Indigenous Peoples

A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection that dares to ask the question: “Are you ready to be un-settled?” Featuring stories by:

Norris Black • Amber Blaeser-Wardzala • Phoenix Boudreau • Cherie Dimaline • Carson Faust • Kelli Jo Ford • Kate Hart • Shane Hawk • Brandon Hobson • Darcie Little Badger • Conley Lyons • Nick Medina • Tiffany Morris • Tommy Orange • Mona Susan Power • Marcie R. Rendon • Waubgeshig Rice • Rebecca Roanhorse • Andrea L. Rogers • Morgan Talty • D.H. Trujillo • Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. • Richard Van Camp • David Heska Wanbli Weiden • Royce Young Wolf • Mathilda Zeller

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home.

These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.

Reviews
“All combined, these powerful pages use fantastical elements to create very human characters who suffer very real horrors, like oppression, poverty, abuse, mental illness and the erasure of long-existing cultures and traditions. This volume is a must for any library collection and will be devoured by speculative fiction fans who enjoy a sprinkle of social commentary within their scary books.” —Booklist

“Never Whistle at Night is all I’ve ever wanted in an Indigenous horror anthology. From doubles, to Empty People, to story theft, to zombies, this anthology explores the horror that lives in colonial violence, generational love and trauma, and our everyday lives. It’s a joy to see such a diverse representation of experience, background, and style in this carefully curated and terrifying collection.”—Jessica Johns, author of Bad Cree

“Story to story, Never Whistle at Night never failed to surprise, delight, and shock me. I’m a big fan of stories that make you feel like you’re standing at the edge of a cliff with a stranger’s fingers on the tip of your spine—and this anthology has that ungoverned, go-for-broke aesthetic that I love.”—Nick Cutter, author of Little Heaven

“An extensive collection of Indigenous stories ranging from the humorous to the terrifying, this anthology is a must-read for everyone. Your new favorite author is absolutely in this book.”—Amina Akhtar, author of Kismet

“Melodious, haunting, and visceral, Never Whistle at Night enchants from the very start with fiery confidence and merciless ghosts. These are stories that dig their fingers inside you and carve something truly special. An absolute must-read.”—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth

"Can you draw power from the spirit of a story? If the twenty-six tales in the essential Never Whistle at Night anthology are any indication, the answer is an emphatic yes. The title itself provides its own warning, but I'll go one step further: Never read this collection of spine-chilling stories alone at night. You just might not make it to morning."—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters

Additional Information
416 pages | 5.19" x 8.00" | Paperback

The first book in Isabelle Picard’s bestselling coming-of-age series about Innu twins, Léon and Éloïse.

In this acclaimed book, readers meet thirteen-year-old twins Leon and Eloise who live in Matimekush, an Innu community in Northern Quebec.

While Leon spends all his free time playing hockey, and wondering how he can prove he has the talent to make it big in a place with no competition, Eloise works on a school project that opens her mind to the history of her people — their victories and their battles lost.

But when their father gets sick and needs treatment almost 1000 km from home, and someone from their village mysteriously disappears, the twins learn lessons about the fragility of humanity and the dangers of the land they call home.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 10 to 14.

Translated by Kateri Aubin Dubois, a freelance translator and a prolific beadworker. Her beadwork can be found under her Indigenous name, Nisnipawset. Kateri is from the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation. She lives with her husband, two children and a fluffy cat in Terrebonne, Quebec.

This is the first book in the Nish series.

Additional Information
304 pages | 5.00" x 7.75" | Paperback

Journey to the southernmost tip of the territories held by Canada. North of Middle Island opens with a collection of individual poems that capture the spirit of the relatively isolated, sparsely populated community of Pelee Island.

The pieces explore contemporary Indigenous experience in the natural and built environments of the island and surrounding waters. The book concludes with an epic, "rarely true" narrative of modern-day warriors, told in traditional Anglo-Saxon style-a new Lenape myth of how Deerwoman (Ahtuhxkwe) comes to Pelee Island. The events of this epic tale are loosely based on the infamous professional wrestler and actor Rowdy Roddy Piper's time on the island and Wrestlemania XII, Piper's notorious "Backlot Brawl" with fellow wrestler Goldust (Nkuli Punkw). Follow acclaimed Moravian of the Thames First Nation poet D.A. Lockhart on this lyrical, epic journey into the unique culture and landscapes that lie just North of Middle Island.

Additional Information
93 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Métis Ukrainian writer Conor Kerr’s sharp and incisive poems move restlessly across landscapes and time.

Conor Kerr’s poetry is in constant motion. 4Runners streak through the night, racing with coyotes and roving across the land. Buses travel from town to town, from one memory to another, from past to present. Friends and lovers search for each other on Instagram and find nothing. And always the natural world travels alongside: the watching magpies, woodpeckers and cedar waxwings, the coyotes and porcupines. Family is the crisp wings of mallard ducks flying at dawn, just as it is a game of crib, a Mario Kart race, a dance party.

Old Gods defies colonialism on the Prairies. Kerr situates his reader in the Métis mindset: the old gods of the land are alive within the rivers, the birds, the hills and the prairies that surround us, and they’ll always be here.

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Paperback

A special abridged version of the award-winning book Orange Shirt Day: September 30th.

Orange Shirt Day, observed annually on September 30th, is also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is an official day to honour Residential School Survivors and their families, and to remember the children who did not come home. What was initially envisioned as a way to keep the conversations going about all aspects of Residential Schools in Williams Lake and the Cariboo Region of British Columbia, Canada, has now expanded into a movement across Turtle Island and beyond.

Orange Shirt Day: Every Child Matters aims to create champions who will walk a path of reconciliation and promote the message that 'Every Child Matters'. This version also explores a number of important topics including the historical, generational, and continual impacts of Residential Schools on Indigenous Peoples, the journey of the Orange Shirt Day movement, and how you can effectively participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. With end-of-chapter reflection questions and a series of student art submissions, readers are guided to explore how they, and others, view and participate in Residential School reconciliation.

Educator Information
Recommended for Young Adults (ages 10+)

This is an abridged version (condensed version) of Orange Shirt Day: September 30th.

This book is available in French: La journee du chandail orange: Chaque enfant compte

Additional Information
108 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Paperback

Orange Shirt Day, observed annually on September 30th, is also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is an official day to honour Residential School Survivors and their families, and to remember the children who did not come home. What was initially envisioned as a way to keep the conversations going about all aspects of Residential Schools in Williams Lake and the Cariboo Region of British Columbia, Canada, has now expanded into a movement across Turtle Island and beyond. Orange Shirt Day: September 30th aims to create champions who will walk a path of reconciliation and promote the message that 'Every Child Matters'. This award-winning book explores a number of important topics including the historical, generational, and continual impacts of Residential Schools on Indigenous Peoples, the journey of the Orange Shirt Day movement, and how you can effectively participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. With end of chapter reflection questions and a series of student art submissions, readers are guided to explore how they, and others, view and participate in Residential School reconciliation.

Awards

• 2021 First Nation Communities Read 2021 Winner 

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 10+

Orange Shirt Day was inspired by the story of a survivor named Phyllis Webstad. When Phyllis was 6 years old she went to residential school for the first time wearing a brand new shiny orange shirt. When she arrived at the school her shirt was taken away and never to be seen again. To Phyllis the colour orange was a symbol that she did not matter. Today she has learned to accept the colour and even have fun with it and now the orange shirt has become a symbol of hope and reconciliation. By wearing an orange shirt on Orange Shirt Day, you make a powerful statement that residential schools were wrong and commit to the concept that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

The Orange Shirt Society is a non-profit organization with its home in Williams Lake, BC where Orange Shirt Day began in 2013. The society has both Indigenous and non-Indigenous board members, and one of the editors of this book, Phyllis Webstad, is Indigenous.  Therefore, the Authentic Indigenous Text label has been applied. It is up to readers to determine if this book is authentic for their purposes.

This is the Revised 2023, 2nd Edition

Additional Information
156 pages | 8.23" x 11.06" | Revised, 2nd Edition

Throughout this beautiful hardcover book, readers will find Indigenous teachings as well as information on cultural heritage, sacred meanings, designs, legends and more. Raven has drawn inspiration from her Mi’kmaq identity, as well as from other Indigenous cultures. This book aims to celebrate the beauty and creativity of these cultures through the artistic medium of makeup.

Educator Information
Recommended by the publisher for Young Adults.

Additional Information
80 pages | 7.25" x 9.25" | Hardcover

Description of work from author: "This is a snapshot of how the Methodist Church of Canada upon invitation by Kitamaat’s Wahouksgamalayou (Charlie Amos). It is about the key players and their role: Wahouksgamalayou, Thomas Crosby and his Lax Kwala’ams catechists, George Raley, and the Women’s Missinay Society of the Methodist Church."

Educator Information
Senior secondary, Post-secondary, Indigenous history

An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage in this bold, contemporary journey to reclaim her heritage and unleash her power and voice while searching for a permanent home.

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe has always longed for a sense of home. When she was a child, her family moved around frequently, often staying in barely habitable church attics and trailers, dangerous places for young Sasha.

With little more to guide her than a passion for the thriving punk scene of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to live up to the responsibility of being the namesake of her beloved great-grandmother—a linguist who helped preserve her Indigenous language of Lushootseed—Sasha throws herself headlong into the world, determined to build a better future for herself and her people.

Set against a backdrop of the breathtaking beauty of Coast Salish ancestral land and imbued with the universal spirit of punk, Red Paint is ultimately a story of the ways we learn to find our true selves while fighting for our right to claim a place of our own.

Examining what it means to be vulnerable in love and in art, Sasha offers up an unblinking reckoning with personal traumas amplified by the collective historical traumas of colonialism and genocide that continue to haunt native peoples. Red Paint is an intersectional autobiography of lineage, resilience, and, above all, the ability to heal.

Awards

• Winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award 

Reviews
"Red Paint is a miraculous book. Sasha LaPointe walks us through the sites of her evisceration while rebuilding a home within her body using sturdy materials: rose quartz, cedar bark, red clay, and the words of her ancestors. With each potent sentence, she shows us what access to power looks like. She shows us how to become whole.” —Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic

"As luminous as the morning sun over the fir forests, Red Paint is a story of where strength takes us. Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe goes looking to the past to help heal from terrible traumas, finding inspiration in her ancestors, the Salish people. This is a book destined to be a classic. Read it." —Rene Denfeld, bestselling author of The Child Finder

Additional Information
240 pages | 5.01" x 8.00" | Paperback

From award-winning author Deborah J Ledford comes a thrilling new series featuring a Native American sheriff’s deputy who risks it all to find a friend who’s gone missing.

After four women disappear from the Taos Pueblo reservation, Deputy Eva “Lightning Dance” Duran dives into the case. For her, it’s personal. Among the missing is her best friend, Paloma, a heroin addict who left behind an eighteen-year-old son.

Eva senses a lack of interest from the department as she embarks on the investigation. But their reluctance only fuels her fire. Eva teams up with tribal police officer and longtime friend Cruz “Wolf Song” Romero to tackle a mystery that could both ruin her reputation and threaten her standing in the tribe.

And when the missing women start turning up dead, Eva uncovers clues that take her deeper into the reservation’s protected secrets. As Eva races to find Paloma before it’s too late, she will face several tests of loyalty—to her friend, her culture, and her tribe.

Reviews
“Deborah J. Ledford has artfully woven the voices of multiple characters connected to the Taos Pueblo to create a pattern of stories that illuminate the challenges as well as the enduring power of Native American women. The rhythm of daily life is evident in Ledford’s lovely, intimate prose. I eagerly await the new adventures of Eva Duran, who will, no doubt, unearth more mysteries in the buried layers of New Mexico.” —Naomi Hirahara, the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author of Clark and Division

“Redemption is a page-turner! I loved reading about sheriff’s deputy Eva Duran and her battle against dark forces on the reservation. Sharp characters, a great setting, and a plot that keeps you guessing. A riveting thriller that hits hard and keeps you hooked.” —David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Anthony and Thriller Award–winning author of Winter Counts

“A riveting tale of murder and intrigue on a Native American reservation from an immensely talented voice in crime fiction. Deborah J. Ledford has created a page-turner featuring an unforgettable hero in Eva ‘Lightning Dance’ Duran.” —Isabella Maldonado, Wall Street Journal bestselling author

Series Information
This book is part of the Eva "Lightning Dance" Duran series.

Additional Information
366 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback 

In a highly visual and appealing format for young readers, this book explores the many forced relocation of Inuit families and communities in the Canadian Arctic from the 1950s to the 1990s. Governments promoted and forced relocation based on misinformation and racist attitudes. These actions changed Inuit lives forever. This book documents the Inuit experience and the resilience and strength they displayed in the face of these measures. Years afterwards, there have been multiple apologies by the Canadian government for its actions, and some measure of restitution for the harms caused.

Included in the book are accounts of a community forced to move to the High Arctic where they found themselves with little food and almost no shelter, of children suddenly taken away from their families and communities to be transported to hospitals for treatment for tuberculosis, and of the notorious slaughter by RCMP officers of hundreds of sled dogs in Arctic settlements.

Though apologies have been made, Inuit in northern Canada still face conditions of inadequate housing, schools that fail to teach their language, and epidemics of infectious diseases like TB. Yet still, the Inuit have achieved a measure of self-government, control over resource development, while they enrich cultural life through music, film, art and literature.

This book enables readers to understand the colonialism and racism that remain embedded in Canadian society today, and the successful resistance of Inuit to assimilation and loss of cultural identity.

Like other volumes in the Righting Canada’s Wrongs series, this book uses a variety of visuals, first-person accounts, short texts and extracts from documents to appeal to a wide range of young readers.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Righting Canada's Wrongs series.

Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

This book is available in French: Réinstallation d'Inuit: Politiques et pratiques coloniales, résilience et résistance d'un peuple.

Additional Information
144 pages | 9.01" x 11.02" | Hardcover 

This inspiring introduction to activism and social justice for young teens shows the important role music plays in changing the world, featuring:

- Musicians young teens will know and love: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, and more!

- Iconic artists from past generations: readers will learn about the extraordinary impact of artists such as Nina Simone, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Neil Young, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman, and more.

- Playlists for each social justice issue: Each chapter includes a playlist with recommended songs about an area of activism, from classic tracks to contemporary hits.

In Rise Up and Sing!, Andrea Warner explores how music has contributed to the fight for social justice. Across eight areas of activism—the climate emergency, Indigenous rights, civil rights, disability rights, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, gender equality, the peace/anti-war movement, and human rights—Warner introduces some of the artists, past and present, who have made a difference both on stage and off.

Through ground-breaking artists and iconic moments, Rise Up and Sing! shows us that a song is never just a song, and that music really does have the power to change the world.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 17.

Includes some Indigenous content.

Curriculum Connections: Activism, Social Justice, Music 

Additional Information
200 pages | 7.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover

Music historian Craig Harris explores more than five hundred years of Indigenous history, religion, and cultural evolution in Rise Up! Indigenous Music in North America. More than powwow drums and wooden flutes, Indigenous music intersects with rock, blues, jazz, folk music, reggae, hip-hop, classical music, and more. Combining deep research with personal stories by nearly four dozen award-winning Indigenous musicians, Harris offers an eye-opening look at the growth of Indigenous music.

Among a host of North America’s most vital Indigenous musicians, the biographical narratives include new and well-established figures such as Mildred Bailey, Louis W. Ballard, Cody Blackbird, Donna Coane (Spirit of Thunderheart), Theresa “Bear” Fox, Robbie Robertson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joanne Shenandoah, DJ Shub (Dan General), Maria Tallchief, John Trudell, and Fawn Wood.

Reviews

Additional Information
344 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 40 Photos, Index | Paperback

A spellbinding, spirited tale of two men exploring masculinity, race, and belonging in a desperate search to feel at home in their own skins.

An enthralling nautical epic, River Meets the Sea traces the dual timelines of a white-passing Indigenous foster child in 1940s Vancouver and a teenage immigrant in the suburbs of Nanaimo in the 1970s.

A natural-born storyteller, Ronny is a left-handed "alley mutt" without a birth certificate who searches for his mother everywhere - most powerfully, he hears her voice in the surging Stó:lo River. Born in the middle of the ocean on a merchant ship departing Sri Lanka, Chandra is a Tamil boy with "skin like a charred eggplant" who finds his haven from the pressure to assimilate by swimming and surfing in the Salish Sea.

Moving gracefully between these parallel stories like a wave, the novel traces the seemingly separate lives of these sensitive young men and their everlasting connections to water. When their troubled paths inevitably cross, they form a sacred bond based on the mutual understanding of what it means to be othered, illuminating the interconnectedness of humanity and our innate relationship with the natural world.

Reviews

Additional Information
400 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | Paperback

There are worse places to live than the rez. Still, family distractions make it almost impossible for Ray Smith and his three bandmates to rehearse every day. So, fresh from high school, the four move to Wakeville, Manitoba to pursue their passion for music.

A half-year later, gigs come fast and thick, with the group touring the northern province. However, too much partying and fighting leads to a bitter split between the band and their volatile bass player, Butch. Bad luck and sabotage from Butch causes gigs to dwindle, and with encouragement from his best friend and guitarist, Ray decides to join a new, well-known band, where his music career takes off. Soon he’s recognized on the street, has spots on TV, and back home he’s hailed a hero.

But success has a dark underbelly. A girl goes missing, and Ray’s loved ones are terrorized by a faceless, vengeful stalker. The question isn’t the culprit’s identity—Ray’s almost positive he knows who’s responsible. But stopping the killer before someone else is murdered…that’s a whole other story.

Additional Information
234 pages | 5.25" x 8.00"