Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk

"When Sasha LaPointe isn’t singing in punk bands, she’s writing about her life as an Indigenous person of Upper Skagit and Nooksack lineage, which has culminated beautifully in her debut memoir, Red Paint. The book details her traumatic childhood and hard-won survival on a reservation in poetic, fluid imagery spiked with pop-culture reverence, but it slips into other emotional spaces as well. In particular, LaPointe dives into the story of her ancestor Comptia Koholowish, whose struggles and triumphs mirror the author’s own. It all makes for a gripping read that sheds fresh light what it means to be both punk and Indigenous in America."