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

by Rebecca Nagle

A powerful work of reportage and American history in the vein of Caste and How the Word Is Passed 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 ‘90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later.

Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples. That changed on July 9, 2020, when a high-profile Supreme Court case—which originated with a small-town murder two decades earlier—affirmed the reservation of Muscogee Nation. The ruling resulted in the largest restoration of tribal land in U.S. history, merely because the Court chose to follow the law.

 In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was create on top of their land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, when a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen, his defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma argued that reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court no more. The ruling would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation. 

 Nagle tells the story of the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, Indian Territory stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed in its long history of greed, corruption and lawlessness, and the Indigenous resistance that has shaped our country. 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Indigenous, True Crime, Audiobook, Native American, Social Justice

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 10, 2024

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic. I loved the way she blended history, current events, and personal reflections and history. The balance was spot on. The pacing was spot on. If you read and liked KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON this book does a similar thing but better and from an indigenous author. Yes!

[Gigi Ropp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful book about the importance of land to our Indigenous people and their fight to reclaim it, By the Fire We Carry was a beautifully written and narrated journalistic story detailing many parts of our history that have been whitewashed.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a thorough engaging document of McGirt v. Oklahoma and the history that led to it. For those unfamiliar with McGirt it ruled that despite the fact that the US and the state of Oklahoma had been ignoring the treaty establishing the reservations, sovereign lands, in the state for roughly a century and a half, the majority of the state of Oklahoma falls on reservation land.

As with any case, McGirt starts with harm done to a person or a small group of people, but when a case gets to the Supreme Court it is not about those harms, it is (nearly always) about constitutional or treaty interpretation. Here Nagle writes about this treaty's history and content, and also about that human story that sparked the case. I am glad she discussed the underlying story. In this matter, very very bad men benefitted from the Court's recognition that most of Oklahoma belongs to Indigenous people (for jurisdictional purposes.) Most people only focus on the outcome of cases, the resolution of human affairs, did he "get what he deserved?" and not on adherence to the principles on which this country was founded. People need to see that dismissing the protection of rights as "a technicality" is anti-American, that protecting people from the government is more important than legal redress. Look up Ernesto Miranda. He was a lousy person, a habitual criminal, a rapist and thief who died in a bar fight. And he did not serve time for at least a couple of those crimes because the police violated his Constitutional rights. And because of him and the lawyers who represented him, we are all safer in our dealings with the police and the state. The same thing holds in McGirt. A child-rapist and a man who, in addition to other bad acts, violently murdered a man in the most painful way possible because that man was his woman's ex, and he believed she might still have feelings for him, got new trials. Were we to deny Native Americans sovereignty because we wanted these men to stay in jail (or in one case to die)? I hope we can all agree that is a no.

The larger principle here is that when we forced the members of many tribes to march across the country, leading to the deaths of nearly 20,000 of them, the US gave the people they had victimized reservations and entered into treaties giving the tribes sovereignty over those stretches of land (which at the time the US government had no use for.) When it turned out those stretches of land had value, state and federal actors claimed that the tribes had no rights and stole the land. Interestingly, Oklahoma's primary argument in McGirt (and for some reason the US's argument because the Trump administration decided that they were going to intervene to make sure treaty rights were invalidated) turned out to be that despite the existence of these treaties the fact that the US and Oklahoma had mistreated and disenfranchised Native peoples for so long was proof that they did not intend for indigenous people to have rights. (If you don't believe me, or think I am oversimplifying you can read Justice Roberts' dissent in the case because he actually says that.) It turned out that this scrap of justice for Native Americans rested in part on strict constructionism, a school of constitutional interpretation that I consider immoral and intellectually insupportable, but here it worked. It is worth mentioning that it is not the same as the typical application of strict construction becuase typically the justices focus on constitutional interpretation where adherence to the text is absurd and antithetical to the framer's intent (which they always say they are honoring.) Here the strict construction applied to the interpretation of a treaty, which is essentially a contract, and contracts should be interpreted as written with all ambiguities to favor the party who did not draft the document (in this case the tribes. (Note though, that the monstrous newest version of the Court, in the same session where Roe v. Wade was overruled, seriously limited the impact of the decision in McGirt.)

The McGirt case provides the framework around which this book is built, but this is not a critical analysis of the decision. This is a history of the Muscogee Nation and the US treatment of Indigenous people through the lens of particular people. I knew a good deal about parts of this, I have certainly read McGirt and its companion case and have read a fair bit about dishonored treaty rights, but I learned a lot, and got a new perspective on most of what I did know. Nagle also tells us about the people who represented the plaintiffs and about the families impacted by the case. She makes clear a very complicated story, which is an impressive feat. The writing itself is not particularly lovely, but it is straightforward and digestible and that is the most important thing. A very worthwhile read.

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killers of the Flower Moon, but better/more engaging. I really appreciate the "further reading" section, you can bet I'll be getting on that.

I listened to the audiobook, and you really have to pay attention, not just because it's important, but because of the way its written, sometimes it's not completely clear what's going on. The author sometimes jumps from topic to topic, so it can be hard to keep up. So maybe listen, but also read at the same time.

By the Fire We Carry is well-researched, and you can learn a lot from it, so I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the subject, but it's not quite an easy read.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be in my top nonfiction reads of the year. I can't recommend it enough. Super engaging and accessible nonfiction so I definitely recommend it to everyone. The back and forth of the two main stories- the historic Supreme court case with the history of land theft and forced removal of Native Americans made this a page turner I couldn't put down. It's a devastating read, but well worth your time. I learned so much. I listened to the audiobook read by the author in tandem with a library copy and now have a phone full of pictures of paragraphs since I couldn't highlight. I read this after reading The Native Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America, which was also excellent and I'd definitely recommend reading them both together.

CW from the author: murder, suicide, racial violence, sexual violence, kidnapping. The physical book has an appendix that lists which pages the content is mentioned.

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have listened to and recommended Rebecca Nagle’s podcast This Land, and I was very pleased to learn that she had a book coming out that expands on the topic of the podcast’s first season. By the Fire We Carry did not disappoint.

Part journalism and part history, this book offers an accessible and informed analysis of all that led up to and was changed by the historic 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. Nagle centers the political and legal context behind U.S. and state relations with Native peoples and their lands, spotlighting issues of sovereignty and justice. Whether you’re interested in Indigenous American affairs (historical or contemporary), “Indian law,” Oklahoma politics and history, or the broader scope of the U.S. story (and the lessons we can learn from it), this much-needed work will provide new insights. It also includes an excellent bibliography to fuel further investigation. This is a reader-friendly, passionate, and vital piece of legal, political, and historical investigation with deep importance and implications today, one that does not shy away from difficult topics, and I look forward to sharing it with others.

Thanks to Goodreads Giveaways and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this book before it was published. All opinions in this review are my own.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book recounts the two decade long legal struggle that, after numerous appeals and delays, resulted in the largest restoration of tribal jurisdiction over Native land in U.S. history. This book also recounts the 200 year history of wrongs suffered by the Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Nations and how reservation land had been promised to them in Oklahoma territory. After years of court rulings that ignored the legal reality of these promises the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Sharp v. Murphy case (held over from the 2018 term in a per curium decision following McGirt v. Oklahoma) that the reservations were never disestablished and remain Indian country.
In the book the author uses the name "Royal v. Murphy" which is one of many different names applied to the case as the state's attorney on the case changed over the years as it progressed through the appeals process.

Despite its far-reaching outcome, Sharp v. Murphy didn't change actual ownership of land. The decision was about whether the state of Oklahoma had legal jurisdiction to administer capital punishment to a Native American for a crime committed on reservation land. The decision meant that only the Federal government had such right and due to other agreements could only do so with the consent of the respective tribal reservation authorities.

Any reader who enjoys reading about legal strategies and indigenous rights will find this book to be a fascinating story. It's exciting enough to be made into a movie, except for the unpopular fact that it involves saving a convict from execution who was clearly guilty of a grisly murder.

[Book Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely required reading.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction that addresses the history of the (mis)treatment of Native Americans written a citizen of Cherokee Nation, this book is primarily focused on an appeal that made its way to the US Supreme Court. The case asked whether the state of Oklahoma had legal jurisdiction to administer capital punishment to a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen convicted of murder, for a crime committed on reservation land. The defense argued that Congress had never disbanded the Muscogee reservation, so the Oklahoma courts did not have authority. It resulted in a 5-4 decision that said much of eastern Oklahoma was still tribal land.

Nagle provides the historical background, such as treaty violations, land dispossession, and Indigenous resistance. She discusses her own family’s past, which traces back to the Cherokee leaders who signed the controversial Treaty of New Echota, leading to the Trail of Tears. The book explains the redistribution of tribal lands under the Dawes Act (which broke up communally held tribal lands into individual plots). It also covers topics such as the Indian Removal Act, guardianship, and the boarding school era that separated Native children from their families and cultures.

This book provides an excellent analysis of Indigenous rights that combines law, history, and memoir. The author has a knack for storytelling and has constructed what could have been dry legal cases into a compelling narrative. Recommend it to those interested in learning more about the ongoing struggle for Native sovereignty and justice.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The fight over truth is so bitter because power flows from the dominant narrative—the power to shape both public sentiment and public policy.”

The decades-long legal battle of the Muscogee people's fight to have their land recognized by the state of Oklahoma and the US, in addition to the centuries of genocide and forced assimilation Indigenous peoples face.

“The legal doctrines the US created to seize Indigenous land still govern how the US treats people living at the margins of our empire. Native history is often treated like a tragic, distant chapter of the American story. And the legal terrain it created, like a siloed backwater of American law, but it is foundational.”

This was a hard read, but so good. The fight for justice on Native land is long fought, often two steps backward for every one step forward. The laws targeting Indigenous peoples and Indigenous land may seem like ancient history, but instead it's a layered and complex system of promises and failures and crime that nevertheless underpins the foundations of law in the US, and how white America treats those it deems unfit to live in anywhere but the margins.

This book is absolutely required reading.

“Federal Indian law today is not all good or all bad--rather it is the totality of our history. Embedded in American law are the victories and defeats of our ancestors, and the unimaginable compromises they were forced to make. ... What we are left with is a government that still contains both impulses: The impulse to uphold the inherent and legally recognized sovereignty of Indigenous nations. And the impulse to railroad tribes because it can.”

[Lillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

This is all I ever want from a book diving into the history and politics of an issue I’m not overly familiar with. Nagle couched a book on tribal sovereignty in a series of supreme court cases and all I can say is that I was glued to my seat. Everything was exceptionally well-explained, from the history of tribal land and treaties in Oklahoma to how the Supreme Court works.

I would 100% recommend this to anyone who is looking to better understand how tribes and the US government interact

[Sarah (sarahanneisreading) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Melanie Caldicott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a tough read. It had interesting sections about the indigenous nations of America and the land theft, genocide, imprisonment and allotment imposed on them. However, it was challenging to wade through so much US law and politics. Also as the case hinged on a murder and child rape it felt weird that these heinous crimes ended up being pivotal in the land battle fight for justice of indigenous nations. I would probably go for a different book on indigenous American tribe history to learn more about this subject.

[Katie B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Harper Perennial for sending me a free copy!

Go ahead and add BY THE FIRE WE CARRY to your tbr list as it’s required reading in my opinion. For most of us here in the US, our educational system failed us when it came to teaching us the true history of Indigenous people. At best it was glossed over or worse, flat out ignored. As I try to learn more on the subject, I continue to be appalled at what I uncover while reading.

A small town murder in the 1990s eventually led to a Supreme Court ruling which reaffirmed Native rights to land. In the 1830s, the US government forced the Muscogee people to relocate to land that is now in the state of Oklahoma. Promises were made that the Muscogee people had the rights to this land forever but that didn’t stop Oklahoma from claiming that right no longer existed. When a Muscogee man is murdered, the question is brought up as to whether his killer can be executed for the crime by the state of Oklahoma when the murder occurred on tribal land.

The book alternates between the court case and the history of the fight for Native rights. The author’s ancestors played a big role in that fight and she doesn’t shy away from the harder parts of her family’s history. This book really spells out the horrific treatment of Indigenous people by the government and its citizens and how it isn’t ancient history as it continues to this day.

Highly recommended as it’s an eye opening read even if are somewhat familiar with the history. The writing style has a good flow and it’s a compelling read.

[Samuel Steffen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rebecca Nagle's *By the Fire We Carry* is a masterful blend of investigative journalism, personal memoir, and historical analysis that shines a much-needed light on the enduring fight for Native American land rights and sovereignty. Centering on the landmark 2020 Supreme Court case McGirt v. Oklahoma—which reaffirmed much of eastern Oklahoma as Muscogee (Creek) reservation land—Nagle weaves in threads of her own Cherokee heritage, a chilling murder investigation, and centuries of systemic injustice, from the Trail of Tears to modern-day corruption.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In By The Fire We Carry, Nagle uses a conviction in a murder case in rural Oklahoma as the framework for examining the over a century long fight for native lands in the US. She goes back to the events at the time of treaties and the forced removal of Indigenous peoples and shows how that injustice has carried forward to today. As part of that journey and exploration, she looks at guardianship, allotment, and the removal of Native children to boarding schools where many experienced terrible abuse. Nagle didn't shey away from some of the negative consequences for victims of crimes that came from the Supreme Court upholding that if Congress didn't dissolve a treaty, then it still stands. This is an excellent work of long form journalism - informative - giving both immediate details and context with incredibly compelling writing.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent!! Marinating...

4.5 Stars

Listened to the audiobook. The author narrated in an engaging and effective manner. Very good audiobook!

[Wyatt Browdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strong non-academic history book. A purposeful book that I’d recommend when it comes out.

[Andrea van der Meer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nagle manages to portray how long Native Americans have been treated unfairly and how systematic this problem has become. I was shocked to hear certain numbers, such as the fact that 4 out of 5 Native American women face sexual assault or abuse.

Besides from the plot, the author uses strong language to explain the fight for justice. For anyone with an interest in different cultures and an open mind towards racial indifferences, this is a book you must read. I hope someday, the American government will face these problems and make sure these people are at least treated fairly by their own people in power.

[Miki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know we're only in March, but I have read some AMAZING nonfiction written by women so far this year! My mission to read more nonfiction by women has not been anything short of phenomenal, and Rebecca Nagle's narrative nonfiction, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land is more than worthy of being longlisted for the Women's Prize for Nonfiction (2025).

I tend to read more about the Indigenous experiences in Canada, not in the U.S., so this was - although not surprising - still very disturbing. I loathe the phrase "a-must-read," but this is a book that I hope is taught in (North) American schools. Perhaps it would inspire compassion in others.

[Audiobook, borrowed from library]

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

In By the Fire We Carry, writer and activist Rebecca Nagle, who is a member of the Cherokee nation, impactfully writes about legal battles between indigenous people and the US government, told largely through the lens of the historic 2020 US Supreme Court decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, and a prior case which deadlocked the Supreme Court, Sharp v. Murphy. In McGirt's case, Jimcy McGirt, a member of the Seminole tribe, was convicted of child sexual abuse and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole due to multiple prior offenses. However, in a 5-4 decision with a majority opinion authored by justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of McGirt and established that the eastern half of the state of Oklahoma remains Indian country (as reservations in that part of the state have never been dissolved by acts of Congress) and criminal prosecution of Native Americans falls outside of Oklahoma court jurisdiction. While this decision was seen as a significant victory for indigenous rights, its legal impact has been dampened due decisions in subsequent court cases like Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta.

I think this story, which merges legal, societal, and historical factors, is definitely worth a read. Readers should note Nagle's inherent bias as an activist, which definitely colors her perspective -- she also shares some deeply personal stories about her own indigenous ancestors.

Further reading:
The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge Contreras - another legal thriller on a totally unrelated topic

My statistics:
Book 283 for 2024
Book 1886 cumulatively

[Amanda-Has-A-Bookcase · Rating 2 out of 5]

"In a world that rewards whiteness"...oh dear, here we go again.
No I am not Native American, but I am Hispanic. And my ancestors also had land taken from them. That is what happens when one group is able to dominate another. And it will keep on happening. That being said, this is another modern book full of anti white "enslavers" jargon. The second paragraph has the author spitting on Andrew Jackson's grave. Jackson's presidency is full of good and bad (just like every other president) and having the author set this tone right off the bat is a turn off. Not impressed.

[Andrew Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is an essential book to read in the midst of our crumbling society, it has an unfortunate opening: the murder of George Jacobs. While the author goes into great detail about the case, the details are completely irrelevant after the first 50 pages. I kept expecting the story to lead back to the case in some regard, but the story just moved on. In fact, the opening case wasn't even the one that led to the final outcome of the book.
That being said, the other 150 pages is a sobering examination of the past and current failing of the United States in relation to indigenous people. Nagle alternates between the atrocities of the founding and reconstruction eras, and Oklahoma's current efforts to disenfranchise Indians today, exploiting legal loopholes to avoid having the difficult conversations about our past.
It is fascinating and thorough research, well presented. I just found the opening case created some false expectations of the rest of the book.

[Hungry Rye · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic history of how the economic ruling classes will do anything to disenfranchise indigenous peoples. I really like how this followed contemporary examples and then went back historically to other events and cases that lead up to these trials to undermine what little sovereignty indigenous people have. Some of the stories are heart breaking but I’m so happy I got to learn them so I can share this history with the people around me.

[Joslyn Orgill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very historical but fascinating history about Native American land rights. I knew the history was bad, but I guess listening to all the history together was just so disturbing. I never liked Oklahoma, and this validated my feelings.

I liked Killers of the Flower Moon a bit more because it focused on one story, while this book had a lot of different cases and histories that was hard to keep track of. But a really great book and story overall.

[Anika (Encyclopedia BritAnika) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is… fantastic? Like why aren’t more people raving about this?

A look at the history of America vis a vis Indigenous people and the horrors inflicted on them (genocide, land theft, displacement, rape, murder, poisoning of people under guardianship) until through the landmark Supreme Court case McGirt v Oklahoma. Told through research, family history, and cases. It’s so good.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

TWs : Nagle is very considerate about the trigger warnings and she gives a list before the book begins. It includes genocide, murder, castration, sexual violence, etc.

None of the trigger warning subjects are gratuitous, rather they help to illustrate the background of the cases that lead to these SCOTUS rulings which have defined generations and the way indigenous people exist.

Her book begins with her carrying on a family tradition involving Andrew Jackson’s grave which endeared her to me. She writes about the complexities of being only taught about the heroism of your lineage and growing up to learn the tragic stories too.

Nagle is an exceptional writer and storyteller. It’s a truly difficult and sometimes heinous subject, but so very important. Even as squeamish as I am, I was able to read this book and it illuminated so much. We still have much work to do.

[John Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a good job highlighting the history of Indigenous people in the US, looking at a specific tribe, the Muskogee, and how a criminal case re-established their and others’ reservation status, and showing how the history and present has affected us all.

[Kaila Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book esp as a Canadian that doesn’t know a lot about Tribal land and history in the southern USA. Very very informative and everything ties together at the end with the multiple stories she is telling in the book.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unbelievable narrative about a situation I knew nothing about. The history and injustice outlined here is something every American should know about, and I urge everyone to read this book.