Thunder Songs: Essays

Thunder Songs: Essays by Sasha LaPointe is a collection of biographical stories on what it means to her to be a proud, queer Indigenous woman.

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 from the miraculous to the mundane, from the spiritual to 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.

This is an important book for anyone living on stolen lands - which is most of us in the US.

LaPointe, Sasha. (2024). Thunder Songs: Essays. Berkeley: Counterpoint.