Middle Grade: Freedmen & Black Natives
There isn’t one way to be Native, and that includes the intersectionality of Native identity. Freedmen and Black Natives are part of Native communities. For Freedmen, their complex histories are tied back and woven throughout the Five Tribes—Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole—who enslaved people of African descent.
Each culture enriched the other. In their shared anguish as survivors of colonial conquest, Native and Black tribal people in the southeast came to depend upon one another in every facet of life, forging kinships and an inseparable bond, whether acknowledged or not, that continues to this day.
In this list, you will find books by or about Freedmen that introduce the history, joy, anguish and pride of their identities, as well as books by Black Natives who celebrate their familial traditions.
Blue Stars, Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem
Author
Kekla Magoon and Cynthia Leitich Smith (Mvskoke Nation)
Illustrator
Summary
When cousins Riley Halfmoon and Maya Dawn move to Urbanopolis to live with their activist grandma, they get off to a rocky start. Outgoing Riley misses her Muscogee cousins but is sure that she and Maya will be instant BFFs. Meanwhile, introvert Maya misses her parents, on active duty in Japan, and just wants some space to herself. At school, Maya joins Robotics Club and Riley bonds with fellow gymnasts. Just when they start to feel at home, their school culture is threatened by an influential foe in disguise. Joining student council feels like a way to help, so both cousins toss their hats in the ring for sixth-grade class president. But when they realize what they’re up against—money, power, and lies—they quickly shift from competition to cooperation, joining forces as superheroes. Riley is savvy with people; Maya is a whiz with gadgets. In no time, this dazzling duo is off to save the day!
Relatable and rich in themes of family, community, and compromise, the Blue Stars series will entertain and empower, inspiring readers to be the stars they are.
Mascot
Author
Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) and Charles Waters
Summary
Just outside of Washington D.C., six students grapple with a mascot, tradition, and identity. This verse novel is told from perspectives of the six students, as well as including poems from the English teacher who assigns them a persuasive argument and paper on the mascot issue. As the students struggle with understanding one another and fighting for changing or keeping the mascot, they face opposition from unexpected sources, have friendships tested, and ultimately lead them to answering big questions about their own identity and place in the world.
Gone Crazy in Alabama
Author
Summary
From Newbery Honor and New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia comes the story of the Gaither sisters as they travel from the streets of Brooklyn to the rural South for the summer of a lifetime.
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother Big Ma and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles’s half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven’t spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that’s been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
Conclusion
Knowing Freedmen’s histories and ties to Native heritage and communities helps broaden our understanding of the diversity of what it means to be Native. It’s important for Freedmen descendants and Black Native youth to see themselves and their multi-layered experiences authentically reflected in children’s literature. The following stories shed light on what it means to be of mixed-heritage in Indigenous communities, thereby giving a unique and fulfilling lens to readers, a perspective into a world not popularly known.
About the Authors
Pasha Westbrook, Stacy Wells, & Cynthia Leitich Smith
Pasha Westbrook, a Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen descendant, lives among the Arizona cacti with her husband and three beautiful boys. Braided Roots is her debut picture book. Stacy Wells (Choctaw Nation) is a youth librarian serving children from birth to teens. Her debut picture book, Stronger Than co-authored with Nikki Grimes and illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Lenni Lenape), is forthcoming in 2026 from Heartdrum. Cynthia Leitich Smith (Mvskoke Nation) is a New York Times-bestselling author of books for young readers, including Hearts Unbroken, which won the American Indian Library Association’s Youth Literature Award. She is also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books.
