Warrior Girl Unearthed

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a 2023 young adult mystery/thriller by Angeline Boulley. Set in Sugar Island, Michigan (like her debut, Firekeeper’s Daughter), it follows a young woman of the area’s Ojibwe Tribe named Perry. During her summer internship, she realizes that a nearby college has 13 of her ancestors’ remains and thousands of cultural objects, and as she learns about repatriation, the number of missing and murdered women rises. Perry, her twin Pauline, and their friends uncover entwined secret plots that threaten their community’s people, both past and present. The novel touches on mistreatment of Indigenous human remains, Indigenous sovereignty and the right of repatriation, and the systemic racism that helps drive an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Boulley is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Her father, like Perry’s, is a traditional firekeeper. She has worked as the Director for the Office of Indian Education at the US Department of Education, as her tribe’s Education Director and Assistant Executive Director, and on the Board of Regents at Bay Mills Community College. Boulley’s books convey nuance and authority because they tell fictionalized stories about real issues that affect her people and home.