Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women #MMIW – Books

This bibliography goes beyond #MMIW and lists books regarding violence against Indigenous women more generally, as well as Indigenous history, tradition, feminism, and more. These resources focus on women and GNC people in areas now known as the United States, Canada, and Hawaii. It’s possible that I will move the other topics off of this bibliography at some point onto their own and limit this one strictly to MMIW. I welcome your suggestions.

This post includes affiliate links. For each book that is purchased on this list from an affiliate link of mine, I will donate $1 to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

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NEW to this guide – Updated August 25, 2019

• McDiarmid, J. 2019, Nov. 12. Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Atria Books.

MMIW

Anderson, A. Brenda; Kubik, Wendee; Hampton, Mary Rucklos (eds). 2010. Torn from Our Midst: Voices of Grief, Healing, and Action from the Missing Indigenous Women Conference, 2008. Canadian Plains Research Center.

Anderson, Kim; Campbell, Maria; Belcourt, Christi (eds). 2018. Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters. Alberta, Canada: University of Alberta Press.

Boyden, Joseph. 2014. Kwe: Standing With Our Sisters. Penguin Canada.

Cameron, Stevie. 2010. On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women. Knopf Canada.

Dean, Amber. 2015. Remembering Vancouver’s disappeared women: settler colonialism and the difficulty of inheritance. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

Goulding, Warren. 2001. Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada’s Indifference. Fifth House Publishers.

Lavell-Harvard, D. Memee and Jennifer Brant (eds). 2016. Forever loved : exposing the hidden crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada. Bradford, ON: Demeter Press.

Michalko, Ray. 2016. Obstruction of Justice: The Search for Truth on Canada’s Highway of Tears. Red Deer Press.

Scofield, Gregory. 2016. Witness, I Am. Nightwood Editions. [Includes an epic poem about MMIW].

Shenher, Lori. 2015. That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away. Greystone Books.

Walter, Emmanuelle. 2015. Stolen Sisters: The Story of Two Missing Girls, Their Families, and How Canada Has Failed Indigenous Women. HarperCollins Publishers.

Violence

Agtuca, Jacqueline; Sahneyah, Dorma (ed). 2015. Safety for Native Women: VAWA and American Indian Tribes. National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.

Casselman, Amy L. 2015. Injustice in Indian Country: Jurisdiction, American Law, and Sexual Violence Against Native Women. Peter Lang Inc.

Charleyboy, Lisa; Leatherdale, Mary Beth (eds). 2018. #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women. Annick Press.

Chenault, Venida S. 2011. Weaving Strength, Weaving Power: Violence and Abuse against Indigenous Women. Carolina Academic Press.

Deer, Sarah. 2015. The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America. 3rd ed. Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Deer, Sarah. 2007. Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence. AltaMira Press.

Hargreaves, Allison. 2017. Violence against Indigenous women : literature, activism, resistance. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

McGillivray, Anne; Comaskey, Brenda. 1999. Black Eyes All of the Time: Intimate Violence, Aboriginal Women, and the Justice System. University of Toronto Press.

Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition. 2012. The Barrette Project: Honoring Native Women Survivors of Sexual Violence. CreateSpace.

Robertson, David Alexander, et al. 2017. Will I See? HighWater Press. [graphic novel.]

Smith, Andrea. 2015. Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. Reprint. Duke University Press Books.

Vermette, Katherena. 2016. The Break. House of Anansi Press. [fiction.]

Biography and Memoir

Brave Bird, Mary; Erdoes, Richard. 2014. Ohitika Woman. Grove Press. [sequel to Lakota Woman.]

Crow Dog, Mary; Erdoes, Richard. 2014. Lakota Woman. Reprint. Grove Press.

Harjo, Joy. 2012. Crazy Brave: A Memoir. W. W. Norton & Company.

Harness, Susan Devan. 2018. Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption. University of Nebraska Press.

Mailhot, Terese Marie. 2018. Heart Berries: A Memoir. Counterpoint.

Robertson, Davis Alexander. 2008. The Life of Helen Betty Osborne: A Graphic Novel. Portage & Main Press.

Robertson, David Alexander. 2015. Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story. HighWater Press.

Feminism and Activism

Akaka, Moanike’ala; Kahaulelio, Maxine, et al. (eds). 2018. Nā Wāhine Koa: Hawaiian Women for Sovereignty and Demilitarization. University of Hawaii Press.

Anderson, Kim. 2001. A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood. Sumach Press.

Baldy, Cutcha Risling. 2018. We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. University of Washington Press.

Barker, Joanne. 2017. Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. Duke University Press Books.

Donovan, Kathleen M. 1998. Feminist Readings of Native American Literature: Coming to Voice. Third ed. University of Arizona Press.

Green, Joyce. 2007. Making Space for Indigenous Feminism. Zed Books.

Kapā’anaokalāokeola Nākoa Oliveira, Katrina-Ann R. et al. (eds). 2015. Kanaka ‘Ōiwi Methodologies: Mo‘olelo and Metaphor. University of Hawaii Press.

Lavell-Harvard, Dawn Memee; Anderson, Kim (eds). 2014. Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous Mothering as Global Resistance, Reclaiming and Recovery. Demeter Press.

Mankiller, Wilma. 2011. Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women. Memorial ed. Fulcrum Publishing.

Maracle, Lee. 2002. I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism. Reprint. Raincoast Books, Press Gang Publishers.

Mihesuah, Devon Abbott. 2003. Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism. University of Nebraska Press.

Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. 2017. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance. 3rd ed. Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. Zed Books.

Suzack, Cheryl; Huhndorf, Shari M.; Perreault, Jeanne; Barman, Jean. 2011. Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture. UBC Press.

Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1999. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii. Revised ed. Latitude 20 Books.

Wagner, Sally Roesch. 2010. Sisters in Spirit: Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists. Book Publishing Company.

Wilson, Shawn. 2009. Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Fernwood Publishing Co., Ltd.

History and Tradition

Allen, Paula Gunn. 2015. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Reissue ed. Open Road Media.

Anderson, Kim. 2011. Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine. Third ed. University of Manitoba Press.

Goeman, Mishuana. 2013. Mark My Words: Native Women Mapping Our Nations. Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Hillaire, Pauline (Scälla–Of the Killer Whale). 2016. Rights Remembered: A Salish Grandmother Speaks on American Indian History and the Future. University of Nebraska Press.

Jagodinsky, Katrina. 2016. Legal Codes and Talking Trees: Indigenous Women’s Sovereignty in the Sonoran and Puget Sound Borderlands, 1854-1946. Yale University Press.

Katz, Jane. 2009. Messengers of the Wind: Native American Women Tell Their Life Stories. Reprint. One World.

Kermoal, Nathalie; Altamirano-Jiménez, Isabel (eds). 2016. Living on the Land: Indigenous Women’s Understanding of Place. AU Press.

Perdue, Theda. 1999. Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835. Bison Books.

LGBTQ2

Driskill, Qwo-Li. 2016. Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory. University of Arizona Press.

Driskill, Qwo-Li; Finley, Chris; Gilley, Brian Joseph; Morgensen, Scott Lauria (eds). 2011. Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature. University of Arizona Press.

Driskill, Qwo-Li; Justice, Daniel Heath; Miranda, Deborah; Tatonetti, Lisa (eds). 2011. Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. University of Arizona Press.

Jolivette, Andrew J. 2016. Indian Blood: HIV and Colonial Trauma in San Francisco’s Two-Spirit Community. University of Washington Press.

Morgensen, Scrott Lauria. 2011. Spaces between Us: Queer Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Decolonization. Univ Of Minnesota Press.

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