Every year on August 9 we celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. On this day in 1982, the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held its first meeting in Geneva where they drafted the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples, asserting their rights to self determination.
Across the globe, many Indigenous peoples continue to fight, often at great risk, to defend their lands, cultures, and ways of life. Today, as environmental rollbacks and policy changes threaten hard-won rights, the need to stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples has never been greater. Their struggle to protect their territories and cultures also reflects a way of life that sustains all life on Earth. In the international context, Indigenous peoples’ demands for land rights, direct climate finance, and recognition as rights-holders are essential and long overdue.
In honor of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we have put together a list of powerful books by Indigenous authors from across the globe. These works celebrate the resilience, wisdom, and rich cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples, while confronting the urgent and ongoing struggles they face. From memoirs to novels, from investigative journalism to cultural reflections, each of these books invites us to listen deeply, learn, and stand in greater solidarity with Indigenous peoples everywhere.
1. The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich
Based on the extraordinary life of her grandfather, Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, tells the story of Thomas Wazhashk, a tribal council member who led the fight against a 1953 US government bill aimed at terminating Native sovereignty. This so‑called “termination” bill threatened Native Americans’ rights to their lands and their very identities. From rural North Dakota to the halls of Washington, D.C., Wazhashk led the struggle against dispossession. Erdrich’s novel powerfully captures a pivotal moment in Native American history and the relentless fight for land, rights, and identity. Learn more here.
2. We Will Be Jaguars – Nemonte Nenquimo
We Will Be Jaguars traces the life of Nemonte Nenquimo—Waorani leader, activist, and co-founder of the Indigenous-led Ceibo Alliance and its partner organization, Amazon Frontlines. Raised in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Nemonte recounts her lifelong fight to defend her peoples’ ancestral lands from oil companies, missionaries, and extractive industries determined to erase Waorani culture and devastate the forest. Co-written with her partner, Mitch Anderson, this is a deeply personal story of resistance, cultural survival, and a relentless battle to protect the Amazon. Learn more here.
3. The Falling Sky – Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert
The Falling Sky is the powerful life story and philosophical testimony of Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami shaman and tireless defender of the Amazon. Told in his own voice and co-authored with anthropologist Bruce Albert, the book weaves autobiography, cultural memory, and cosmological insight. Kopenawa recounts his shamanic journey, from childhood initiation to confronting the brutal encroachment of outsiders, including missionaries, miners, and officials. His personal and political narrative reveals the devastation brought by colonization, disease, and environmental destruction. At its core, this is a Yanomami vision of the world, a cosmology deeply attuned to the forest and its spirits. It is a call to protect the forest and its peoples. Learn more here.
4. Stolen – Ann-Helén Laestadius
In this award‑winning novel, Sámi journalist and author Ann‑Helén Laestadius delivers a gripping coming‑of‑age story about a young Sámi woman’s fight to protect her family’s reindeer herd and culture amid racism, climate change, and legal neglect in Sweden. Inspired by real events, Stolen is a heartfelt tribute to Sámi heritage and a powerful indictment of prejudice and environmental injustice. Learn more here.
5. Wars of the Interior – Joseph Zárate
Peruvian journalist Joseph Zárate crafts three gripping investigative narratives on the extraction of gold, wood, and oil in Peru’s Amazon and Andes. His vivid reportage lays bare the violence, corruption, and environmental destruction wrought by these industries, while shining a light on the courage of Indigenous leaders, environmental defenders, and communities fighting to protect a rapidly vanishing Amazon rainforest. Learn more here.
6. The Yield – Tara June Winch
Wiradjuri author Tara June Winch weaves a powerful story of language, land, and family. When August Gondiwindi returns to Australia for her grandfather’s funeral, she discovers plans for a mining company to take their land. Through her grandfather’s dictionary of Wiradjuri words and the stories he left behind, The Yield is both a reclamation of culture and language and an urgent act of resistance against Indigenous dispossession. Learn more here.
7. There There – Tommy Orange
This novel follows twelve interconnected characters from Native communities as their lives converge at the Big Oakland Powwow. Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange delivers a vivid portrait of contemporary urban Native life, shaped by historical trauma, resilience, and the search for identity, culminating in a powerful and devastating convergence. Learn more here.
8. Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Potawatomi Nation member and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves together Western science and Indigenous knowledge to reveal how plants and animals are our oldest teachers. Through a rich blend of storytelling, science, Indigenous cosmology, and reflection, she calls on us to embrace reciprocity with the living world—recognizing that only by honoring this relationship can we begin to heal the Earth. Learn more here.
9. Ideas to Postpone the End of the World – Ailton Krenak
Ailton Krenak, an Indigenous philosopher from Brazil’s Doce River Valley, a place devastated by mining, invites us to radically rethink our place in the world. He challenges the illusion that humanity is separate from nature, urging us to recognize rivers, forests, and all living beings as our kin. Against the backdrop of the Anthropocene, Krenak sees Indigenous wisdom not as a relic of the past, but as a guide for a livable future. He calls on us to honor differences, restore joy, and reclaim the meaning of life through song, dance, and storytelling. Krenak reminds us that to postpone the end of the world, we must keep imagining new beginnings. Learn more here.
10. Believing in Indians, A Mixed-Blood Odyssey – Tony Tekaroniake Evans
Coming of age during an era of assimilation and cultural erasure, Tony Tekaroniake Evans was told by his third-grade teacher that Indians no longer exist. How could this be, when his grandmother spoke Mohawk in the house? Thus begins a witty, poignant, and deeply personal journey to reclaim his Indigenous identity. Along the way, he realizes there are no easy answers—only the growing understanding that being Indian is both a political act and a matter of faith. His memoir is a candid exploration of life between cultures and a powerful affirmation that holding onto family and heritage is, in itself, an act of resistance. Learn more here.
Reading books by Indigenous authors is an invitation to unsettle what we think we know. These stories challenge us to face our shared history, and to imagine what might be possible outside the container of colonial logic.
Since 1988, Rainforest Foundation US has partnered with Indigenous peoples to protect their rights and their rainforests in the Amazon and Central America. Learn more about Indigenous-led rainforest protection and keep up with the latest developments in our work by signing up for our email list today.
