I have a habit of recommending books. Whether I’m walking into a faculty meeting, browsing at the library, or seated next to someone on a plane, if I believe that there’s a book that they should know about then I’m going to tell them. In my classroom, I’m prone to holding a text aloft and suggesting that my students should spend part of their semester break between its covers. This past spring, a student and fellow bibliophile asked me to compile a list of new Native books to read over the summer. While there’s always space for nonfiction in my book queue, this request was limited to fiction and poetry. I get it. Summer is the time when some college students prefer to escape the confines of academia. Never one to miss the chance to plug powerful pages of prose or profound poetic feet, I set about curating this collection. I’m forwarding it to the tribal college and university faithful in case it piques the interest of any of our journal’s readers.

Big Chief by Jon Hickey is a novel that dramatizes contested tribal politics of a fictional Wisconsin nation. Written in first-person and present tense, political fixer Mitch Caddo narrates tribal president Mack Beck’s machinations of glad-handling, threats, and outright violence to sway his reelection bid. A member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Hickey’s prose sweeps the story forward towards election day through a succession of scandals involving tribal enrollment, embezzlement, and banishment. Yet, the heart of this compelling debut centers around the characters’ doubt over their sense of belonging within their own nation. It’s a novel that asks readers to ponder the boundaries of personal and national sovereignty.  

Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is a horror novel told in three narratives. Dr. Etsy Beaucarne needs to publish a book to earn tenure, and she seizes upon the opportunity to explore her ancestor’s newly discovered 1912 manuscript. That text captures the thoughts of Etsy’s great-great-grandfather, Arthur, a Lutheran pastor in Montana, and the confessions of a Blackfeet man turned vampire named Good Stab. Jones, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, weaves together a tale of violence and revenge centered in his nation’s epistemology. The story manifests the idea that what we consume through greed or necessity alters who we are. Jones causes readers to wonder how the unatoned sins of a generation can be inherited by its descendants.

Ancient Light by Kimberly Blaeser is perhaps the most thought-provoking text in the former Wisconsin Poet Laureate’s formidable oeuvre. Capturing the zeitgeist of our time, the White Earth Anishinaabe tribal member writes about the hunger for language, the grief over missing and murdered relatives, the shame over ancestors’ remains being kept in academic archives, and the truth that without justice there is no peace. With lines including “As if pencil were a penicillin, poetry a contagion of compassion,” the founding director of Indigenous Nation Poets again demonstrates how lines can be both affective and effective—both beautiful in form and a catalyst for change in the world.

Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters is a short story collection that depicts the gamut of emotions that comprise human existence. The eloquence of the Mi’kmaq storyteller’s prose drives narratives grounded in loss, grief, persistence, and redemption. Opening lines such as “It’s quiet here except for the sounds we were meant to hear,” underscore how listening to traditional teachings offers a path forward for those waylaid by death, addiction, and colonial impositions. Rooting her stories in a longing for their sense of family and community, the resilience of Indigenous cultural bonds is a consistent theme throughout Peters’ collection. Her characters are tenacious, thoughtful, and introspective, and therewithin lies their power.  

Regardless of your plans, I believe these texts will enrich your summer. While I can’t hold them aloft in every TCU across Turtle Island, I’m thrilled that I can use this column to tell you about them. I’m in the habit of recommending books, after all.

Ryan Winn, PhD, teaches in the Liberal Studies Department at College of Menominee Nation.  

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in the Inquisitive Academic or any other opinion columns published by the Tribal College Journal (TCJ) do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TCJ or the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. 

References

Blaeser, K. (2024). Ancient Light. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Hickey, J. (2025). Big Chief. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Jones, S.G. (2025). The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. New York: Saga Press.

Peters, A. (2025). Waiting for the Long Night Moon. New York: Catapult.