Winner, PEN Oakland–Josephine Miles Literary Award

Winner, 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award, Gold Medal for Autobiography/Memoir

Shortlisted for the 2014 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing

"Bad Indians stands out as a classic quintessentially Indigenous memoir." —Joy Harjo

This beautiful and devastating book—part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir—should be required reading for anyone seeking to learn about California Indian history, past and present. Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems. The result is a work of literary art that is wise, angry, and playful all at once, a compilation that will break your heart and teach you to see the world anew.