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Unpapered: Writers Consider Native American Identity and Cultural Belonging
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.
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.
254 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2023
2 people are currently reading
1843 people want to read
About the author
Diane Glancy
106 books42 followers(Helen) Diane Glancy is a Cherokee poet, author and playwright.
Glancy was born in 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Arts (English literature) from the University of Missouri in 1964, then later continued her education at the University of Central Oklahoma, earning her a Masters degree in English in 1983. In 1988, she received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.
Glancy is an English professor and began teaching in 1989 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, teaching Native American literature and creative writing courses. Glancy's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.
(from Wikipedia)
Glancy was born in 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Arts (English literature) from the University of Missouri in 1964, then later continued her education at the University of Central Oklahoma, earning her a Masters degree in English in 1983. In 1988, she received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.
Glancy is an English professor and began teaching in 1989 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, teaching Native American literature and creative writing courses. Glancy's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 5, 2023
This is an excellent collections of essays on what it means to be indigenous, who gets to decide if someone is Native American, the complicated legacy of popular culture "Indians," the claims of "pretendians," and other issues in identity. Not all of the authors agree--some argue heatedly against one another--but all of the essays are thought-provoking and important.
February 12, 2024
This book is full of authors that contradict or agree in parts through their varying perspectives, and I found myself agreeing or disagreeing in some way with every single one (a good thing). In it, the essays grapple with the fact that recognition is a choice the tribes do have some control or opinion over, and how even those who do not use "blood quantum" still have imperfect systems for acceptance.
I've not read one close to it except for the following:
The Great Vanishing Act: Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations
and
Native Studies Keywords
I would shelve this book in between them as a palate cleanser (read Native Studies first).
A quote I want to remember "Buffalo Head Diners" by Denise Dotson Low: "I am not enrolled yet live with historical trauma, which affects every aspect of my life, including this unshakeable muteness. I have learned to write, but I still cannot speak effectively, so this page speaks in my place.
In the current push for enrollment status as a binary affirmative for Native identity, a two-caste system, I exist in a grey, interstitial space. From this perspective, I understand how authentically Native people, through blood and upbringing, are cast off, like my Menominee husband's disenfranchised grandchildren: their father is enrolled Lakota and their mother is enrolled Menominee. Their combined blood quantum of almost half does not meet tribal citizenship's mathematical calculations Instead of our finding a way to bring future generations into affiliation with their parent tribes, children like these are subtracted from the community. This negation of identity is repeated endlessly across the United States and keeps Indigenous census numbers low, so the political base is limited."
Another I want to remember is from "And Thus the Tribes Diminish" by Linda Rodriguez: "Such Pretendians will find their worst enemies to be unpapered people like me who love the tribal nations they are connected to and hate the damage done by such people to the tribes' valid claims of sovereignty. They are despised by such people to the tribes' valid claims of sovereignty. They are despised by tribal citizens, but they are truly anathema to unpapered people like me, who often suffer in the backwash of damage they leave behind.
I am unpapered. I am not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, even though I consider the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma my people, even though the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has honored me in the past, even though a number of people in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma recognize me and accept me as having a familial connection with the tribe. I know there are many people who are citizens of the Cherokee Nation or of other tribes who would consider me a Pretendian, and I don't blame them for this, even though I believe it is a misperception. It doesn't matter that I have never claimed citizenship in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (for the very good reason that I am not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation) or that I always try to explain about tribal sovereignty and the importance of the rights of the individual nations to determine who is and who is not a citizen of their nation...
This blood quantum requirement adds another layer to the thorny dilemma of Native identity. Each sovereign nation...sets its own tribal standards for citizenship within the nation. Most use this settler standard of blood quantum. Some use standard of lineage that is close to traditional Native ways of determining tribal citizenship, but government regulations require that the lineage be computed based on U.S. government lists that were put together by settlers over a century ago with varying degrees of input from the actual members of the tribe. Consequently, with both methods, each nation has members who may not qualify for official citizenship, as required by the government, but are seen by the nation itself as a familial connection to the tribe.
...It's all about the land. When it comes to the United States and Native peoples, no matter how much they talk about their appreciation of us, no matter how much they express their concern for us and their desire to help us, it's always all about the land. This is why they will not allow tribal recognition to Native Hawaiians...."
Another essay/chapter title I want to remember from this book is "Confessions of a Detribalized Mixed-Blood."
I've not read one close to it except for the following:
The Great Vanishing Act: Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations
and
Native Studies Keywords
I would shelve this book in between them as a palate cleanser (read Native Studies first).
A quote I want to remember "Buffalo Head Diners" by Denise Dotson Low: "I am not enrolled yet live with historical trauma, which affects every aspect of my life, including this unshakeable muteness. I have learned to write, but I still cannot speak effectively, so this page speaks in my place.
In the current push for enrollment status as a binary affirmative for Native identity, a two-caste system, I exist in a grey, interstitial space. From this perspective, I understand how authentically Native people, through blood and upbringing, are cast off, like my Menominee husband's disenfranchised grandchildren: their father is enrolled Lakota and their mother is enrolled Menominee. Their combined blood quantum of almost half does not meet tribal citizenship's mathematical calculations Instead of our finding a way to bring future generations into affiliation with their parent tribes, children like these are subtracted from the community. This negation of identity is repeated endlessly across the United States and keeps Indigenous census numbers low, so the political base is limited."
Another I want to remember is from "And Thus the Tribes Diminish" by Linda Rodriguez: "Such Pretendians will find their worst enemies to be unpapered people like me who love the tribal nations they are connected to and hate the damage done by such people to the tribes' valid claims of sovereignty. They are despised by such people to the tribes' valid claims of sovereignty. They are despised by tribal citizens, but they are truly anathema to unpapered people like me, who often suffer in the backwash of damage they leave behind.
I am unpapered. I am not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, even though I consider the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma my people, even though the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has honored me in the past, even though a number of people in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma recognize me and accept me as having a familial connection with the tribe. I know there are many people who are citizens of the Cherokee Nation or of other tribes who would consider me a Pretendian, and I don't blame them for this, even though I believe it is a misperception. It doesn't matter that I have never claimed citizenship in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (for the very good reason that I am not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation) or that I always try to explain about tribal sovereignty and the importance of the rights of the individual nations to determine who is and who is not a citizen of their nation...
This blood quantum requirement adds another layer to the thorny dilemma of Native identity. Each sovereign nation...sets its own tribal standards for citizenship within the nation. Most use this settler standard of blood quantum. Some use standard of lineage that is close to traditional Native ways of determining tribal citizenship, but government regulations require that the lineage be computed based on U.S. government lists that were put together by settlers over a century ago with varying degrees of input from the actual members of the tribe. Consequently, with both methods, each nation has members who may not qualify for official citizenship, as required by the government, but are seen by the nation itself as a familial connection to the tribe.
...It's all about the land. When it comes to the United States and Native peoples, no matter how much they talk about their appreciation of us, no matter how much they express their concern for us and their desire to help us, it's always all about the land. This is why they will not allow tribal recognition to Native Hawaiians...."
Another essay/chapter title I want to remember from this book is "Confessions of a Detribalized Mixed-Blood."
November 28, 2025
Abigail Chabitnoy, Koniag descent, Kodiak
The truth about stories is that’s all we are. At least that’s what Thomas King says. So this is my story. Only the beginning is true. That is, only beginning is true. I am from the place where the world began. In our language, the word for the sea is imaq. It is the same word for “a liquid contained inside” and “contents.” The root word appears also in the words for “it is full” and “it is empty,” to feel sad or downhearted, or to have a sinking or foreboding feeling. The word for “I am sad” translates in English as “I am searching for my contents.” So I’ve read. I’m still learning my language.
There was a story about the famous actress and singer Buffy Saint-Marie circulating challenging her claim to indigenous heritage, and there have been many others and often when I am quoting writers, I want to highlight their affiliation in an attempt to amplify and celebrate their work and I have run into some controversy as well, but this is the first time I have heard the term 'unpapered.' It is a powerful collection of stories and ways of thinking about this controversy that are new to me, and I recommend it highly. It is a narrow line between just not having the proof and appropriation, and these writers take the nuanced view that I hope can help the situation. Buffy and her slathered on dark make-up seems clearly on the appropriation side.
Diane Glancy, Cherokee descent:
I write in the liminal space between spaces in which I find other liminal spaces. An overlap of versions that lend their grace to the bifurcated past of which I may never be sure. And why my paternal aunt, Effie, was sure her grandfather, Woods Lewis, was born in Sallisaw. And how he got from Indian Territory to Meigs County and how his mother was in a mission school in another county, though still in Tennessee, and how they strung themselves along to Indian Territory and how many times he had been there and back. And my own wanderings from place to place. Could I go back and remember each trip I have taken—all the travels? A pending heritage. A clouded thought. These grasses here. Those hills over there. It is in summer or winter their longing for each other. I know I belong somewhere else when the full moon wakes me with its light. Phrases insert themselves. A lost heritage. The pieces of belonging—often contrasting.
Many of my ancestors made their way across the ocean from various places, leaving their shadows moving on my wall in the morning sun. Some of my ancestors were here when they arrived. They are the same shadows I see unmoving on the moon in the dark of night.
Deborah Miranda, Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation, Chumash:
I am qualified, therefore, for membership in Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of Union Veterans, The Huguenot Society of America, First Families of Ohio, Illinois Prairie Pioneers, Society of Indiana Pioneers, Society of Kentucky Pioneers, and Utah Genealogical Association Founding Pioneers, not to mention the somewhat questionable Continental Society Daughters of Indian Wars. (“If you are a direct descendant of a Native American, you will be recognized with a certificate and the opportunity to purchase our new insignia teepee pin that can be worn on your official ribbon.”) Of course, there are applications to fill out, fees to be paid, and genealogical credentials to be submitted to join these groups, but the fact of the matter remains that my European lineage is fully documented, should I ever need to apply for a Certificate of Degree of European Blood, to gain access to the rights and benefits that the CDEB provides its members.
There is no such thing as a CDEB. Nor is there a Certificate of Degree of Latinx Blood, or a Certificate of Degree of African Blood, nor any of the other lineages carried to me through my father’s genetic gifts. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if white people of European descent actually had to prove their lineage to be treated according to the promises of this nation and government?
The truth about stories is that’s all we are. At least that’s what Thomas King says. So this is my story. Only the beginning is true. That is, only beginning is true. I am from the place where the world began. In our language, the word for the sea is imaq. It is the same word for “a liquid contained inside” and “contents.” The root word appears also in the words for “it is full” and “it is empty,” to feel sad or downhearted, or to have a sinking or foreboding feeling. The word for “I am sad” translates in English as “I am searching for my contents.” So I’ve read. I’m still learning my language.
There was a story about the famous actress and singer Buffy Saint-Marie circulating challenging her claim to indigenous heritage, and there have been many others and often when I am quoting writers, I want to highlight their affiliation in an attempt to amplify and celebrate their work and I have run into some controversy as well, but this is the first time I have heard the term 'unpapered.' It is a powerful collection of stories and ways of thinking about this controversy that are new to me, and I recommend it highly. It is a narrow line between just not having the proof and appropriation, and these writers take the nuanced view that I hope can help the situation. Buffy and her slathered on dark make-up seems clearly on the appropriation side.
Diane Glancy, Cherokee descent:
I write in the liminal space between spaces in which I find other liminal spaces. An overlap of versions that lend their grace to the bifurcated past of which I may never be sure. And why my paternal aunt, Effie, was sure her grandfather, Woods Lewis, was born in Sallisaw. And how he got from Indian Territory to Meigs County and how his mother was in a mission school in another county, though still in Tennessee, and how they strung themselves along to Indian Territory and how many times he had been there and back. And my own wanderings from place to place. Could I go back and remember each trip I have taken—all the travels? A pending heritage. A clouded thought. These grasses here. Those hills over there. It is in summer or winter their longing for each other. I know I belong somewhere else when the full moon wakes me with its light. Phrases insert themselves. A lost heritage. The pieces of belonging—often contrasting.
Many of my ancestors made their way across the ocean from various places, leaving their shadows moving on my wall in the morning sun. Some of my ancestors were here when they arrived. They are the same shadows I see unmoving on the moon in the dark of night.
Deborah Miranda, Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation, Chumash:
I am qualified, therefore, for membership in Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of Union Veterans, The Huguenot Society of America, First Families of Ohio, Illinois Prairie Pioneers, Society of Indiana Pioneers, Society of Kentucky Pioneers, and Utah Genealogical Association Founding Pioneers, not to mention the somewhat questionable Continental Society Daughters of Indian Wars. (“If you are a direct descendant of a Native American, you will be recognized with a certificate and the opportunity to purchase our new insignia teepee pin that can be worn on your official ribbon.”) Of course, there are applications to fill out, fees to be paid, and genealogical credentials to be submitted to join these groups, but the fact of the matter remains that my European lineage is fully documented, should I ever need to apply for a Certificate of Degree of European Blood, to gain access to the rights and benefits that the CDEB provides its members.
There is no such thing as a CDEB. Nor is there a Certificate of Degree of Latinx Blood, or a Certificate of Degree of African Blood, nor any of the other lineages carried to me through my father’s genetic gifts. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if white people of European descent actually had to prove their lineage to be treated according to the promises of this nation and government?
December 5, 2023
This anthology of work by writers who embrace indigenous identity edited by Dianne Glancy and Linda Rodrguez is good but flawed. The flaw takes a while to coalesce, but readers will get it. So many of the contributors are professors that academic styles and tropes shape many of the works. These essays are interspersed with poems, which provide a break. The late Steve Russell's "Seeking the Indian Gravy Train" is an exception because his exposition also contains welcome humor.
July 18, 2024
A wandering collection of writings that showed me a small slice of the debate over what makes someone a Native American. The last essay was especially striking, calling out governmental regulations as being designed to decimate tribes over time.
Read
January 7, 2026I liked the concept though the stories got a bit redundant. Some of the writings were beautiful. A few could have stood to be cut out. The perspectives on lack of documented tribal affiliation and reason for not being “papered” are more varied than I realized.
March 20, 2023
Excellent! I loved the first-person experiences. This would pair perfectly with Daunis and Firekeeper's Daughter.
on-hold
June 23, 2023I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
December 7, 2025
So many things I had never considered. I'm glad I read this.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews