A powerful picture book that weaves an urgent call to action with a timely story about protecting nature's most sacred resource from harm and corruption.
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal
Water is the first medicine.
It affects and connects us all.
Water is sacred.
My people talk of a black snake that will destroy the land,
Spoil the water, wreck everything in its path.
They foretold that it wouldn’t come for many, many years.
Now the black snake is here.
Told from the perspective of a Native American child, this bold and lyrical picture book written by Ojibwe/Métis author Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Tlingit artist Michaela Goade is a powerful call to action to defend Earth’s natural resources—inspired by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and similar movements led by Indigenous tribes all across North America.
