

Native American DNA
Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science
Author: Kim TallBear
Narrator: Donna Postel
Unabridged: 10 hr 9 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 08/27/2019
Categories: Nonfiction, Science, Social Science, Anthropology
Synopsis
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.