Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of indigenous short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Indigenous Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From folklores to modern tales of native people’s struggle to be heard, our indigenous stories have something for everyone.

Indigenous Short Stories – Page 2 of 10

A seaside ramble with Woppy

Submitted to Contest #324

"NO PUPPY! Not today! I don't want to walk on the beach today!" Dammit ... he was pulling out all the tricks. A soft "woof, woof" with melting pools of molten gold eyes, I can never say no to. "Dammit! Come on then." The waves were joyous today. Crashing playfully against my furry four legged dinosaur as he bounce swam without a worry in the world. His goofy, always made me smile. "Not too far Woppy. Tangaroa will steal you." Mum would call out to us kids the same thing when we swam deep to catch the back waves, while dad dived to fill his...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Hitchhiker on a Forgotten Highway

Submitted to Contest #324

Got my thumb out in this chilly prairie wind that cuts through my jacket like a knife. In the past hour, I’ve only seen a couple of vehicles headed for Fargo on this forgotten highway. Not a single vehicle is headed east toward Chicago. That’s where I’m headed. I need to get out of this place as fast as I can. With my dark skin and shoulder length jet-black hair, I doubt anyone will take the time to stop for me. Still I keep my thumb extended just in case. If someone were to snap a photograph, I’d be known as the hitchhiker on a forgotten h...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Serpent of Life

Submitted to Contest #324

Water flowed slowly, yet powerfully, around and past Reto. The surface was painted green with the reflections of trees, towering over its mirror. His father’s canoe put a thick wooden wall between him and the liquid forest. Its embrace made him feel safe, able to move with the strength of the river, as part of it, rather than against it. Dipping his oar gently below the surface, he swirled the images into a mess of murky debris and glided forward. The great river, the Rio Amazonas, mother of all things and giver of life, fell before Reto’s o...

24 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Tamsin and Mika

Submitted to Contest #324

Tamsin squinted against the sparkle of sunlight glinting off the swirling current of the river. Her stomach rumbled as the sun sunk in the sky. Tonight, there would be a feast. The fishermen’s nets had been full this season, and she looked forward to filling her belly with pink-fleshed fish that had been dried in the sun, the heat of summer lingering in every bite. “Tamsin.” Her closest friend, Mika, sat next to her on the riverbank. “There you are. You’ve been gone a while. Your mother sent me to look for you to help with preparations.” H...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Let the Sun die

Submitted to Contest #323

Story based on real traditions held by the Mexicas (Aztecs) and other surrounding civilizations.The food was scarce. Villages started to starve. Kids died in their mothers’ arms. Some priests started talking about the death of Huitzilopochtli, the Sun. It was time. The divine son of Coatlicue demanded blood, a lot of blood. A new Xochiyáoyotl was declared against Texcoco. The Flower War would start after the next full moon. Two thousand of each finest would face each other on the valley, near the most holy place in which our ancestors found ...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Catacombs of San Genaro

Submitted to Contest #323

"How did you get so lucky?" Mimmo just chuckled. He didn't break rhythm with his shovel, just kept up his work. "Dio mio! How they stink!" Gustavo tried shoveling left-handed rather than right. He tried swiping at his nose with his shoulder. He kept talking. Mimmo didn't bother to correct his co-worker. He didn't bother giving encouragement. He had been at this job a long time, and he knew the type. Gustavo's type. Talkative. As if it helped. As he worked, he considered, though maybe it did help. The talkative types tended to keep on refusin...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The love of two people hiding a fascinating story

Submitted to Contest #321

A love of two people hiding a fascinating story.I was sitting at home slightly stressed out as I was waiting for my Sats results. I just heard on the radio it was going to be a hot day In Phoenix. I sat here thinking about what I was going to do on a hot day. It was the end of the school year and most of my friends had left for a holiday in a cooler climate. A holiday in France was planned for me and my dad but I had to wait a couple of days as he had something to finish at the office. In a lethargic and bored way I looked around the room. I...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Great Thumb Fire

Submitted to Contest #320

The Great Thumb Fire Inside the blistering barks of sugar maples, red and silver maples, birch, black walnut and basswood trees sap bubbled and boiled, and hissed ear-cracking warnings. Zizz zik Zizz zik Zizz zik Below, field ants skreiched. Scarab beetles squealed. Their cries, pitched at a frequency so extreme only a mammal like a bear could register it, ripped through the burning forest. Crashing through a clearing on Klug Road a black bear squinted her eyes and rotated her ears. Two bawling cubs trailed her. Their mother chose the t...

7 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Light for the Darkness

Submitted to Contest #320

A packed SUV containing the Simmons family pulled into the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. The Oconaluftee Forest is the valley of the Oconaluftee River in North Carolina’s Great Smokey Mountains. The river is sacred to the Cherokee People. Jim and Meredith Simmons were eager to stretch their legs after the long ride north from Florida’s Disney World. Their twin eight-year-old children, Bruce and Bridget, were even more eager to escape the back seat of the Ford Explorer. They had said goodbye to Disney World early in the morning and headed fo...

7 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Lost and Alone

Submitted to Contest #320

I should have found her sooner. Hunger creates monsters, especially in the dead of winter. She screamed my name, I was bogged down against three other invaders attempting to burn the village and kill its people. “Taupek. Please forgive me.” She screamed for her husband as a man gripped at her wrist, it felt like iron clamping hard over her skin. “Sahale!” A cacophony of voices, roaring fires and clashing steel drowning out her pleas. Rope was soon tied over her arms, her legs bound with cloth before she was slung over the back of the man...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Missy’s Garden

Submitted to Contest #320

The mammogram image stared back at us like a fortune teller eager to share the future. “Is it just me?” Missy said. “Or does that look like a dog smiling?” Dr. Liu frowned and ignored the question. He waved his pen at the computer screen. “That mass is not a joke, Mrs. Robinson. We’re going to need more tests and set up a treatment plan.” “Nah.” Missy shook her head. “It’s just scar tissue shaped like a smiling dog. Lowell here,” she patted my hand, “was born in ‘46. Year of the Dog. You’re familiar with the Chinese zodiac, right, Doc?” But ...

14 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Cara & Amp help 3 guys being hunted by bigfoots, a Slay Inc. story

Submitted to Contest #320

Things were heating up in the sasquatch world. Cara knew things were building, and getting worse. More sightings, more people being followed and harassed. More people disappeared, experienced hikers and hunters who knew how to get around in the woods. She was up to her pretty dark eyeballs in wendigo, and now needed to get someone else involved. Amp was a great fighter, just a wee bit crazy. Well sometimes off the wall insane. But she liked to work with him, and could depend on him. In a fight, he was the best to have your back. Tha...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Amp and Cara help prisoners being hunted by hybrid dogmen, a Slay Inc. story

Submitted to Contest #320

Cara is gathering her things for an assignment. It has been weeks since she has seen Amp, but she is happy that they have an assignment together again. Slay is being good to its slayers. She and Amp made a good team, always moving in tandem, and she knew Amp really liked her. He had a hard time hiding it.She put her brother Kalen’s slingshot in her jacket pocket. It was the first time she had touched anything of her brother’s since his death. Her emotions were still raw and jumbled over the biggest loss of her young life. It wasn’t just abou...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Elizabeth Irene

Submitted to Contest #319

Hello, my name is Alice. You can call me Ali for short. Lately I’ve been having dreams about an ancestor whose name, I dare to say, is Elizabeth Irene. I’m going to call her Eli for short. I do not know her last name. my mother’s name is Elizabeth and my sister’s name is Rosa. My father’s name is Henry. We are a happy family living in Connecticut. We, according to my mother, have been in Connecticut since the 1700’s! I cannot believe that! My mother’s people are from New York and came to Connecticut in the 1780’s; however, my father’s people...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Some Bones Were New

Submitted to Contest #320

“What stalked the woods was not known, only guessed at.” I recalled one of my favorite excerpts from Ghosts of the Pineywoods as I took the first few steps through the treeline, the air shifting around me in response. I’d come alone- contrary to conventional wisdom- because I was determined to make every aspect of this excursion mine. Just last week, I’d graduated high school with honors. In lieu of attending the ceremony, my father gifted me the funds for a trip to any destination I chose. He knew my passion for the supernatural, with my l...

14 likes 1 comment 1
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.