Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley

Perry doesn't have much use for school and would rather spend the summer (and most school days) fishing in the lake.  But when she is forced to enroll in the Tribal Council Interns program, she finds herself paired up with the curator of the Tribe's museum.  He takes her to visit an anthropologist at the local state school, where she is shocked to learn about the way that her ancestors (and their sacred effects) are being treated by archeologists.  Boxes of dismembered body parts left in cellars, funereal items auctioned off, and an ineffectual Federal law that is supposed to prevent all of these abuses from occurring and is instead ignored.

Now committed to returning the remains of a young woman that is housed in the college's archives, Perry gets embroiled in an even bigger discovery -- a cache of bodies stolen from local graves.  But effecting the repatriation of these remains brings Perry into an even bigger issue.  Young women are being abducted across their reservation and due to loopholes in Federal and Tribal jurisdictions, help is slow in coming.  What does the one have to do with the other?  That's for the surprising climax of this mystery, thriller, and screed to reveal.

 

I struggled a bit with the complexity of the story -- numerous subplots, characters, and heavy use of Ojibwan phrases makes for a thick soup -- but it also creates a deep and immersive environment.  At least a dozen major characters, each of them have their own particular motivations, leads to a series of plot twists that keep you guessing to the end.  It's a well-crafted story and despite its complexity pays off at the end.  

While I might have enjoyed reading the first book Firekeeper's Daughter before I tackled this one, there really was no need to do so.  The novel stands up well on its own.