Review by just_one_more_paige - By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

just_one_more_paige 's review for:

By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle

5.0

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

I have no idea how this book came across my radar, but I am glad it did. As I (apparently) am getting more and more info nonfiction, this was a spectacular addition to my “read” catalog.

The mini blurb for this book on Goodreads does a phenomenal job summing it up, so, I’m just going to drop it here in its entirety: “A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later.” Nagle really does that. She provides an absolutely fascinating overview history of tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction (how “Indian country” and indigenous nations and reservation lands are actually defined) in the US, and how we got to where we are today, interspersed with a present day/recent history examination of a legal case that helped (re)set major territory/land precedents.

Look, I know this country is founded on some fake news understanding of universal rights/beliefs that we say we espouse, but have only ever applied to certain (white male cis) groups. And a lot of this book is about how that plays out over and over and over to the detriment of indigenous groups. But I have to say, reading about how the general populace is against the Indian Removal Act, as an act of ethnic cleansing and in direct contradiction to/against signed treaties (so in other words, illegally), really just took the cake for me. Because it was pushed through by government leaders anyways, and later when judicial branch decisions (saying “that’s illegal, you can’t do it”) were ignored by the executive branch…you can see so clearly the pattern of this country that is repeating again now with ICE and Israel and Trump ignoring court orders with no negative repercussions. And just generally, we are exactly the nation as we founded ourselves and it’s terrible and we choose to never reckon with that so it’ll just keep repeating. Even being taught a version of history in which we low key acknowledge that what we did to native peoples was bad/wrong, there is never an acknowledgement that the repercussions are still playing out today, in a way that would help people understand that history is not, in fact, all in the past.

This book, however, does that with aplomb. And not only that, Nagle’s writing makes other connections for the reader as well. In particular, the way that we are all now starting to see what has long been true for Indigenous nations (and other POC and minority groups as well): that the Supreme Court is not (never was) the bastion of neutral justice we’ve always imagined it to be. Watching the systemic and purposeful separation and disintegration of communal ties and governance and land ownership of Indigenous nations by the US government, making it easier to dismantle their power and take their land and just in general disenfranchise them, is horrifying (and horrifying familiar) in its purposefulness. The theme of the US government’s trail of broken promises and lies, in a desperate grasp for any power it can get out of deep-seated fear of losing it, in incredibly tragic and wildly harmful. In the final chapter, Nagle drops the mic with her portrayal of the US’s contradictions at the highest level: democracy and empire.

And yet, on a note specific to the court case central to this book’s present-day, I cannot help but hope that it’s a sign for us all, right now. Because Nagle’s writing – the detail and clarity and compelling-ness – of the story, the truth, she is telling carries a message of hope. She shows how, while very little compared to what they once had, the small amount of access and rights that these Indigenous tribes were able to fight for and maintain hold of paved the road for the recognition they (re)won so recently. That foothold they maintained allowed for the victory and reclamations that they’ve achieved today. It’s not nearly what it should be. But it is also is a beacon for those of us currently fighting for our own footholds against that same government. Anything we can hold onto is worth the effort to keep it – you never know when/how it will matter.

Well, this review got long. Because WOW - history and contemporary come together in a truth-telling and eye-opening account. I highly recommend this to anyone (everyone?) to better understand the actual impact of our nation’s genocide against Indigenous peoples from our founding through to today.

A final random note on potential comp reads, for anyone interested. First, I thought this held some parallels to RBG’s landmark equal rights case. Here, jurisdiction over a murder case was the basis for a wide-sweeping tribal land rights win. While in RBG’s case, a suit to support a male caregiver’s right set up a groundbreaking move in women’s rights. Personally, I am fascinated by how these situations that are not really directly related (or don’t seem directly related) to the social justice activism in question, have had such major impacts outside of their immediate scope. So, check out My Own Words for more on Ginsberg’s life/arguments. And as a fictional option, I recommend Erdrich’s classic (as in, if you haven’t read it yet, you absolutely should go do so, asap) The Round House, for sure.

“When you’re talking about disestablishment, you cannot presume it lightly.”

“Throughout US history, when laws protecting Indigenous nations are inconvenient for states or a broad base of non-Native constituents, the US government does not follow the law. But this time it did.”

“In one of the darkest chapters of American history, this land was promised to us for 'as long as the grass grows or the water runs.' In eastern Oklahoma, the grass is still growing, the water is still running, our fires still burn, and we are still here. And, despite the grave injustice of history, our legal right to our land never ended.”

“If Indigenous nations are truly sovereign, then we are responsible for our mistakes. Like any other government, we are responsible for the harm we have caused. We cannot hold the United States accountable for the wrongs of history committed against us, but not take account for the wrong of chattel slavery. The people we enslaved did not choose to become Cherokee or Muscogee - we made that choice for them. They and their families endured the hardships of the Trail of Tears and slavery, allotment and segregation. On the long path of repair, citizenship is only the first step.”

“Most often when people think of what Native Americans lost, they think of land, but that’s just what white peoples gained. What Native people lost is so much more.”

“Indigenous land, sovereignty, language, and culture are all connected. Whenever we lost land, our languages and culture also suffered. Conversely, where we held on to land is often the place where culture is still practiced and Indigenous languages still spoken.” (This ruling doesn’t return what was lost, it just helps stem/stop the flow of it.)

“Sometimes then the law is on our side we win. But more often, we watch the institution depart from law and precedent at will. Our experience has long reflected the strengths and weaknesses of the Supreme Court, the chaos of its decision-making, and the power it has given itself outside of constitutional bounds. If only people had been paying attention.”

“The historic status of the McGirt decision is ironic when you understand what happened legally. The Supreme Court didn't overturn anything, strike anything down, or change their own precedent. All the court did was follow the law. But still, that was radical.”

“Our inheritance as American citizens is a democracy that is often wildly antidemocratic - a government that rules by both consent and by conquest.”

Content Warnings