#native american rep

Elatsoe Darcie Little Badger YA Fantasy / Mystery, 2020, 360 pg Native American (Apache) asexual female MC Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

Favourite Quote:

Okay! So what a book this is. Before I get too much into the review I just want to preface this by saying one of the main characters is a Native American woman and I am pasty white lady and I don’t live in America, so if anything I say in this review is inaccurate just shoot me a message and I’ll fix it right away! I’m going to try and review this the best I can while keeping in mind what I have heard Native Americans talk about. Now to the review~!

Josie and Rebecca The Western Chronicles is very true to the romance genre. When most people think of the modern romance genre they probably think of Harlequin romances. I feel as though this book is the lesbian equivalent of those stories. It is full of cliches and romantic shenanigans. But I think that’s what give this book its charm!! I feel as though not many current lesbian books have that light and fun romance. It also has many lesbian twists on to those notorious straight romance tropes. There is the dark and tough brooding love interest who has a sad past that has shaped her to be the outlaw that she is. There is the sweet and innocent main character that seems to always find herself in danger and needing to be saved. While these are definitely not tropes everyone will enjoy I was honestly thrilled to find them in this lesbian western romance! It made for an incredibly fun and sweet read that has a lot of heart.

This novel follows Josie and Rebecca. Josie is a Native American outlaw who has been by herself for years. She is famous for robbing trains and many believed she has killed thousands. She is tough and strong, but she also has a very kind and warm soul that not many people get to see. Rebecca is a sweet and innocent farm girl who is seen as the town beauty. She meets Josie after a group of men try to rape her, for Josie to come along and save her. Though Josie originally takes Rebecca back home, once she is there her father continues to abuse her, so she decides to run away. She runs into Josie again, and while Josie is at first reluctant to let Rebecca come along with her, but she soon finds Rebecca has a determination she wasn’t first aware of and the small and caring woman eventually grows on her.

Plot wise not a lot happens, but this story never feels like it drags on and it is full of lot scenes and moments of female friendships and females helping each other, which was very wonderful to see. It is also deals with the racism and hardships many Native Americans had to go through and continue to go through. It also shows parts of Josie’s past and what it was like for her as a biracial child. This is a small spoiler but I feel it is important to state as well (just skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to see a spoiler). It is later revealed in the book that Josie was never the outlaw people painted her as. She only robbed the trains because the trains killed her Native American father, and she gives all the money back to her family and community on the reservation she lived on. The main reason she entered this lifestyle as well was because she was falsely accused of killing a young woman when she was younger just because of her race, so was almost killed over it so she decided she had to be on the run to protect those who she cared about. This part of the plot reminded me of Robin Hood. Throughout her life she was also falsely accused of other killings, which is why people think she is meaner then she is. But most of this novel is about her saving and protecting people. She is portrayed as very heroic and kind. Rebecca also grows and changes as a person. She gains lots of strength and independence and I think It was really beautiful and inspiring that Josie was able to help her find that strength.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a sweet story of female empowerment with a wide cast of different kinds of women and warm romances. A read that is fun and engaging but not too serious.

Trigger Warning: Racism (plus racial slurs such as savages and redsk*ns), sexual assault, homophobia, domestic violence, rape threats, gun fights.

Surviving the City Tasha Spillett, Natasha Donovan YA Fiction, graphic novel (Surviving the City #1), 2018, 56 pg Native American (Anishinaabe) female; Native American (Inninew) questioning 2-Spirit/female Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape – they’re so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez’s grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can’t stay with her anymore ...

Reclaiming Two-Spirits decolonizes the history of gender and sexuality in Native North America. It honors the generations of Indigenous people who had the foresight to take essential aspects of their cultural life and spiritual beliefs underground in order to save them.

Before 1492, hundreds of Indigenous communities across North America included people who identified as neither male nor female, but both. They went by aakíí’skassi, miati, okitcitakwe or one of hundreds of other tribally specific identities. After European colonizers invaded Indian Country, centuries of violence and systematic persecution followed, imperiling the existence of people who today call themselves Two-Spirits, an umbrella term denoting feminine and masculine qualities in one person.

Nettie Lonesome lives in a land of hard people and hard ground dusted with sand. She’s a half-breed who dresses like a boy, raised by folks who don’t call her a slave but use her like one. She knows of nothing else. That is, until the day a stranger attacks her. When nothing, not even a sickle to the eye can stop him, Nettie stabs him through the heart with a chunk of wood and he turns to black sand.

And just like that, Nettie can see.

But her newfound sight is a blessing and a curse. Even if she doesn’t understand what’s under her own skin, she can sense what everyone else is hiding—at least physically. The world is full of evil, and now she knows the source of all the sand in the desert. Haunted by the spirits, Nettie has no choice but to set out on a quest that might lead her to find her true kin . . . if the monsters along the way don’t kill her first.

thanks for the headsup anon!

Thanks for this!!!

Like on the one hand colonialist are responsible for our genocide and the whole reason for why we have to measure our percentages sure. but also don’t we have protect who gets to portray us?  Wouldn’t Black people be angry if a person with only 5% African ancestry portraying Viola Davis. They’d be rightfully angry.  But when it comes to NA ancestry we’re suddenly supposed to be okay with it? Its not fair.  We barely had our first indigenous woman nominated for an oscar Yalitza Aparicio that’s a fucking long ass time coming.