Native American DNA
Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science
Kim TallBear
Because today’s DNA testing seems so compelling and powerful, increasing numbers of Native Americans have begun to believe their own metaphors: “in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.” In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how Native American claims to land, resources, and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify may be seriously—and permanently—undermined.
Native American DNA is a book of far wider scope than its title, establishing the author as a leading authority on the topic. The politics of tribal DNA is but the starting point of a complex analysis that encompasses the whole framework in which DNA is appropriated in the study of human populations. Molecular geneticists, science studies researchers, legal scholars—and of course Native Americans—will find their horizons considerably broadened and newly engaged.
Troy Duster, New York University
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Who is a Native American? And who gets to decide? From genealogists searching online for their ancestors to fortune hunters hoping for a slice of casino profits from wealthy tribes, the answers to these seemingly straightforward questions have profound ramifications. The rise of DNA testing has further complicated the issues and raised the stakes.
In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how DNA testing is a powerful—and problematic—scientific process that is useful in determining close biological relatives. But tribal membership is a legal category that has developed in dependence on certain social understandings and historical contexts, a set of concepts that entangles genetic information in a web of family relations, reservation histories, tribal rules, and government regulations. At a larger level, TallBear asserts, the “markers” that are identified and applied to specific groups such as Native American tribes bear the imprints of the cultural, racial, ethnic, national, and even tribal misinterpretations of the humans who study them.
TallBear notes that ideas about racial science, which informed white definitions of tribes in the nineteenth century, are unfortunately being revived in twenty-first-century laboratories. Because today’s science seems so compelling, increasing numbers of Native Americans have begun to believe their own metaphors: “in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.” This rhetorical drift, she argues, has significant consequences, and ultimately she shows how Native American claims to land, resources, and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify may be seriously—and permanently—undermined.
$25.00 paper ISBN 978-0-8166-6586-0
$75.00 cloth ISBN 978-0-8166-6585-3
256 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, September 2013
Kim TallBear is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Native American DNA is a book of far wider scope than its title, establishing the author as a leading authority on the topic. The politics of tribal DNA is but the starting point of a complex analysis that encompasses the whole framework in which DNA is appropriated in the study of human populations. Molecular geneticists, science studies researchers, legal scholars—and of course Native Americans—will find their horizons considerably broadened and newly engaged.
Troy Duster, New York University
Native American DNA is a gracefully written, powerfully argued, and urgently needed examination of indigenous identity and politics after the genomic turn. This is pathbreaking work.
Alondra Nelson, Columbia University
Provocative and incisive. . . Native American DNA is undoubtedly a key text.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
TallBear’s description of the science of DNA testing is remarkably clear, and her skepticism about its claims is well founded.
Journal of American History
Essential reading for researchers in all fields of Indigenous studies.
American Indian Quarterly
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: An Indigenous, Feminist Approach to DNA Politics
1. Racial Science, Blood, and DNA
2. The DNA Dot-com: Selling Ancestry
3. Genetic Genealogy Online
4. The Genographic Project: The Business of Research and Representation
Conclusion: Indigenous and Genetic Governance and Knowledge
Notes
Index
About This Book
Related Publications
Related News & Events
Tell me a story: Genomics vs. Indigenous Origin Narratives
New Scientist: 'There is no DNA test to prove you're Native American'
Tell me a story: Genomics vs. Indigenous Origin Narratives
Kim TallBear, author of NATIVE AMERICAN DNA, writing for Gene Watch.
New Scientist: 'There is no DNA test to prove you're Native American'
Kim TallBear, author of NATIVE AMERICAN DNA, featured in New Scientist.
Dr. Kim TallBear, an Associate Professor on the Faculty of Native Studies at University of Alberta and member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe, argues that genetic testing—itself a scientifically unreliable method—reinforces white notions of identity by reducing cultural identity to dubious genetic markers that ignore the vast network of social ties, family relations, tribal rules, and other histories that form Native American identity.
Elizabeth Warren Falls for Trump’s Trap—and Promotes Insidious Ideas About Race and DNA
Within hours of the appearance of the video, Kim TallBear, a professor at the University of Alberta and a leading expert on the use of DNA testing in tribal communities, posted a statement. Sharply critical of Warren’s behavior and publicity surrounding the test, she pointed out that tribal governments have developed an approach for determining who belongs to a tribe that is explicitly not based on the results of DNA tests. Still, she wrote, Warren and her staff “know very well that the broader US public will understand a DNA test to be a true indication of Elizabeth Warren’s right to claim Native American identity in some way.”
New York Times: New DNA Results Show Kennewick Man Was Native American
Quotes Kim TallBear, author of NATIVE AMERICAN DNA.
Kim TallBear, a researcher at the University of Alberta, called Warren’s claims “yet another strike” against “tribal sovereignty.”
Is genetic testing a new national obsession?
Interview with Kim TallBear, author of NATIVE AMERICAN DNA.
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society: Native American DNA
Interview with Kim TallBear on her book about tribal belonging and the false promise of genetic science.
Kim TallBear on BBC's The Forum
The author of NATIVE AMERICAN DNA discusses how DNA is changing the way Native Americans think about tribal membership.