2022
Latest Winners
The Indigenous History Book Prize
2025
Cheryl Troupe & Doris Jeanne MacKinnon, Métis Matriarchs: Agents of Transition. University of Regina Press, 2024.
Métis Matriarchs, edited by Cheryl Troupe and Doris Jeanne MacKinnon, is an outstanding work of historical research that brings forward the voices of Métis women. It is a powerful testament to the strength and resilience of these women. We have heard the many stories of the men they worked alongside and now their voices will be heard, balancing our knowledge of the Métis struggle for survival.
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel & Sean Carleton, When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance. Between the Lines, 2024.
So much has been written about the 1990 siege of the unceded territories of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke by the Sureté du Québec and Canadian army. When the Pine Needles Fall is the long-awaited memoire by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, on the history of Haudenosaunee resistance to centuries-long land theft that culminated in the 1990 events. Written in the form of a dialogue between Gabriel and settler historian Sean Carleton, this is a deeply compelling story of ancestors, politics, military, art, land protection, and responsibilities. It is a powerful treatise from a much-loved and respected leader.
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Crystal Gail Fraser, By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. University of Manitoba Press, 2024.
By Strength, We Are Still Here reconstructs the history of residential schools in Inuvik following WWII. Drawing on an extensive array of oral histories and archival sources, By Strength showcases the uniqueness of the northern residential school system, which were built at a time when Canada was dismantling the residential schools elsewhere in the country. This book highlights the role of parents as caregivers and advocates who challenged both the schools themselves and the broader attempt to transform the North.