5 Famous Native American Authors

For thousands of years, Native American society relied on oral tradition for passing down legends, stories, folklore, and historical accounts from one generation to another. Both old and young indigenous women and men who experienced Native American boarding schools and other hardships that tried to destroy native culture and indigenous identity told a lot about what they went through.

Over the past few decades, a tremendous amount of formal literary work has been created in Native America, making it possible to curate, preserve, share, and appreciate what Native American authors have produced within a broader geographic and demographic context.

Native American literature today spans a variety of genres, from memoirs, fantasy, and poetry to history, urban tales, and children’s series. It addresses important topics in society, examining the intricacies of modern-day America and shedding light on the general complexities of native culture as well as the aspirations, dreams, struggles, and joys of indigenous people.

Many Native American works of writing are tremendously enjoyable and inspiring. They also offer deep insights into indigenous cultures, traditions, and ways of life, which you can learn more about on Native American Netroots.

If you are new to the growing body of indigenous literature, here are five popular Native American writers whose work you would definitely want to explore. 

1. Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich is a highly acclaimed writer and one of the indigenous women writers who has won numerous awards for her literary output. Her writing covers several genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, and children’s books.

Erdrich’s Native American roots stem from her maternal side. Her mother, Rita, is of Ojibwe descent, and her grandfather was a tribal chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Although Erdrich didn’t grow up on a reservation, her deep connection to her indigenous heritage is evident in her work. Her 1979 short story, The World’s Greatest Fisherman, for instance, revolves around an Ojibwe woman, while her 1984 book Jacklight narrates tribal legends, myths, traditions, and culture within a collection of poetry.

The Night Watchman, inarguably one of Erdrich’s most popular novels (inspired by her maternal grandfather), won her a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Round House, The Plague of Doves, Love Medicine, Chickadee, Fleur, and The Antelope Wife also stand out among her award-winning novels and poetry.

2. N. Scott Momaday

Kiowa author Navarre Scotte Momaday is one of the pioneering indigenous writers of the Native American Renaissance.

His Kiowa lineage comes from his father, but his affinity for writing was likely inspired by his mother, who was a writer. And his tribal background and exposure to Navajo, Apache, and Pueblo traditions while living in Arizona and New Mexico, no doubt, influenced his work.

Momaday’s literary career commenced with the publication of his first book, The Complete Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, in 1964. But the biggest breakthrough came just a few years later in 1968 when he released the novel House Made of Dawn. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 and is widely believed to have paved the way for indigenous work into mainstream literature.

Momaday has produced many other celebrated novels, short stories, essays, and poems, such as The Way to Rainy Mountain and The Man Made of Words, that have won him numerous awards and honors during his lifetime.

3. Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie is a well-known Spokane writer, much-loved for his dark humor and raw take on topics like poverty, resilience, racism, and trauma, some of which were inspired by his own life experiences within a Native American community.

Alexie spent his childhood on the Spokane Indian Reservation until he attended high school in Reardan, Washington, in the 1980s. In 1992, he published The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, his first poetry collection. The following year, he released The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which was later adapted into the coming-of-age comedy film Smoke Signals.

Many of Alexie’s literary works are filled with humor and satire despite the rather dark themes they focus on. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (that won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature), Reservation Blues (that won an American Book Award), and War Dances are some of the books written by this author you don’t want to miss.

4. Joy Harjo

A citizen of the Muscogee Nation, Joy Harjo is a highly regarded poet. She is the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate (from 2019 to 2022) and has served three terms as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, the second poet to have the honor in U.S. history.

Harjo grew up in Oklahoma and earned her undergraduate and MFA degrees at the University of New Mexico and the University of Iowa, respectively.

Having authored ten poetry books and three children’s books, Harjo was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americans for the Arts, the Harper Lee Award, the Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America.

If you enjoy poems, this is an author you will absolutely love. Be sure to check out Harjo’s An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, and In Mad Love and War.

5. Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko is known as one of the prominent indigenous authors of the First Wave of the Native American Renaissance.

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Silko lived on the Laguna Pueblo reservation during her childhood. But she was never an enrolled citizen due to her one-eighth blood quantum (a result of her mixed-race family)

Despite that, Silko often integrates Laguna Pueblo culture, folklore, history, and traditions into her novels and poetry (together with topics that impact contemporary life, like cultural identity, feminism, and racism).

Her novel Ceremony, published in 1977, is undoubtedly the most critically acclaimed work she produced during her literary career. Often featured in university syllabi, the book has drawn the attention of many literary experts since it was first released.

Almanac of the Dead, Storyteller, Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit, and Laguna Woman: Poems are also among her notable works of literature.

To Conclude

Certain Native American authors of recent times have offered deeper insights into the unique folklore, traditions, and Native American heritage through poetry, novels, and other narratives, making Native American writing popular over the world.

Louise Erdrich, N. Scott Momaday, Sherman Alexie, Joy Harjo, and Leslie Marmon Silko are among the most famous American Indian writers from native communities who have introduced indigenous work to mainstream literature. They each have their own unique writing style of storytelling and promise an eclectic range of creative output, from novels to memoirs.

If you want to explore Native American history, culture, diverse heritage, and indigenous communities of the Native people, you will find plenty of original and authentic accounts and moving perspectives in the books they have authored, all from indigenous perspective.