Darrel James McLeod (July 13, 1957 – August 29, 2024) was a Canadian Cree writer.
[1] His memoir Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age, an account of his childhood experience of physical and sexual abuse, won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 2018 Governor General's Awards[2] and was a shortlisted finalist for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize.
[4][5] Originally from Treaty 8 Cree territory near Smith, Alberta,[6] McLeod went on to work as a teacher, a health care worker, a land claims negotiator and as director of education and international affairs for the Assembly of First Nations.
[1] The book also touches both on McLeod's coming out as a gay man,[7] and on his sibling's transition as transgender.
[8] His second book, Peyakow, was shortlisted for the 2021 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.