30 must-read books to learn about the Indigenous experience in North America

CBC Books asked Michelle Good to curate a list of books to read for National Indigenous History Month in June 2023. And Good, who isa Cree writer and retired lawyer, and a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan,would know about books that would resonate with readers. Her debut novel,Five Little Indians,won the2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fictionandthe 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.It also wonCanada Reads2022, when it was championed by Ojibway fashion journalistChristian Allaire, and was the #1 bestselling Canadian book at independent bookstores across Canada in both 2021 and 2022.

Good's latest book is the essay collection Truth Telling, which isa collection of seven personal essays that explore a wide range of issues affecting Indigenous people in Canada today, including reconciliation, the rise of Indigenous literature in the 1970s and the impact it has to this day, the emergence of "pretendians" and more.

I keep hoping that non-Indigenous people will find a way to reach under the myth of North American history.- Michelle Good

"I keep hoping that non-Indigenous people will find a way to reach under the myth of North American history; the version taught for generations cementing wrong notions of Indigenous peoples and supporting exoneration of those responsible for colonial violence.Hopefully this list will aid in that objective," Good told CBC Books via email.

Check out her picks for books to read this month below. This list was curated in 2023.

Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk

Michelle Good says: "An exceptional example of deep research and analysis of the force and impact of colonial impacts and the drive to extinguish the plains peoples."

Clearing the Plains is a book that explores how government policies led to starvation among First Nations peoples in the 19th century. First published in 2013,Clearing the Plains is an indictment of our first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. It blames him for systematically starving Indigenous people to make way for the railroads and his national dream.

Clearing the Plains won the Governor General's History Award for Scholarly Research, which is given to a book that has made "a significant contribution" to understandingCanadian history.

• CBC Asks: Is reconciliation possible?

James Daschuk is an assistant professor at the University of Regina, whose research focused on the impact of environmental changes on Indigenous health and well-being. He is originally from Ontario.

Seeing Red byMark Cronlund Anderson &Carmen L. Robertson

Michelle Good says: "How the media basically has engaged in racial profiling since the inception of Canada. A powerful analysis of media, infused with government influence, has served as providing a negative curriculum regarding Indigenous peoples."

Seeing Red, which was published in 2011, explores how Canadian newspapers portrayed Indigenous people from 1869 to the early 2000s. It looks at how the media portrayednotable stories, such as LouisRiel and the North-West Rebellion, the sale of Rupert's Land, the death of E. Pauline Johnson and many more, and examines how these depictions reinforced harmful stereotypes.

Seeing Red won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Scholarly Writing and the Regina Book of the Year Award.

• 'Colonialism has always thrived in Canada's press,' says researcher

Mark Cronlund Anderson is a history professor at the University of Regina. He is also the author ofPancho Villa's Revolution by HeadlinesandCowboy Imperialism and Hollywood Film.

Carmen L. Robertson is a Lakota-Scottish scholar and curatorwho currently teaches at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Distorted Descentby Darryl Leroux

Michelle Good says: "This book exposes the shocking extent to which identity theft by white Canadians has proliferated and is something far beyond just individual people lining their pockets with false claims to Indigenous identity. Leroux crystallizes the terrifying reality that huge swaths of white people are trying to legitimize themselves legally as Indians and even as Indian Bands."

Distorted Descent, which was published in 2019, is about the 21stcentury phenomenon of descendents of French settlers in Canadaself-identifying as Indigenous. The book exploresthe social, cultural and historical influences that have led to this phenomenon and takes on two prominent organizations in Quebec that encourage this practice. It also looks at howthis practice is actively harmful to Indigenous people todayand how such claims reinforce white supremacy, harmful stereotypes and public policy.

• Discover new stories on CBC Gem for Indigenous History Month in June

Darryl Leroux is an associate professorat St. Mary's University in Halifax. His work focuses on racism and colonialism among descendents of French settlers.

Lessons in Legitimacyby Sean Carleton

Michelle Good says: "Carleton demonstrates how church and state officials administered different school systems that trained Indigenous and settler children and youth to take up and accept unequal roles in the emerging social order. And much more."

Lessons in Legitimacy is a 2022 book that looks at how the B.C. government created school systems including Indians residential schools, Indian Day Schools and public schools for white students to reinforce systemic racism,inequality and white supremacy. The book explores how better understanding this partof history, which ran from 1849 to 1930, can better inform attempts at reconciliation in education, policy and public awareness today.

• 48 books by Indigenous writers to read to understand residential schools

Sean Carletonis assistant professor of history and Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba.

The North-West is Our Mother by Jean Teillet

Michelle Good says: "Teillet's brilliant and painstaking historical documentation and analysis of the history of the Mtisand the great Mtisresistance."

Jean Teillet is a lawyer, Mtisexpert and thegreat-grandniece of Louis Riel. Her book,The North-West is Our Mother,is a history of theMtisNation. It begins inthe early 1800s, when the Mtisbecame knownas fierce nomadic hunters, and continues to the late 19th-century resistance led by Riel to reclaim theland stolen from them, all the way to present dayasthey fightfor reconciliation and decolonization.

• Louis Riel's great-grandniece Jean Teillet continues to speak out about Mtis legacy and recognition

Jean Teillet is a lawyer and an expert onMtis rights.

LISTEN | Jean Teillet discusses The North-West is Our Mother:

The Next Chapter24:53Jean Teillet on The North West Is Our Mother

Author and Indigenous rights lawyer Jean Teillet on her epic history of the Metis nation, The North-West Is Our Mother, which is a finalist for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, at the Manitoba Book Awards.

The Break by katherena vermette

Michelle Good says: "The origin story of The Strangers. Not only a brilliant novel, but foundational to her future works. The subsequent works following the lives of these striving and struggling characters stand on their own, but I found them richer having read The Break first."

The Breakoffers a glimpse into the world of a Mtis community in northern Winnipeg. Told from 10 points of view, the interweaving stories deal with the pain and truths Indigenous women endure.

The Breakwas a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. It was defended by Candy Palmater onCanada Reads2017.

• Why katherenavermette's heartbreaking debut novel The Break continues to resonate with readers

katherenavermette is a Mtis writer from Winnipeg. Her other books include the poetry collectionsNorth End Love Songsandriver woman,the novel The Strangersand the four-book graphic novel seriesA Girl Called Echo.North End Love Songswon the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. Her next book is the novel The Circle, which will be published in fall 2023.

LISTEN | katherena vermette discusses enduring appeal of The Break:

The Next Chapter12:41Katherena Vermette on The Break.

Katherena Vermette talks to Shelagh Rogers about The Break. The Break was the choice this spring for the virtual national book club, One E-read Canada.

Prison of Grass by Howard Adams

Michelle Good says: "Originally published in 1975, Prison of Grass was one of the first books to challenge the idea of Indigenous people in Canada as warring savages with no social organization, no governance structures and essentially no sophistication to their social order. Particularly important as he contrasts the official government historical records with what was then the unpublished history of the Indian and Mtis. The book was reissued in 1995 with then current statistics. An excellent foundational work."

Prison of Grass, which was first published in 1975 and re-issued in 1995, is now considered a classic. It is one of the first books to challenge the harmfulstereotypes of Indigenous people as portrayed in history, media and popular culture. Howard Adams highlights how Indigenous people had complex societies and systems of governanceand how colonialism erased this from the dominant historical narrative. Prison of Grass also explores the harmful social, cultural and psychological effects colonialism had on Indigenous people.

• Our Native Land: In our own words, a new native literature

Howard Adams was a prominent Mtisleader and activist. He was a great-grandson of Maxime Lpine, who fought alongsideLouis Riel, and regularly appeared on CBC throughout his life. He died in 2001 at the age of 80. He is also the author ofThe Education of Canadians 1800-1867 andTortured People: The Politics of Colonization.

FROM THE ARCHIVES |Maria Campbell, Howard Adams, George Manuel and Mike Posluns are penning a new direction for native literature:

Archives26:22In Indigenous authors' own words, a new literature

Writers Maria Campbell, Howard Adams, George Manuel and Mike Posluns are penning a new direction for Indigenous literature. Aired March 13, 1976 on CBC Radio's Our Native Land.

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

Michelle Good says: "Momaday's barrier shattering, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that heralded the opening of the doors for Indigenous writers."

House Made of Dawnwas considered a breakthrough book for Indigenous literature when it was published in 1968. The novel is inspired byN. Scott's Momaday'slife in the small town Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. It tells the story of a young Indigenous man named Abel, who returns home from fighting in the Second World War and finds himselfsplit between two worlds: thereservation of his youthand the rest of Americabeyond it.

House Made of Dawn won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

• 25 books that highlight beauty of Indigenous literature: 'It is time to tell our own stories our way'

N. Scott Momaday is a poet, novelist, artist and teacher who lives in New Mexico. He has a PhD from Stanford University and is a retired regents professorat the University of Arizona. He is also the author ofThe Ancient Child,Dream Drawings and Earth Keeper.

The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday

Michelle Good says: "A fantastical and fantastic recharacterization of the story of Billy the Kid."

The Ancient Child, which was first published in 1989, takes theclassic Kiowa myth of the boy who turned into a bear and combines it with the classic Wild West tale of Billy the Kid to create a contemporaryand originalIndigenous story.Locke Setmanis an Indigenous boy raised away from his family's reservation by his adoptive father. When hereturns to the reservation for his grandmother's funeral, he meets a young medicine woman and the world as he knows it changes forever.

• 5 Indigenous heroes you'll learn about on the This Place podcast

N. Scott Momaday is a poet, novelist, artist and teacher who lives in New Mexico. He has a PhD from Stanford University and is a retired Regents Professorat the University of Arizona. He is also the author of House Made of Dawn,Dream Drawings and Earth Keeper.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Michelle Good says: "A multi-layered story that steps beyond the story of one family and into the story of hundreds of thousands of families whose children were stolen from them."

The Berry Pickerscentres arounda fictional,decades-old cold case of a missing four-year-old girl of a Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia.When four-year-old Ruthie goes missing from a blueberry field in Maine in 1962, her brother Joe the last person to see her before she went missing is forever changed by her disappearance. In Maine, a girl named Norma senses there is something her family isn't telling her. That feeling stays with her and eventually setsher off on a years-long journey touncover the truth.

• 32 Canadian books to read in spring 2023

Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi'kmaq and settler ancestry living in Annapolis Valley, N.S. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review and Filling Station Magazine. She was the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose and was a participant in the 2021 Writers' Trust Rising Stars program.

LISTEN | Amanda Peters discusses The Berry Pickers:

The Next Chapter3:15Amanda Peters on The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters reveals the inspiration behind her novel, The Berry Pickers.

Lines from a Mined Mind: The Words of John Trudell

Michelle Good says: "A compilation harvested from 25 years of the deeply spiritual and deeply political words of poet and activist John Trudell."

Lines from a Mined Mind: The Words of John Trudell was published in 2008 and brings together poetry, essays and lyrics of Indigenous activist, musician, poet and artist John Trudell. Trudell, who gained renown as an activist and for being the spokesperson for the 1969All Tribes'takeover of Alcatraz, turned to music and poetry and film after the tragic loss of his wife and children in 1979. He spent more than 25 years making music and films and writing.

• The lasting legacy of the Red Power Movement and the Occupation of Alcatraz

John Trudell was a Santee Dakota-Mexican artist and activist. He died in 2015.

The Story of A National Crime byDr. Peter Henderson Bryce

Michelle Good says: "A republication of the passionate appeal that Dr. Bryce, chief medical officer for Indian Affairs published in 1922 articulating the desperate conditions in residential schools and calling on Canadians to rise up and speak out for their 'Indian Allies.' Brilliant and truth-telling about how much the government knew about how many children were dying in residential schools and how they chose to do nothing about it."

The Story of a National Crime was a report by Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce, the chief medical officer for Indian Affairs,that was first published in 1922 and re-published in 2018. The report outlined the horrific conditions Bryce witnessed atresidential schools and called for action and for Canadians to speak up. The report shows how much the government knew about the harms of residential schools going back over 100 yearsand it is a testament to how little was done.

• Dead reckoning: Canada's national cemetery is bringing truth about residential schools to light

Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce was a public health physician who worked for the Canadian and Ontario governments. In addition to his work highlighting the conditions in residential schools, he also worked on immigrant healthand wrote several papers on communicable diseases such as cholera, smallpox and malaria. He died in 1932.

LISTEN |Adramatic reading fromThe Story of a National Crime:

Tapestry47:01Why is the world so beautiful? An Indigenous botanist on the spirit of life in everything

Robin Wall Kimmerer is an acclaimed botanist who blends her scientific studies with her Indigenous upbringing. She says there is much to be learned about how to interact respectfully with the earth, from the behaviour of plants.

A National Crime by John S. Milloy

Michelle Good says: "A scholarly and carefully researched history of the residential school system."

A National Crimeis one of the first comprehensive studies of the residential school system. It was first published in 1997and re-released 20 years later, as a response to theTruth and Reconciliation Commission. Historian John S. Milloy looks at previously unreleased government documents which he accessed while working on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to highlight the systemic racism and white supremacy that drove residential school policy and practices.

• 6 books on Canada's residential schools recommended by Duncan McCue and the Kuper Island podcast team

John S. Milloy is a historian and professor at Trent University in Ontario. He is also the author of The Plains Cree.

Manifest Mannersby Gerald Vizenor

Michelle Good says: "A brilliant post-modern contemplation of the creation of 'the Indian'as a colonial construct an insistent overlay that serves to erase Indigenous identity as experienced by Indigenous people."

"Survivance" is a legal term that was given new meaning and relevancebyAnishinaabe criticand writerGerald Vizenor. He first used the term in his 1999 book,Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance.Vizenorreimaginedthe termin a contemporary Indigenouscontext tomean"an active sense ofpresence, the continuance of native stories, not a mere reaction, or a survivable name. Native survivance stories are renunciations of dominance, tragedy and victimry."

• This graphic novel tells 150 years of Canadian history from an Indigenous perspective

Gerald Vizenor is an Anishinaabe criticand writer who is currently a professor at the University of New Mexico. He has written more than 20 books, includingFugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence.

Survivance,edited by Gerald Vizenor

Michelle Good says: "A collection of deeply considered contemplations on the critical difference between survival and survivance."

Survivance is a collection, which was published in 2008, wherein 18 scholars look at the lasting impact of the concept of survivance and the legacy of Anishinaabe criticand writer GeraldVizenor's work.

Gerald Vizenor is an Anishinaabe criticand writer who is currently a professor at the University of New Mexico. He has written more than 20 books, includingFugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence.

The Grass Dancer by Susan Power

Michelle Good says: "A fabulously conceived, uniquely structured, time-defying novel that explores history and family and community relations on a non-linear continuum."

The Grass Dancer is a 1994 novel set on a reservation in North Dakota. It is a story inspired by Susan Power's Sioux heritage thatweaves together several stories from members of the reservation to paint a rich tapestry of people, their connections, their hopes and dreams and their struggles.

• Indigenous summer reading: 3 top picks by Rosanna Deerchild

Susan Power is aStanding Rock Sioux Tribe member from Chicago. The Grass Dancer s her debut novel. She is also the author of Strong Heart Society, Roofwalker and Sacred Wilderness.

Unbrokenby Angela Sterritt

Michelle Good says: "A necessary read that personalizes the deep and dangerous world of being an Indigenous woman or girl in Canada."

In her memoirUnbroken, Angela Sterritt shares her story from navigating life on the streets to becoming an award-winning journalist. As a teenager, she wrote in her notebook to survive. Now, she reports on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism create a society where Indigenous people are devalued.Unbrokenis a story about courage and strength against all odds.

• Angela Sterritt's book Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls

Angela Sterritt is a journalist, writer and artist. She currently works with CBC Vancouver as a host and reporter. Sterritt is a member of the Gitxsan Nation and lives on Swxw7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh territories, Vancouver.

LISTEN | Andrea Sterritt discusses Unbroken:

The Next Chapter20:30Monique Gray Smith and Nicole Neidhardt on Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults

Monique Gray Smith and Nicole Neidhardt on Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults.

Stolen byAnn-Heln Laestadius, translated byRachel Willson-Broyles

Michelle Good says: "A gripping page-turner of a novel that is so much more. An excellent expression of the brutality of the colonial experience this time in the context of the Smi, the Indigenous people of Scandinavia."

Stolen is a contemporary coming-of-age novel. Itwas first published in 2021, then translated into English in 2023.It tells the story of an young Smi girl named Elsain Sweden, who must defend her family's culture andreindeer herd against climate change, hunters and racism in the broader community. Reindeer are Elsa's family's livelihood, but they also hold spiritual and cultural significance.

Stolen will be adapted into a film for Netflix.

• 45 books that 'share stories and truths' from women and two-spirit Indigenous creators

Ann-Heln Laestadiusis a writer and journalistof Smi and of Tornedalian descent from Sweden. She is also the author of the children's bookTen Past One.

Rachel Willson-Broylesistranslator from Minnesota who focuses on translating works from Swedish to English.

Intimate Integration byAllyson D. Stevenson

Michelle Good says: "An absolutely brilliantly compiled, detailed history and analysis of the Sixties Scoop in the context of the colonial agenda to ultimately destroy Indigeneity."

Intimate Integration is a 2020 book that looks at the history and impact of transracial adoption, including Adopt Indian and Mtis Project and the Indian Adoption Project, which led to the Sixties Scoop. The Sixties Scoop was a policy in the 1950s through the 1980s, where Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed into foster care, then eventually with a white adoptive family.Intimate Integration looksat the irreparable harm it created on adoptees and their families, as another avenue to erase Indigenous identity and culture in the name of colonialism.

• This Place podcast, hosted by Rosanna Deerchild, explores 150 years of Indigenous resistance and resilience

Allyson D. Stevenson is an assistant professor at the University of Regina and is theGabriel Dumont Institute Chair in Mtis Studies.

Winter in the Blood by James Welch

Michelle Good says: "His first novel, a seminal work, Winter in the Blood, is a brilliant example of understated prose that not only packs a storytelling punch but creates a poignant and perfect snapshot of a place in time."

Winter in the Blood, first published in 1974, is a novel about an aimless young man searching for his girlfriend. His quest is a flurry of one-night stands and benders.But when he comes int him in contact with an elder named Yellow Calf, and this interact leads him to consider the deeper purpose to life.

• What does it mean to tell Indigenous stories? These 3 authors explore the idea

James Welch was born in Browning, Montana, in 1940 and was raised on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations. His first book of poetry,Riding the Earthboy 40, was published in 1971 and was followed by a series of acclaimed novels, includingThe Death of Jim LoneyandFools Crow. Welch was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1995. He died in 2003.

Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid

Michelle Good says: "The title says it all. This book is a phenomenal accounting of the profound and complete failure of Canada to either serve or protect Indigenous women and girls."

The Highway of Tears is anisolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia where many Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been murdered. InHighway of Tears,journalist Jessica McDiarmidinvestigates some of the tragedies that have taken place along this road andexplores the larger societal and cultural issues that haveled to this crisis.

Highway of Tears was onthe 2020 RBC Taylor Prize shortlist.

• Read an excerpt fromHighway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid

Jessica McDiarmidis a journalist from British Columbia.Highway of Tearsis her first book.

God is Redby Vine Deloria Jr.

Michelle Good says: "Probably the very best articulation of Indigenous spirituality and the imperative that humans learn that we are a part of nature not a 'transcendent species with no responsibility to the natural world.'"

God is Red was first published in 1973, and a 50th anniversary edition is being released in June 2023.God is Red is considered a seminal text when it comes to highlighting and exploring Indigenous spirituality, weaving together long-held beliefs and practices with important questions forcontemporarytimes.

• 10 books to read if you loved Canada Reads winner Five Little Indians

Vine Deloria Jr.is a historian, theologian, academic and activist from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is the authorofseveral other books, including Custer Died for Your Sins and Red Earth, White Lies. He died in 2005.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Michelle Good says: "An incomparable expression of the necessity and suddenly obvious benefits of marrying traditional ecological knowledge with conventional science."

Braiding Sweetgrass, first published in 2013, finally becamea runaway bestseller nearly a decade later. American scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer blendedthe study of botany with Indigenous lore to highlight the important lessons we can take from nature, if we only stop to look.

• Why is the world so beautiful? An Indigenous botanist on the spirit of life in everything

Robin Wall Kimmereris an American scientist, professorand enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

LISTEN | Robin Wall Kimmerer on seeing the beauty in the world:

Writers and Company52:08Writer Louise Erdrich interview at Toronto's International Festival of Authors (2012 Encore)

Eleanor spoke with Louise Erdrich, onstage, in front of a packed house at Harbourfront in Toronto.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adultsby Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted byMonique Gray Smith & illustrated byNicole Neidhardt

Michelle Good says: "This essential text brilliantly transposed for young adults."

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adultsbrings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and thelessons Kimmererbrought to the foreto a younger generation. Adapted by writerMonique Gray Smithand illustrated byNicole Neidhardt,this new editionreinforces the importance of gaining ecological knowledge from earth'soldest teachers: the plants around us.

• How a new adaptation of the hit book Braiding Sweetgrass delivers Indigenous wisdom to a younger generation

Monique Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage Cree, Lakota and Scottish author who often writes and speaks about the resilience of Indigenous communities in Canada. She is also the author of the children's booksSpeaking Our TruthandYou Hold Me Upand the novelsTillyandTilly and the Crazy Eights.

• Why Monique Gray Smith almost stopped writingSpeaking Our Truth

Nicole Neidhardt is a Din visual artist and illustrator.Smith and Neidhardt previously collaborated onWhen We Are Kind,a children's book thatcelebrates simple acts of everyday kindness.

LISTEN | Monique Gray Smith and Nicole Neidhardt on Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults:

The Next Chapter7:14Maria Campbell on storytelling

Respected Metis elder Maria Campbell on the important role books and storytelling played in her life.

American Holocaust by David E. Stannard

Michelle Good says: "With peerless, impeccably substantiated scholarship and horrifying detail, Stannard tells the real story and the staggering death toll of Indigenous peoples post 1492. He makes an unimpeachable case for the fact that the subsequent attack on Indigenous peoples was an apocalyptic, demographic disaster."

In the 1993 work American Holocaust,historian David E. Stannard tells the story of how the first European contact in North America in 1492 ledto the mass death of Indigenous people, thanks to the influx of diseases, war, conflict and the introduction of European cultural practices and religion. More than 100 million Indigenous people died over the next 400 years. American Holocaust tells the story of Indigenous people before and after this first contactandexplores the European ideologies that lead to this happening.

• Tracey Lindberg on telling Indigenous stories

David E. Stannard is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. He is also the author ofThe Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change,Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Kneeby Dee Brown

Michelle Good says: "Originally published in 1970 this was one of, if not the first book, to challenge the non-Indigenous version of the history of America and to painstakingly record the deception and callous and casual brutality of the so-called Indian Wars."

First published in 1970,Bury My Heart at Wounded Kneewas one of the first mainstream books to cover the history of Indigenous people in the United States. Dee Brown used historical records, first-hand accounts and other writings to paint the picture of the Indigenous people in the American West as they faced displacement, violence, war and broken treaties and promises, as told through from the perspective of prominent Indigenous leaders who lived it.

• Ojibwe writer seeks to 'undo' tragic view of Native American history

Dee Brown was an American novelist and historian who wrote more than 25 books about the American west and history. He died in 2002.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Michelle Good says: "A tenderly written novel based on the story of Erdrich's grandfather who like so many of Indigenous activists in the early days made tremendous contributions to protecting Indigenous lands and rights at a great cost to themselves. "

The Night Watchmanis a novel based on the life of Louise Erdrich's grandfather, who worked as a night watchman and foughtagainst Native dispossession in the United States.Thomas Wazhashk is a watchman at a factory in North Dakota andPixie "Patrice" Paranteau works there, saving money to move to Minneapolis.The Night Watchmanis a novel about racism, systemic oppression and poverty but also about love, dreams and fighting for what is right.

• Louise Erdrich tackles thorny tangle of native justice

Louise Erdrich is an American writer whose novels includeThe Plague of Doves,The Round House,which won the National Book Award for Fiction, andFuture Home of the Living God.

Four Soulsby Louise Erdrich(and the entire Love Medicine series)

Michelle Good says: "Consciousness bending fiction reflective of how things once were and are now."

Four Souls is the seventh bookbook in Louise Erdrich's eight-book Love Medicine series. First published in 2004, Four Souls follows Fleur Pillager, an Ojibwe woman, who is seeking revenge against a white man who stole her land.

The series also includes 1984's Love Medicine, 1986's The Beet Queen, 1988's Track, 1994's The Bingo Palace, 1997's Tales of Burning Love, 2001'sThe Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and 2005's The Painted Drum.

• 'Stories are survival:' Cherie Dimaline writes about the power of Indigenous storytelling

Louise Erdrich is an American writer whose novels includeThe Plague of Doves,The Round House,which won the National Book Award for Fiction, andFuture Home of the Living God.

Halfbreed by Maria Campbell

Michelle Good says: "Maria Campbell's memoir will be a classic forever, elevated by its unadulterated authenticity. This beautiful Mtis woman's story, told with no holds barred, is a must in understanding mid-century brutality aimed at the Mtis."

Maria Campbell's memoirHalf-Breeddocuments the brutal realities of poverty, pain and the degradation she experienced as a Mtis woman growing up in Canada's prairies. Drug addiction and alcoholism kept her behind hospital doors and prison walls. When Campbell began to take pride in her Mtis heritage, she found new purpose in life.

• What reading and storytelling means to Maria Campbell

Maria Campbell isa Mtis elder, author, playwright, broadcaster and filmmaker, best known for the classic 1973 memoirHalfbreed. She was named to the Order of Canada for her contributions to national literature in 2008.

LISTEN | Maria Campbell on storytelling:

Surviving Canada, edited byKiera L. Ladner&Myra Tait

Michelle Good says: "The Indian Act, Idle No More, and the legacy of residential schools are just a few of the topics covered by a wide range of elders, scholars, artistsand activists. Contributors include Mary Eberts, Buffy Sainte-Marieand Leroy Little Bear."

Published in 2017 to coincide with Canada's 150th birthday, Surviving Canada is a collection ofwritingthat reflects on Indigenous people's fraught and complex relationship with Canada.

• Bob Joseph believes Indigenous reconciliation can be realized sooner rather than later

Kiera L. Ladneris an associate professor at the University of Manitoba. She alsois the co-editor ofThis is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockadesalongside Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.

Myra Tait is a law student and a member of Berens River First Nation in Manitoba.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.