tuberculosis, alcohol and the traumas endured by generations in residential school, he emerged as a respected Dene elder and eventually the…
    Book, 2023Qualicum Beach, British Columbia : Caitlin Press, 2023. — BIO KAKFWI
  • Ira Hayes

    the Akimel O'odham Warrior, World War II, and the Price of Heroism

    Holm, Tom, 1946-
    The gripping, forgotten tale of Ira Hayes—a Native American icon and World War II legend who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima but spent the latter half of his life haunted by being a war hero.
    Book, 2023New York : Twelve, 2023. — BIO HAYES
  • When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space. Helen Knott’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award-juries, and readers alike with its profoundly…
    Book, 2023Toronto, Ontario : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2023. — BIO KNOTT
  • The Fire Still Burns

    Life in and After Residential School

    George, Sam (Samuel James),
    My name is Sam George. In spite of everything that happened to me, by the grace of the Creator, I have lived to be an Elder.' The crimes carried out at St. Paul's Indian Residential School in North Vancouver scarred untold numbers of Indigenous…
    Book, 2023Vancouver, British Columbia : Purich Books, [2023] — BIO GEORGE
  • It Stops Here

    Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People

    George, Rueben,
    A personal account of one man's confrontation with colonization that illuminates the philosophy and values of a First Nation threatened by the Trans Mountain pipeline. It Stops Here is the story of the spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence…
    Book, 2023[Toronto, Ontario] : Allen Lane, 2023. — BIO GEORGE
  • Unbroken

    My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls

    Sterritt, Angela,
    As a Gitxsan teenager navigating life on the streets, Angela Sterritt wrote in her journal to help her survive and find her place in the world. Now an acclaimed journalist, she writes for major news outlets to push for justice and to light a path…
    Book, 2023Vancouver : Greystone Books, [2023] — BIO STERRITT
  • Child of Morning Star is a poetic collection of stories that draw on the author's travels and knowledge as a Dene artist and his experience being forcibly taken from his home and placed in a residential school. Each part of this book corresponds to…
    Book, 2022Calgary, Alberta : Durvile & UpRoute Books, 2022. — BIO MOUNTAIN
  • The Caetanos move into a doomed house in the highway village of Happyland before an inevitable divorce pulls Cody's parents in separate directions. His mom, having discovered her Anishinaabe birth family and Sixties Scoop origin story, embarks on a…
    Book, 2022[Toronto] : Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, [2022] — BIO CAETANO
  • im Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first…
    Book, 2022New York : Simon & Shuster, 2022. — BIO THORPE
  • Our Voice of Fire

    a Memoir of a Warrior Rising

    Morin, Brandi,
    Brandi Morin is known for her clear-eyed and empathetic reporting on Indigenous oppression in North America. She is also a survivor of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis and uses her experience to tell the stories of those…
    Book, 2022Toronto : Anansi, [2022] — BIO MORIN
  • This is an oral history of a Haida Elder, Naanii Nora, who lived from 1902 to 1997. Compiled by Jenny Nelson, this is a window into Nora's life and her family. This book also contains the larger story of Nora's times, a representation of changing…
    Book, 2022Harbour Publishing, 2022 — BIO BELLIS
  • After Danielle Geller's mother dies of a vicious withdrawal from drugs while homelessness, she is forced to return to Florida. Using her training as a librarian and archivist, Geller collects her mother's documents, diaries, and photographs into a…
    Book, 2021New York : One World, [2021] — BIO GELLER
  • A gritty and inspiring memoir from renowned Cree environmental activist Clayton Thomas-Muller, who escaped the world of drugs and gang life to take up the warrior's fight against the assault on Indigenous peoples' lands-and eventually the warrior's…
    Book, 2021[Toronto] : Allen Lane, 2021. — BIO THOMASMU
  • Call Me Indian

    From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL's First Treaty Indigenous Player

    Sasakamoose, Fred, 1933-2020
    Trailblazer. Residential school Survivor. First Treaty Indigenous player in the NHL. All of these descriptions are true - but none of them tell the whole story. Fred Sasakamooses memoir intersects Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and…
    Book, 2021[Toronto] : Viking, [2021] — BIO SASAKAMO
  • North's work in advocacy journalism, communications, and economic development harnessed her passion for drawing focus to systemic racism faced by Indigenous women and girls. She is the creator of the widely used hashtag #MMIW. In her memoir, Sheila…
    Book, 2021Winnipeg, Manitoba : Great Plains Publications, [2021] — BIO NORTH
  • Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior…
    Book, 2021New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2021] — BIO HARJO
  • Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. Inspired by the example of her grandmother, who persevered throughout her life to keep alive the governing traditions of her people, and raised as the daughter of a hereditary chief and Indigenous…
    Book, 2021Toronto : HarperCollins, [2021] — BIO WILSONRA
  • Spílex̣m

    a Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence

    Campbell, Nicola I.
    Captivating and deeply moving, this story basket of memories tells one Indigenous woman’s journey of overcoming adversity and colonial trauma to find strength through creative works and traditional perspectives of healing, transformation, and…
    Book, 2021Winnipeg, Man. : HighWater Press, [2021] — BIO CAMPBELL
  • Unreconciled

    Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance

    Wente, Jesse
    As the child of an American father and an Anishinaabe mother, Wente grew up in Toronto with frequent visits to the reserve where his maternal relations lived. By exploring his family's history, including his grandmother's experience in residential…
    Book, 2021[Toronto, Ont.] : Allen Lane, 2021. — 305.897 WEN
  • Black Water

    Family, Legacy and Blood Memory

    Robertson, David, 1977-
    David A. Robertson, the son of a Cree father and a white, settler mother, grew up with virtually no knowledge or understanding of his family's Indigenous roots. He grew up without his father's teachings or knowledge of his life or experiences. All…
    Book, 2020Toronto : HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2020. — BIO ROBERTSO