How will we remember 2020? It was a year unlike any other in our lifetime—one where the burdens and the blessings seemed to resonate more than we expected. While I don’t have the words to comfort all of the hardships we each faced, I know the value of escaping into a book. This year was a watershed year for Native publishing, with more wonderful texts coming to market than I can list in this column. Yet, what follows are the books I feel fortunate to have discovered, and ones I am certain you will come to treasure.

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through is the most important book published this decade. Edited by Joy Harjo (Muscogee), LeAnne Howe (Choctaw), Jennifer Elise Foerster (Muscogee), and others, this enthralling anthology collects 161 Native poets who speak to the resilience of Indigenous voices through the generations. It’s divided into geographic regions, with poets listed chronologically according to their birth. The stanzas run the gamut of emotions, creating a tome that demands to be reread, taught, and quoted as a devotional to the power and sanctity of well-crafted words. This collection, more than any before it, enables a multitude of Native voices to shine through.

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Sicangu Lakota) is fast-paced Native crime fiction that reveals the challenges and triumphs of finding justice on a dramatized version of the Rosebud reservation. The story is told from the perspective of Virgil Wounded Horses, the local vigilante who’s raising his nephew and dating a politician’s daughter when not doling out punishments on behalf of his people. Still, the text still makes room for conversations about Lakota spirituality and traditional foods alongside crusades against entrenched corruption. Darrell Dennis (Secwepemc) performs the audiobook, lending gravity to every skeptical shrug and fervent beating Virgil endures. Let’s hope that this will be the first entry in a series.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) offers a fictionalized look into the complexity of local and national tribal politics as the United States implemented its disastrous 1950s Termination policy. Told through a mixture of tenacity and humor, the work follows fictitious Thomas Wazhashk as he traces the path that his tribe took to protect their sovereignty. His niece Patrice is imbued with his tireless model of headship as she seeks to find her missing sister, fends off local suitors, and keeps a vigilant eye out for her drunken, absentee father. A testament to Erdrich’s storytelling acumen, these rich characters are endowed with equal measures of bravery and compassion.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn begins with the story of how his character Noa was saved from drowning by a shiver of sharks. Though Noa’s gifts of healing the wounded show his connection to the old Hawaiian gods, all three children in the Flores family aspire to achieve greatness. Older brother Dean mixes basketball with drug hustling to carve out his place, while sister Kaui is stirred by both the world of STEM and Hawaiian traditions. Washburn provides them each with a distinct voice and pits them in an engrossing struggle to define themselves, a fact perhaps best appreciated in the mesmerizing audiobook version performed by Jolene Kim, Kaleo Griffith, G.K. Bowes, and Tui Asau.

Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee) tells the connected stories of four generations of Cherokee women who aspire to define themselves through terms of their own choosing. While Granny offers comfort, Lula seeks solace in religion, and Justine hopes for something more, it’s Rainey whose potential is most apparent. The women persist despite the acts of God and man, but they thrive within the beautiful prose Ford uses to convey their stories. The stunning passages of this novel about familial bonds are made all the richer by the vocal talents of audiobook performer Tanis Parenteau (Métis), who gives each character a depth of voice befitting Ford’s words.

Sovereignty by Mary Kathryn Nagel (Cherokee) is one of the most necessary plays ever written. It confronts America’s shame of denying tribal courts jurisdiction over non-Native defendants by juxtaposing the story of Cherokee removal with that of young tribal lawyer Sarah Ridge Polson who takes the stand to uphold the Violence Against Women Act. Without wasting a single word, Nagel’s invaluable script sheds light of the reasons the Trail of Tears came to be and why that heinous upheaval echoes through laws and legislation without regard to treaty rights. This play interrogates failed arguments, compelling its audience to join the overdue call for justice.

Only the Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet) is a horror novel that warns readers to respect Native traditions and customs. After four friends poach elk on land reserved for elders, they are haunted by violent reverberations of their gruesome actions. They are caught by the authorities, but their penance comes steeper than they imagined. Without question or qualification, Jones is a virtuoso storyteller. He is able to weave unimaginable horror within recognizable humanity, creating situations and scenarios that are both shocking and familiar.  Listen to the audiobook version read by the gifted Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Blackfeet), letting his voice add to the crisp prose and arresting imagery from a master of letters.

Chasing Painted Horses by Drew Hayden Taylor (Curve Lake Anishinaabe) is an enchanting novel about how finding some equestrienne graffiti in an alley compels police officer Ralph Thomas to wonder about an extraordinary girl named Danielle. In their youth, Danielle drew a horse on the creative space known as “The Everything Wall,” creating a lasting image the officer must now contend with. Flashing between Thomas’ interactions with a gifted, homeless Cree named Harry and his recollections of Danielle and others, Taylor’s genius for writing didactic comedies are on full display. Taylor’s faithful readers will recognize that this novel expands on stories he explored earlier in his career, revisiting the characters and creative spaces that tug on the reins around one’s heart.

It’s been documented that language can comfort us, causing Kimberly Blaeser (White Earth Anishinaabe) to ask, “If language can heal, why can’t literature?” Like Dr. Blaeser, I believe it can. While we each will remember 2020 in our own way, I hope the books in this list bring you some much needed catharsis and healing in ways only well-crafted words can.

Ryan Winn 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

Erdrich, L. (2020). The Night Watchman. [digital audiobook]. New York: Harper Audio.

Ford, K.J. (2020). Crooked Hallelujah [digital audiobook]. Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio.

Harjo, J, et al. (2020). When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through. New York: Norton.

Jones, S.G. (2020). Only the Good Indians. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio via Downpour.

Nagle, M.K. (2020). Sovereignty. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

Taylor, D.H. (2020). Chasing Painted Horses. Toronto: Cormorant.

Washburn, K.S. (2020). Sharks in the Time of Saviors [digital audiobook]. Prince Frederick, Maryland: Recorded Books.

Weiden, D.H.W. (2020). Winter Counts [digital audiobook]. New York: Harper Audio.