Thunder Song: Essays

The winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award for her memoir, Red Paint, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe returns with a razor-sharp, clear-eyed selection of essays on what it means to be a proudly queer, indigenous woman in America today.

Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe explores themes ranging from indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty.

Unapologetically punk, the essays in Thunder Song segue between the miraculous and the mundane, the spiritual and the physical, as they examine the role of art--in particular music--and community in helping a new generation of indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.