Publisher Summary:

Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is – the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.

In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot – will not – stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

My Thoughts:

This book was thought-provoking, eye-opening, impactful, powerful. There is much more to this story of Perry and the running mystery throughout the book, that goes much deeper and speaks to a truth that is not often discussed or brought into the light. This book does that, drags these ugly truths out into the open, all within the confines of this young adult book’s pages.

Perry Firekeeper-Birch is feisty, proud, flawed, smart. She lives for fishing and her family and living a laid back sort of life – the exact opposite of her driven, motivated twin sister Pauline. When an accident at the beginning of what Perry expected to be a summer of fun changes that fun summer into one spent as a paid intern. Perry’s assignment is with kooky Cooper, at the museum where he is the curator. Perry also learns that he is in charge of repatriating tribal items from universities and museums, to bring these items back home where they belong. Through her internship, Perry is awakened to the atrocities that have continued to plague her people, that these sacred tribal items, funerary items, and even human remains of those who are in her tribe are stolen and kept in roadside souvenir museums, colleges, museums- robbing them of the dignity and respect that they deserve. Perry learns there is a process and a path that is challenging and complex and not necessarily fair to requesting their return.

Perry is full of youthful passion, idealism, and she makes some judgement calls that are much more emotionally based, and skirt the system. And pays the price, which Cooper will no longer work with her. However, the fire within her to repatriate these sacred items and ancestors is lit, and she will not give up, even when sent to other mentors, she is still working to try to help.

While this is all happening, young Native American women in the area are going missing, and often are found when it is too late, with little being done to find them or their killer/killers.

I had heard of NAGPRA before, in an Native American class I took in college. NAGPRA stands for Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. From the NPS website:

Since 1990, Federal law has provided for the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. By enacting NAGPRA, Congress recognized that human remains of any ancestry “must at all times be treated with dignity and respect.” Congress also acknowledged that human remains and other cultural items removed from Federal or tribal lands belong, in the first instance, to lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. With this law, Congress sought to encourage a continuing dialogue between museums and Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations and to promote a greater understanding between the groups while at the same time recognizing the important function museums serve in society by preserving the past.

A few weeks ago, I was on vacation not far from where this book is set. I am a lifelong Michigander as well, so this book sort of hit me hard. I live here, and I hear absolutely nothing about these issues and tragedies that hit our Indigenous people to this day. Billy wasn’t even aware that there were recognized tribes in Michigan, or that there was tribal land still left here. We know that in our area, the Wyandot Nation were sadly and wrongly forced out a long time ago, and were relocated in Oklahoma. So this book sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole; it was on my mind anyway since next month Wyatt has to do a research report to find out what lands our city occupies and then research the Indigenous people that lived here. However, his third grade history people won’t include some of the things that I am concerned about – mainly the MMIW.

I was going to write about this huge issue, then, realized I am nowhere near knowledgeable enough to tackle it on here. Instead, I encourage you to do some research yourself. Read about repatriation, read about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis. I know that I am not finished educating myself about it, and I hope that there is some way that I can help, even if it is just by learning and lending a voice, helping to shine a light.

This book is 100% worth reading, and I highly encourage you to read it.