Native American Studies: Writer Spotlight

"I didn’t (and don’t) want to appropriate something that wasn’t mine. But it was also important for me to claim my own personal experience of it." From here.

"Ironically, having already left the reservations, they couldn't prove it by U.S. government standards. Many tribes would not open their records up to help prove Indian status of those who'd abandoned the reservations. If your family wasn't listed on one of the federal rolls, like the Dawes Rolls, you were ass-out in the wind. 

No reparations for you."

From Black Indian.

"For the record, I have it on good authority I am half-white, but I literally cannot prove it. Seriously. There is no documentation verifying it. My mother never put my father’s name on the birth certificate. Short of a DNA test, people just have to take my word for it." From here.

“Never take the first plant you find, as it might be the last—and you want that first one to speak well of you to the others of her kind.” Braiding Sweetgrass

"Anyone with some micro-thin strain of Cherokee blood should be thanking the Freedmen because they have proven that our citizenship is not based on blood or any anthropological definition of "Indian" but is a legal concept rooted in the right of the Cherokee people to determine who is and who is not a Cherokee." From here.

“It’s part of my feminist ethic to think out loud and roughly on social media....For me, part of that feminist ethic is thinking along with people publicly and getting feedback.” [From "Kim TallBear Speaks Truth to Power"]

"Now, I have a daughter and I grew up like Reney when I was little, I slept with my great-grandmother a whole lot. We just had these generational bonds, and having a daughter who is growing up away from her grandmother is something that weighs on me." From here.

What is listed is what could be verified online at the time of posting and also based on how the writer identifies. For additions or corrections based on new or other information, please email the owner of this guide.