By Ella Jacob ‘24
Staff Writer & Copy Editor
As October comes to a close with Halloween, Native American Heritage Month is celebrated in November. Around this time of year, many people want to curl up with a good scary book. Fortunately, this desire can be satisfied with a list of frightening works by Indigenous authors. Below are some of these books.
“The Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones, 2020
“The Only Good Indians,” a July 2020 horror novel by Stephen Graham Jones, follows four young Indigenous men during a hunting escapade on sacred tribal land. What happens on this trip haunts the men long into their adult years as they are trailed by a vengeful being holding an elk’s head. These men are left feeling powerless as, according to the novel’s blurb, “the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.” A USA Today bestseller heralded as “gritty and gorgeous” by The New York Times, “The Only Good Indians” is a dark novel that will stay with you long after you’ve finished the last page.
Jones is a Blackfeet Native American fiction author. He is currently a professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder. Jones has won many awards for his writing, including the Texas Institute of Letters’ Award for Best Work of Fiction, a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in fiction and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction. He will be writing an X-Men story for the upcoming Marvel Comics anthology titled “Marvel Voices: Indigenous Voices #1,” set for publication on Nov. 18, 2020.
“Moon of the Crusted Snow” by Waubgeshig Rice, 2018
“Moon of the Crusted Snow” by Waubgeshig Rice, published in October 2018, is a post-apocalyptic thriller novel centered around the Anishinaabe reserve in Canada. It follows the story of Evan Whitesky, an Aboriginal man. Life on the reserve is ordinary until the television in Evan’s home goes out. The electrical problems aren’t unique to his property, though, as the rest of the Anishinaabe community experiences increasing outages until power on the reserve entirely cuts off. Isolated from the world and believing that they’re the only ones who have lost power, they wait for help. Little do they know, the rest of the world has also plunged into a mass blackout, and no one knows why. Visitors soon arrive at the reserve, increasing tension and doubt among the community members. Frustrated by the state of their home, some members fall back on their Anishinaabe traditions to create, once again, a sense of community. Evan himself guides the reserve and its inhabitants as they grapple with their issues, all while trying to discern the horror of the world around them.
Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation in Canada. He has earned awards for various pieces of prose, such as an Independent Publishers Book Award, the Northern Lit Award and the Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling.
“Deer Woman: An Anthology” by Native Realities, co-edited by Elizabeth LaPensée and Weshoyot Alvitre, 2017
“Deer Woman: An Anthology,” produced in December 2017 by Native Realities and co-edited by Elizabeth LaPensée and Weshoyot Alvitre, is a graphic novel compilation that contains powerful horror stories by Indigenous women artists and illustrators from various tribes and nations. In Native American mythology, the Deer Woman is a spirit associated with fertility and intimacy who uses her attractive appearance and behavior to lure men and women to their deaths. According to the collection’s Kickstarter, the Deer Woman reminds people of their responsibilities and to “be aware of the powerful forces that exist beyond the homeplace.” The stories in “Deer Woman: An Anthology” celebrate the unparalleled “resistance, survival, empowerment and hope” of Native American and Indigenous women.