The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America

by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz

A groundbreaking and deeply personal exploration of Tribal enrollment, and what it means to be Native American in the United States

“Candid, unflinching . . . Her thorough excavation of the painful history that gave rise to rigid enrollment policies is a courageous gift to our understanding of contemporary Native life.” —The Whiting Foundation Jury

Who is Indian enough?

To be Native American is to live in a world of contradictions. At the same time that the number of people in the US who claim Native identity has exploded—increasing 85 percent in just ten years—the number of people formally enrolled in Tribes has not. While the federal government recognizes Tribal sovereignty, being a member of a Tribe requires navigating blood quantum laws and rolls that the federal government created with the intention of wiping out Native people altogether. Over two million Native people are tribally enrolled, yet there are Native people who will never be. Native people who, for a variety of reasons ranging from displacement to disconnection, cannot be card-carrying members of their Tribe.

In The Indian Card, Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz grapples with these contradictions. Through in-depth interviews, she shares the stories of people caught in the mire of identity-formation, trying to define themselves outside of bureaucratic processes. With archival research, she pieces together the history of blood quantum and tribal rolls and federal government intrusion on Native identity-making. Reckoning with her own identity—the story of her enrollment and the enrollment of her children—she investigates the cultural, racial, and political dynamics of today’s Tribal identity policing. With this intimate perspective of the ongoing fight for Native sovereignty, The Indian Card sheds light on what it looks like to find a deeper sense of belonging.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Indigenous, Native American, Politics, Audiobook, Social Justice

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom contacted me recently letting me know she finally got approved for a native identification card. I was very excited as we would often casually discuss Oklahoma and the sociocultural elements we missed after we moved. I asked her to forward our genealogy tree so I too could apply. I found out quickly Kiowa doesn't issue cards to individuals who are less than 1/4th, but Comanche recognizes at any level. This puzzled me. This is where The Indian Card by Carri Lowry Schuettpelz comes in and lays it all out. I take pride in my history as does the author and I try very hard to find unwashed sources of historical events to better understand why things are the way they are, and through the lens of Anthropology, the author furthers my knowledge database which both enlightens me and breaks my heart.

This deep dive in to the exploration of individuals looking to obtain an Indian card was a very educational and dark. To really get a grasp on why things are the way they are, we literally have to start at the beginning of this vein, 1776. Ring a bell? Yeah, it's that dark. Indians, rather properly referred to as Natives, began the long and sad journey of displacement, identity loss and sociocultural poverty when colonialization reared it's ugly head from the sea. Carrie discusses ethnic cleansing (trail of tears), the birth of reservations via muster rolls (a military form of forcefully removing persons and displacing them elsewhere) and the production of poverty, exposure to colonial illnesses and starvation set upon the Natives during the colonial invasion.

Fast forward a little and we discuss imposter syndrome which can persuade or dissuade individuals about getting a Native card. I went through this from time to time. Not white enough and considered 'exotic' and not Indian enough to be accepted in certain school groups. I was also educated on Indian agents, a dissuading element, where kids were stolen from Native homes on reservations and forced in to boarding schools for years having no contact with their family forcing the loss of Native spoken language and tradition. These agents were also a continued form of Native census which was essentially used to control the movement of funds and resources in certain areas. There was also some discussion on a well known topic of stolen land. How groups were tricked and given 'presents' of money well below the actual value and if the land was still occupied by the rightful owners, the wealth Natives would have instead of being one of the poorest recognized groups in America.

The topic of census alone is a very lengthy one and has a direct correlation to the confusion and frustration to obtaining a Native card. When colonials were in control of the census, names were written wrong and classification was handled poorly because from one guard to the next, it was their interpretation of how 'Indian' someone appeared to them. There are numerous flaws involved on behalf of the colonial power that dictated this census control and made it nearly impossible for some to properly trace back family.

General quote: Power in learning, power in knowing facts.

It’s difficult to look at ugliness and realize that it shares the face with people we’ve been taught to revere. It’s difficult to grapple with the reality that Abraham Lincoln, someone credited at least in part with the end of slavery, approve the largest mass execution in US history of 38 Native warriors. Roosevelt, “the only good Indians are the dead Indians”. George Washington, called native people savages who needed to be extripated (root out and destroy). 56%

[Mai H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She spent seven years working in the Obama Administration on issues of homelessness and Native policy.

She makes important distinctions between Indian/Indigenous/Native and nation/tribe, depending on what she is speaking about, and depending on what that particular person or time calls for. I find this important. It's also not my place to police.

A very informative work, I won't go too much into detail, but the things done to the native people of this land are horrific and vast. Not a lot is being done to mitigate that.

Down with settler colonialism, no matter where in the world you are.

🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio

[Danika at The Lesbrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a huge, complex topic, but it's grounded in personal stories, both from the author and from a ton of interviews. Those life stories are a good glimpse into the reality of how complicated enrollment and identity can be—and the fallout of where the line is drawn. I highly recommend this one.

[Colette Denali · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not good. The author repeatedly obfuscates issues in Indian Country and then over-explains her points (again, deliberately leaving out relevant, factual information) to draw attention from her lack of true engagement with the issues she raises.

It is very clearly written by someone who put a few years of work into studying enrollment, but did very little work to understand the specific contexts of tribal nations and why they choose to maintain/ create their rolls in particular ways.

Furthermore, the author's tribe doesn't have full federal recognition. She does address this, but not until the final chapter, and she also declined to include any documentation or reasoning about why this is the case - other than personal interviews with those who have personal stakes and documentation that, when examined closely, doesn't always say what she implies it does. I don't have a stake in her tribe's efforts toward federal recognition, but leaving out any dissenting viewpoints does the author's academic reputation few favors.

In short, this book was poorly-researched and its editorial nature does readers a disservice. If readers aren't already somewhat educated on Federal Indian Law and enrollment policy, they may well come away from this book with malformed understandings (which could have been avoided, had the author been more thorough in supporting her points with factual evidence instead of emotional appeals... ).

Footnotes to her sources are provided, but the author cherry picks from passages and fails to successfully rebut (or, often, even mention) views/ facts which refute her beliefs. This book would never pass an IRB composed of members well-versed in Indigenous identity and Federal Indian Law.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

Read through page 52. Unfortunately I found this rambling and dull, avoiding any possibility of controversy despite supposedly covering an immensely controversial topic. It almost seems to be avoiding its own stated subject matter: for instance, the author sets up Chapter 2 to discuss different Native American tribes’ pre-colonial citizenship practices, but then actually spends that chapter describing the layout of mother’s cousins’ neighborhood in Pembroke, North Carolina, and the importance of social support; the architecture of the Meskwaki settlement in Iowa; the prevalence of violence and racism in towns abutting reservations; and the life of a Meskwaki woman who has kind of an ambivalent relationship with her tribe. Give me the facts and data you keep claiming to love, or give me some passionate argument, don’t give me this beige directionless rambling. I struggled even to make it to page 50, so back to the library it goes.

[Panda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audiobook (8 hours) narrated by Amy Hall:
https://www.amyreadsoutloud.com/
Publisher: Macmillan Audio

At the time of this review, the audiobook edition has not yet been added to goodreads, but it is available. The narrator is very good. The audio isn't flawless.

This book is not what I thought it would be. It's not horrible and for some would be a good read.

It felt a bit whiny at times, but I think that it may be the way the authors expressions were coming across to me at times. I do feel that she was being her genuine self and may be a bit of an ass in judging her emotions.

There is some decent information here, but I wasn't looking for that and it felt a bit text book like.

I did not finish the book. I am mid flu which may make me a bit more judgy than normal but I just didn't want to listen to a text book type history lesson, I wanted more, so I pushed pause and decided to just return the book rather than trudge through or skip around to see if there were any more interesting bits.

[Zana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One of the primary reasons that enrollment, why Tribal membership, exists is because of the underlying principle of Tribal sovereignty. For Native American Tribes, sovereignty is boss. It's king. Sovereignty is the key that opens all the doors. It's the thing upon which all other things rest. Throughout Indian Country, sovereignty is the shared love language. To understand any Native person's story, it's important to understand the concept of sovereignty."

What an excellent book!

Carrie Schuettpelz really dove into the nitty gritty of what it means to be Native American, using facts, historical data, and anecdotes to weave a narrative that kept me engaged throughout the entire book.

The author talks about the legal concepts of tribal membership and how it was forced upon the various Native American communities by the US government's insistence on Western style governance and recordkeeping.

"Written records of membership and enrollment, it seems, were a product of colonization. [...] even in the case of Cherokee people, whose Tribes have some of the longest histories of written recordkeeping, it wasn't until they experienced removal pressure from the federal government that their members began making census records."

From there, she describes the different methods of enrollment among the various Native American nations, such as blood quantum, using historical rolls like the Dawes Rolls, or being able to trace ancestry through the patrilineal line (in the case of the Meskwaki community).

Schuettpelz also stresses the importance of being federally recognized, which includes benefits such as casino revenue, college scholarships, healthcare, housing, and more.

"With enrollment comes political identity, which becomes particularly important when considering the ability of Native Nations to engage and negotiate with the US government. It is a critical piece of Tribes' continued survival."

This book isn't only about tribal enrollment and membership, the author goes into detail about the US government's historical genocide on Native Americans, with chapters on Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 and its repercussions on Native American people, numerous broken treaties with the federal government, forcing Native American children to attend boarding schools, and so on.

The list of topics that she covers is extensive. I'd definitely recommend this book if you're looking for a more sociological or anthropological take on Native American history. The interviews and anecdotes in between the history sections definitely provide more insights on how these issues affect current Native Americans.

"The truth is I take a lot of comfort in something writer Clint Smith once said, about there being power in learning. Power in knowing the facts. 'Once you are armed with that history and that evidence,' he said, 'this country can't lie to you anymore about why it looks the way it does.'"

Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for this arc.

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

A fascinating look into what it means to be Native in America.

I learned SO much.

[lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into reading this book with a big grain of salt, and my opinion got saltier as I read, mostly because it annoys the crap out of me when people who are displaced so far from their tribes spend all their time struggling to justify their identity, and insist that all the paperwork and the bureaucracy doesn't matter, except that those things are exactly the reason why they can claim tribal enrollment. Traditionally many Native tribes were all about building strong communities, and as long as you showed up and learned what you need to learn with respect and honor then you were family. It makes me insane when people don't show up for their communities, yet insist on enrollment, but then complain that the process is limiting, and unfair, and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, that's the way sovereign governments roll. I get the unfairness because I am not allowed to be enrolled in my mother's tribe, the tribe I was raised in because of their enrollment laws, but it doesn't stop me from thinking of myself as from that tribe, and for showing up for their ceremonies, and understanding that my participation in those ceremonies must be limited because I am not enrolled. The author mentioned almost nothing about her tribe's traditions and languages (some of this is because the Lumbee don't have much in the way of tradition and language). Most of what she was stressed out about Native identity were things that seemed so obvious -- how people look, or what they know about Native people, or how they dressed, and it all seemed to stupid to me. Also, she mentions several times that she loves data, which is fine, but all the charts and numbers, and census information have nothing to do with identity, especially when it comes to Native identity.

However, aside from my salty opinions, this book features other stories from people who have a connection to their Native communities, and how they make their way back to them, which was nice to read. Also, toward the end of the book, the author stops being quite so obnoxious about not following the white supremacist tropes of what a Native American is, and just starts visiting her Native community, and thinking about taking her kids there more often. I can't believe such a freaking simple thing eluded her for so long.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a beautiful blend of personal narrative and investigative nonfiction about the process by which Native American identity is constructed and recognized in the USA. I had no idea going into this book how different the expectations for enrollment were between Tribes, and the surprises didn’t stop there. There were so many frustrating examples of policy failing real people—where people with Native mothers but non-Native fathers weren’t allowed to qualify for Tribal membership, or where people with mixed Tribal ancestry weren’t deemed “Native enough” to join either Tribe, or even where entire Tribes weren’t recognized by the federal government for fear of redistributing funding or allowing new casinos. I loved how the author prioritized the personal connections she had with interview subjects (as well as her own life and inner world!) throughout the book and really made each and every anecdote come to life. There was a lot of pain here, but a lot of beauty and power, too!

A particularly memorable passage called out social incentives behind the construction of race in America (citing Mikaëla Adams); while the “one drop” rule was perpetuated to class more people as enslavable, blood quantum standards were perpetuated to make Natives disappear. Wow. Lowry Schuettpelz also points out how unusual it is to tie national belonging to blood vs location, social practice, or kinship. Natives are treated uniquely, which comes with consequences. I had a very limited understanding of blood quantum going into this book, and I really appreciated the nuance the author brought to this topic.

Finally, I wanted to mention that the “about this project” section has an awesome metaphor about the throughline of a story being a mountain to climb. The author asks the reader to put the details of the story in their backpack to use as tools on the ascent. When the reader reaches the summit, they will be upset by any unnecessary weight. I think Lowry Schuettpelz’s inherent understanding of this principle is one of the reasons this book was so readable and compelling. She avoided any cruft and had a clear sense of what she wanted the reader to take away. The quality of both the writing and the subject matter made this a clear 5-star read for me.

[Sara Planz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrie Lowry-Schuettpelz takes an in-depth look at Native American identity in her book The Indian Card. This complex book examines who gets to claim native heritage and how that process has affected communities and tribes over the decades. In fact, Native groups are the only people who have to "prove" their identity, whether through historical records, blood quantum, or family lineage. The idea of the "Indian Card" reveals mindsets and bureaucratic processes that are still rooted in racism and the idea of "Indian-ness." The injustices and attempted erasure of Native culture date back to the arrival of white settlers to America, and the effects of colonization are still being felt today. As tribes move forward to keeping their culture and traditions from fading away, the idea of who gets to be Native in America is something they will continue to grapple with in the future. Carrie's deeply personal stories and interviews with tribal members bring these issues to the reader in unflinching clarity.

[Kitty Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible!!!!

As a very white presenting very mixed person with native blood from an unrecognized tribe who lives near DC and very far from tribal land, this book really resonated for me. It was SO good!

[Whitney Dziurawiec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating history of how the U.S. has counted and categorized Native people, often with the intent of counting as few as possible. Learned a lot about tribal enrollment, blood quantum, and history. I appreciated the author's acknowledgement of the complexity of this topic.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do think this book is an important and valid subject. But I have a couple of issues with it. In one section, discussing the romanticization of Native/White relationships in media, Schuettpelz makes the claim that in the Disney movie Pocahontas, the movie ends with Pocahontas marrying John Smith. This is incorrect. The movie ends with John Smith going back to England, injured, while Pocahontas stays with her tribe. The second, direct to DVD, film, features Pocahontas going to England, where she meets her historically accurate husband John Rolf. The movie ends with Pocahontas parting with Smith as friends, and later sharing a kiss with Rolf. Perhaps a small thing, but it makes me question how many other small things the author got wrong. And when you add all the small things, how much is this book impacted? Later, in the epilogue, Schuettpelz discusses how her student is researching the benefits of making Pre-K universally available. However, Schuettpelz dismisses this idea, saying that adding universal Pre-K financially impacted private daycare centers. Except Oklahoma has offered universal Pre-K since 1998, and they were able to overcome this issue by allowing schools to contract with private daycare centers, so they could offer the federally funded classes. Finally, blood quantum. For reasons I don't fully understand, Schuettpelz saves until the epilogue how the government benefits greatly from blood quantum, as it prevents people from enrolling with a tribe, shrinking the size of tribes, and eventually eliminating federal funding for Native Americans all together, which is the government's goal. This is only mentioned in passing and I was surprised that it wasn't more deeply explored.

[Cecilia Shearon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for my Native American Public Policy class taught by Carrie herself. I enjoyed getting to know Carrie through her classroom, but I REALLY enjoyed getting to know her through her writing. Her personality and care shines through in the interviews she conducts and the data analysis she performs throughout "The Indian Card." I see myself revisiting this one frequently as I continue my career journey in policy and interpretation with the NPS.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and fascinating examination of issues about Indian/Native American identity especially about tribal membership. Lots of history, explanations of legal issues, lots of the author’s personal experiences, and also the experiences of others that she has interviewed for the book. Complicated situations, no simple answers, and no ways to make everyone happy - but a lot of background to help sort out how things have gotten that way. One constant refrain is how all the tribes have different rules and traditions, which makes sense given history and the way people are.

But some really sad stories, of a Native woman who is enrolled (member) of tribe X, married a Native man who is enrolled in tribe Y, their children don’t qualify to be enrolled in either (or any) tribe. Or some of a woman’s children qualify to be in her own tribe, but others don’t, depending on the father. Heartbreaking. But the book is not all sad, there is also much joy in making connections and discovering roots, etc.

[Linda Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I didn’t that there was a trend in the early 2000s that over twice as many Americans identified as native Americans between 2000 and 2010 and did not have a clue why. The author wrote this non-fiction book with facts supporting her views, as a memoir, case studies of people she met to illustrate points, and analyses. The combination worked well. I was compelled to read it and found the stories interesting.

I learned about the complications involved and some of the rules involved in enrolling in various tribes, how different tribes established their rules differently, renewing tribal memberships, blood quantums, and how hard it is to feel identity for a Native American. The rules excluding certain descendants from tribal lands and benefits were complex and variable between tribes. The author discussed the differences in how ‘Indians’ were counted in U.S. census records through the years. How the settlers relocated Native Americans out of their original territories and never paid them for their lands, did not offer them jobs, left them in poverty, etc was a tragic story I was only partially aware of. I had not studied the Native American abuses by almost all of our presidents until this book. This book has certainly made me see a broader perspective of Native American issues and think about the social issues in a different way.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a time of identity politics and culture wars, the question of belonging to a particular group is a hot button. From people claiming membership in one to others assigning identity as means of dismissal, who gets to be what or talk about it publicly is fraught. So, into this context, Schuettpelz dives into Native American identity and what membership means and has meant.
The "About this book" section at the end neatly defines the book's scope and definitions: it is both a personal perspective on Native identity (her own and those of friends interviewed for the book) and a zoomed out analysis of US government policy towards Tribes and how those policies have shaped current enrollment practices. She goes out of her way to repeat that a) every Tribe is different and b) her own experience with enrollment and sense of belonging does not stand in for anyone else's. The personal examples do serve to usefully illustrate how centuries of policy have resulted in such disparate outcomes and occasionally nonsensical rules. What is universally apparent, though, is how US policy - particularly with its 20th century whiplash - has dislocated people from each other, from their historical lands, from cultural markers of identity, and even feelings of ownership over their own identities. And how these policies have uniquely affected Native Americans because assimilation was the tool by which land theft was accomplished. The difference in how the US measured bloodedness of Black vs Indian in the 19th century - because it valued those groups in terms of labor vs land - is really all the explanation necessary to understand the mess of blood quantum and Tribal membership today.
It's a complex topic and this book does not make any claims to exhaustiveness, but it's a great primer for those of us looking for more understanding of an issue that dictates outcomes for millions of people. This would make a great NF pairing with any number of popular fiction titles, starting with Morgan Talty's Fire Exit or Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars.

[Billy Carson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know if this is appropriate to discuss here but I think it’s important. I finished reading “The Indian Card” last week and I’m just perplexed. This appears to be a widely accessible book with reviews and notoriety in places such as ABC and is overwhelmingly praised by book reviewers. I thought I’d read it in preparation for my dissertation defense and now have thoughts.

My issue is that is simply it is not very good outside of some nice character portraits. Importantly, it perpetuates a disingenuous view of Indigenous identity in the United Stares. To start, for a Lumbee professor and researcher, the lack of discussion on Tribal Critical Race Theory is so surprising given the author is also Lumbee. Second, they intentionally conflate census identity with other forms of identity, even asking why so many people on the census identify as AI/AN but not with a tribe. This is not a surprise if you bothered read anything about who can be counted as AI/AN. (Spoiler, it’s any indigenous person from the Americas). The author tries to get around this by then claiming that this is not the most researched book in the credits but that’s makes no sense. The book details a ton of how much research went into this during the first several chapters.

Ultimately, considering the author’s background and how much they discuss their role in the White House, it can be reasonably assumed that this book is not meant to further discussions on Indigenous futures in the US, but rather an appeal to white people and other non-natives to become a go to voice on Indigenous identity and raise their own political status.

These are my thoughts after reading and thinking about it for a week. Happy to discuss more.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz’s book The Indian Card - Who gets to be Native in America is a scholarly look at the Tribal Laws in America that determine who can be a member. She is a card carrying member of her Lumbee tribe from North Carolina. What she has found is there are many people who want to be part of the tribe they identify with and are denied because they can’t meet unfair requirements like their father was white. Because of being denied they can’t get tribal money or land that rightfully should be theirs. She is a data nerd, but has created a fascinating book that educates us about the intricacies of the different tribes and who gets to be in them.

[CJ Opal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schuettepelz takes on an incredibly complex and painful subject and approaches it from the perspective of both a professional policy maker and as someone personally affected by the policies that lead us here. A single book could never capture a full picture of the ongoing genocide of native tribes and nations in the Americas, but this book makes a valiant effort at showing how different eras of policy affect native identity today.

[Meghan McArdle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read that explored a topic I know very little about - Native American identities and who is "allowed" to be native and why. I liked the personal anecdotes from the author coupled with the stories from friends who are in other tribes across North America. There was a lot of cool information, but I wasn't a huge fan of the lack of analysis or contextualization of that info. Parts of the book felt like reading a textbook and parts felt like reading a dataset.

[David Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously I’m gonna love this book. You talk about Lumbee I’m obviously gonna give this book 5 stars. But even if I wasn’t biased I would give it 5 stars. Does an excellent job at explaining the history of recognition in the US I would 1000% recommend this book to people interested in Federal Indian law. What is the point of this app. Who is reading this

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

unfortunately i think we lost the plot a quarter of the way through the book. not sure we even got an answer as to why more people are self-identifying as native american on the us census which was the whole point of this work??? contained interesting personal narratives though so not a complete and total waste of time

[Noel نوال · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an important book and Carrie writes with a powerful voice that is simultaneously a balm and an ignition of fire in the belly. I felt and began processing a lot of emotions while reading this book. Everyone should read this book.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here are some important contexts for this book provided with no opinions:

The Lumbee Tribe is a state-recognized, not federally-recognized Tribe in North Carolina. Federal recognition establishes a nation-to-nation relationship, providing access to federal resources and programs, and acknowledging tribal sovereignty. State recognition, granted by individual states, acknowledges a tribe's historical and cultural significance within that state but typically offers fewer legal and financial benefits.

The Lumbee Tribe's movement to be considered a federally-recognized Tribe is vehemently opposed by three Cherokee tribes and Shawnee, Mississippi Band of Choctaw, Fort Sill Apache, Delaware Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, Fort Belknap Tribe of Indians and United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, among others.

The blood quantum is an inherently colonial practice designed to limit the next generations ability to receive government benefits and participate as a sovereign nation in issues that directly concern their land and people. It is designed to limit tribal membership, disempower Indigenous people, and ultimately, assimilate them by separating them from their lands, resources, culture, and identities.

Different Tribes have different requirements for blood quantum and this requirement is changeable if addressed in the Tribe's BIA-mandated constitution.

The concept of a "tribe" is often different than we think of it now, and is constantly evolving. Some groups prefer the term nation, while others don't. "Tribe" and the organization of many of the indigenous communities were described through a colonial lens so that explorers could "understand" the different political and social structures of these groups that didn't make sense to their western sensibilities. In Morton Fried's 1975 study, The Notion of the Tribe, he provided numerous examples of tribes that encompassed members who spoke different languages and practiced different rituals, or who shared languages and rituals with members of other tribes. Similarly, he provided examples of tribes in which people followed different political leaders, or followed the same leaders as members of other tribes. He concluded that tribes in general are characterized by fluid boundaries, heterogeneity and dynamism, and are not parochial.

There are many indigenous groups who developed over time after First Contact. Leading to complex questions about race and identity that were largely ignored by governmental officials who often found it easier to make sweeping generalizations to marginalized communities.

My review:

I think that the book dismisses data and doesn't fully explain tribal sovereignty, as well as doesn't fully address the bias in the author's stake in this issues. I don't have an answer for "Who gets to use the 'Indian Card'?" I do work for a federally-recognized Tribe and watch, every day, the difficult conversations of tradition and heritage, as well as who gets to participate and why. There are nearly 600 federally-recognized tribes and I'd argue nearly as many different cultural considerations when it comes to community-building and culture. While a book like this is ambition to try to discuss some of those issues, to not articulate the complexity of the Indian Country in general perpetuates many of the issues the book also attempts to fight against.

I don't know. I'm mixed on this because I'm not sure it's trying to be the definitive conversation it claims to be, and in that regard it's not bad, and I enjoyed the exploration of these issues, I'm just very wary of any book that really seeks to generalize. I think generalizing without nuance is exactly what's led to so many issues between communities in the first place. Native communities are so diverse that to fully address these concepts, one might need to do a more sweeping analysis of understandings of sovereignty as well as the relationship to the federal government.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important Read

I found this a really intriguing and informative book on the intersection of Indigenous history and politics in America.

I was particularly impressed with all the history I learned from this book.

Being a Canadian, a few of the points of this book were different than that of America, but the majority of the book has parallels to Canada - at least from what I gathered in this book.

I would very much recommend checking out this book.

Carrie is a very impressive writer, and the research and stories are really timely and important.

Check it out!

4.4/5

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration of Native American identity and belonging. Interesting information on the legislative (mis)treatment of Native people and tribes by the US government, as well as the hazards of extinction when using "blood quantum" measurements to determine tribal membership.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible read. Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz has taken a complicated and complex issue, through lots of research, interviews and data crunching and made it informative and readable. She distilled so much information into what seemed like effortless writing. And with it, she also gave her own history and conflicted feelings about what it means to be Indian and who gets to own it. There are no answers but this book will open up even more needed conversations about how the colonization and attempt destruction of Native American tribes has generated everlasting harm as well as enduring pride.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

ETA: Staff Pick November 2024

[Marina Marcello · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America was a Macmillan Audio pick, and I need everyone to read this book. This book is completely indescribable in the insight Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz frankly shares on Native American self and political identity in the United States. It is honestly hard for me to talk about the impositions on Native Americans because it frustrates me on their behalf, and yet I recognize my white, American, privilege. This book would be perfect for anyone on a journey of decolonizing one’s mind—which is so important for living in our world today.

Schuettpelz does not hold back in her call outs of “f-ed up” situations, which I absolutely admired because why would we beat around the bush of ugliness? Sometimes, the data and numbers did lose me a little, and I’d have to go over them again, but she is admittedly into data, and numbers have not historically been it for me. My favorite parts of this book were the anecdotes that Schuettpelz recorded from individuals from around the country and in various tribes, one being a First Nations woman. Schuettpelz peeled back the layers of intricacies of US federal law and tribal law, revealing hypocrisies, racism, and the effects of colonization on Native American tribes’ own cultures.

As you can imagine, this book had no “answers” per se, but it presented data and perspectives I think are important. And that’s honestly such an understatement.

I recommend this book to absolutely everyone. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Amy Hall, a new to me narrator with quite a few titles under her belt, and do recommend it for audiophiles as well.