Wren’s Reviews > Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity > Status Update

“‘When we self-declared our autonomous government, we only formalized and wrote down for outsiders to understand, but it was just a formalization of an ancient process.’”

“Tribes like mine are so relieved once they get it that they have no incentive or energy to think about the flaws in the system they just went through.”

“If they really cared about protecting the land and environment, they would entrust it to the people who have been taking care of it for generations. […] The white colonial land-gobbling machine evolved from brutal, genocidal men to refined nonprofit executives”

“For a long time, I’ve struggled to reconcile the fact that Wampanoag identity can and perhaps must exist off-island with the reality that Martha’s Vineyard is still the home of the Wampanoag people, even as it, and we, evolve.”

“For Hatsuko, the decision to sacrifice her own language to give her daughter the best chance to succeed was clear, though it broke her heart.”

I find it interesting that the mandarin versus Cantonese discussion came up in this book about an indigenous tribe.

“Sometimes I wonder what our relationship would have been like if I spoke Cantonese or if she had lived longer, or both.”

“Land ownership was simple back then: if you lived on it, it was yours.”

75-90% death rate just decimates a population