Grades 9+
396 pages
Perry Firekeeper-Birch is sixteen, an excellent fisher and tracker, and she's ready to enjoy her summer. But due to a fender bender and her need to pay for the damages to her aunt's car, Perry and her high-achieving sister Pauline become summer interns for their Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribal Council. Perry is assigned to assist at the Tribal Museum where she learns about the ongoing issues related to the Repatriation of indigenous tribal items and remains, specifically between their Anishinaabe tribe and the local university.
Meanwhile, a number of local young Ojibwe women are going missing at an alarming rate, yet the police do not seem motivated or able to find who is taking them. Just when tensions in the community are at their highest, Perry literally trips over the dead body of a known predator at the Cultural Center.
Perry and her friends do not sit around waiting for someone to do something. This crew of friends know the power their voices and actions have, they know who they are and what they believe in, and Perry is not afraid to use their combined skills and abilities to fight and protect their community, to do what others can or won't do. This is a story that does not shy away from painful topics: generational trauma, racist political and academic agendas, MMIW (missing and murdered Indigenous Women), predation and manipulation of young people. But this is a story of agency, empowerment, social justice, learning who to trust and especially, trusting yourself.
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