Nampeshiweisit

In Moniquill Blackgoose’s Nampeshiweisit series, dragons are not simply creatures of legend or weapons to be mastered. They are part of a world where knowledge, culture, and power have been shaped by generations of conflict. When fifteen-year-old Anequs, an Indigenous girl from the island of Masquapaug, discovers a dragon egg and raises the hatchling Kasaqua, she awakens a bond her people have not seen for generations. That discovery draws her into a society determined to teach her its own rules, history, and ideas about dragons.

Sent to Kuiper’s Academy to learn the Anglish approach to dragon training, Anequs finds herself caught between two very different ways of understanding the world. The academy offers education and opportunity, but it also carries the assumptions of a colonial society that views its own traditions as superior. Anequs's struggle is therefore not simply about learning to control a dragon. It is about deciding what knowledge is worth keeping, what she is willing to change, and how much of herself she can protect while navigating a world intent on defining her.

As the story expands beyond the academy, the stakes become increasingly political. Anequs returns home to find that her growing reputation has brought Anglish attention to Masquapaug, threatening the independence of her people. Dragon fantasy, alternate history, and coming-of-age storytelling gradually give way to questions of sovereignty, cultural survival, resistance, and the cost of imposing one society's values upon another.

The series' distinctive Indigenous perspective and thoughtful world-building helped To Shape a Dragon's Breath earn the Nebula Award, the Lodestar Award, and the Astounding Award, alongside nominations for other major speculative fiction honors. Its sequel, To Ride a Rising Storm, carries Anequs's journey into a more dangerous chapter, where the personal bond between girl and dragon is increasingly entangled with the fate of her homeland. The result is a character-driven fantasy series in which dragons open the door to a much larger story about identity, colonialism, belonging, and the right to shape one's own future.