I have fond memories of seeing family and loved ones, while also holding the knowledge that my ancestors were forced to attend both the Carlisle and Mount Pleasant Boarding schools. Here they were stripped of their Ojibwemowin, forced to speak English, and abandon their cultural teachings. Native children were taken from their families all across Turtle Island and put into these boarding schools, also known as residential schools, where millions of children died. The Thanksgiving holiday recalls the horrors of colonial genocide for Indigenous peoples as it reminds us of the violent colonial contact between settlers and Native peoples.
This list attempts to honor the stories told by Indigenous peoples, and to honor the stories of Indigenous resistance and reclamation in the face of ongoing colonial violence globally. I encourage you to read some of these selections over the holiday, taking the time to consider your own positionality in this colonial settler-state called America.
-ANNABEL YOUNG, GIRLS WRITE NOW FELLOW
HarperCollins
Penguin Random House
W.W. Norton
Milkweed Editions
Bloomsbury
Macmillan
Kaya Press
Penguin Random House
University of Minnesota Press
HarperCollins
Copper Canyon Press
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Gray Wolf Press
University of Manitoba Press
Birchbark Books
Penguin Random House
HarperCollins
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Birchbark Books
Penguin Random House
University of Nebraska Press
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Birchbark Books
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House
Birchbark Books
Annabel Young (she/her) is a writer, poet, and creative who is passionate about decolonization work. She is Ojibwe by way…
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