Dreams and nightmares in First Nations fiction The dissertation describes an Indigenous dream framework that underscores the significance of dreams as a mirror of trauma and a way that leads back to Indigenous knowledges. Significant differences of Western and Indigenous epistemology are exemplified by juxtaposing Western and Indigenous dream discourses. The selected prose fiction allows for a dream categorization that emphasizes the significance and meaning of dreams as a metaphorical as well as narrative device. Nightmares Anxiety dreams are often the result of the devastating effects of colonization and especially Residential School. Nightmares in the texts are often exact replicas of the abuse suffered in the boarding schools. They are discussed in the context of Robert Arthur Alexie’s novel Porcupines and China Dolls (2001 2009) represents dreams and traumatic nightmares and deals with the fictional Blue People First Nation. The community’s collective intergenerational trauma of Residential School experience keeps them stuck in dysfunctional dynamics dominated by suicides sexual and physical abuse drug and sex addictions. Telling dreams categorized as “instructing dreams ” and “announcing dreams ” teach the dreamer what will happen in the future. They are discussed in the context of Richard Van Camp’s short stories “On the Wings of this Prayer” and “The Fleshing” (Godless but Loyal to Heaven 2012) which represent the category of the ecological nightmare as well as of telling dreams. Ecological nightmares display ... Kanada Dreams First Nations Indigenous fiction Indigenous knowledges Nightmares Residential School healing reconciliation trauma Indigenes Wissen Literaturwissenschaft