Indigenous Experiences for Indigenous People’s Day

Indigenous People's Day falls on the second Monday of October every year, replacing Columbus Day in many states, or coinciding with it in others. It is a day to reflect on the lives, culture and history of the various Native Peoples across the United States. It's also a time to reflect on colonization and it's effects on those same people. These books look at the modern experience of native teens from all over the country, and show the many ways native life can look like.

Legendary Frybread Drive-in is a collection of 17 different stories by different Indigenous authors that are all woven together. Native teens from all across the country and various tribes find their way to Sandy June's Legendary Frybread Drive-In as it seems to appear when they need it most. They find love, reunite with friends and family, and enjoy the legendary food.

In Medicine Wheels, Ojibwe teen Bryce's mom is arrested after breaking probation and he goes to live with his grandparents on the Wolf Creek reservation where he grew up. He reconnects with old friends who bring him to the skate park where he starts learning to ride, following in his late dad's footsteps. He decides to try and win a skateboarding championship at the end of the summer, but a new loss threatens that success.

Novel in verse, An Expanse of Blue, follows Aouli, a native Hawaiian girl living in western Washington who is struggling with the expectations others put on her. She's fighting with her sister, lost her best friend and feels unheard to the rest of her family - except her Aunt Ehu. Ehu makes her feel connected to her native Hawaiian roots and community while across an ocean from them. 

Navajo teen Derrik makes the decision to leave his home for a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend an east coast boarding school in Shards of Silence. Sagefield Academy is completely different from life on the rez. His classmates take European vacations and take study drugs, which Derrik tries to avoid. When his great grandmother begs him to come home as her health declines, he realizes her worry stems from her time in a federal Native Boarding School, and he decides to do his term paper on the topic.

In A Constellation of Minor Bears, Métis teen Molly used to be inseparable from her bother Hank and his best friend Tray, until a climbing accident left Hank with a traumatic brain injury. Molly resents Troy for not stopping it, but resents herself more for not being there. The trio had planned a post-graduation hike before the accident, and Molly is determined to go on her own, but her parents make Tray goes as well to look after her.