Unpapered: Writers Consider Native American Identity and Cultural Belonging (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781496235008)

Unpapered is a collection of personal narratives by Indigenous writers exploring the meaning and limits of Native American identity beyond its legal margins. Native heritage is neither simple nor always clearly documented, and citizenship is a legal and political matter of sovereign nations determined by such criteria as blood quantum, tribal rolls, or community involvement. Those who claim a Native cultural identity often have family stories of tenuous ties dating back several generations. Given that tribal enrollment was part of a string of government programs and agreements calculated to quantify and dismiss Native populations, many writers who identify culturally and are recognized as Native Americans do not hold tribal citizenship.

With essays by Trevino Brings Plenty, Deborah Miranda, Steve Russell, and Kimberly Wieser, among others, Unpapered charts how current exclusionary tactics began as a response to "pretendians"--non-indigenous people assuming a Native identity for job benefits--and have expanded to an intense patrolling of identity that divides Native communities and has resulted in attacks on peoples' professional, spiritual, emotional, and physical states. An essential addition to Native discourse, Unpapered shows how social and political ideologies have created barriers for Native people truthfully claiming identities while simultaneously upholding stereotypes.

Author: Diane Glancy
ISBN-10: 1496235002
ISBN-13: 9781496235008
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2023
Pages: 254
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.43w x 0.39d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/28/2023