We Are Water Protectors

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.