Warrior Girl Unearthed

Some of the best stories I’ve read are not only filled with mystery and intrigue, they also share pieces of history and culture that I don’t often get to read about. With her sophomore novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed, Angeline Boulley has crafted a clever riff on a heist story and a powerful testament to resilience and reclaiming Native history.

Perry Firekeeper-Birch is ready for a relaxing Summer of Slack, but when she gets into a fender bender all her summer plans change in an instant. To pay back her Auntie Daunis, she must join a summer intern program. She spends her days doing team exercises and working at the tribal museum, where she is introduced to the world of stolen artifacts. After Perry attends a meeting where she sees “Warrior Girl,” an ancestor who has been kept in the basement of a local university along with twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors, Perry determines to do everything in her power to bring their remains and other artifacts home to Sugar Island.

If you loved Firekeeper’s Daughter, I have no doubt that this book will be your next favorite read. Not only is Warrior Girl Unearthed suffused with rich and compelling Native history and culture, it also features some incredible characters—most notably Perry, a sometimes-reckless teen whose heart is in the right place and believes fiercely in justice for her tribe. I’m sure you’ll be rooting for Perry and her team of Misfits the whole time, just like I did.

Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.

Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.

But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.

Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right—for the ancestors and for their community.