Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

Pages: 400 

Publisher: Rock The Boat 

Released: 4th of May 2023 

From the New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter comes a thrilling YA mystery about a Native teen who must find a way to bring an ancestor home to her tribe.

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 artefacts 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.

What I Have to Say 

This book made me so angry on behalf of all of the Native American tribes who's artefacts and ancestors are hoarded away in museums and private collections instead of safely with the tribes where they belong. I am sicken on behalf of all the indigenous people's of the world who have had so much taken from them by western greed. 

I loved Perry's character so much. I loved the toughness and the sarcasm, but underneath how much she cared about her ancestors, her tribe and her friends. The fact that Team Misfit toys were so willing to help her out even with her illegal activities even though she hadn't known some of them that long is a testament to friendship and found family. 

I haven't read much about Native American Tribes and only this about Ojibwe so that's something I would really like to read more about. I knew they were treated really badly and I've heard about residential schools and other things like that, but this book showed me that it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the abuse they've faced in history and are still facing in modern times. 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Rock the Boat for providing me with this gifted copy for review.