Red Hoop Talk EP 96: Angeline Boulley, Ojibwe
Angeline Boulley, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island. Angeline was born into story-telling people, and was was first introduced to the art through generational oral tradition. Yet during her childhood, Angeline struggled with her biracial Indigenous identity. In searching for representation through the stories in books she was reading, she realized that the examples she found lacked depth and true experience. It wasn’t until her mid-forties that she realized she could write her own experience into existence.
Firekeeper’s Daughter is her debut novel, and was an instant #1 NYT Bestseller. The book has been named the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, the Printz Award, the William C. Morris award for YA debut literature, and was an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. Called an “Indigenous Nancy Drew” the central character is Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community after witnessing a shocking murder.
Her second novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed, was published in 2023 and was an instant New York Times and Indies Bestseller. This novel takes us back to Sugar Island, and is a high stakes thriller about the power of discovering your stolen history.
Angeline’s newest novel, Sisters in the Wind (September 2025), is a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms.
