I think perhaps the biggest misconception about Native identity in the US involves race. [THREAD] I think this is in large part due to the history of _not_ teaching/ educating students about Indigeneity. To fill in the gaps, folks usually resort what they know: anti blackness. /1

Anti-blackness is the primary racializing regime in the US, or more precisely, Whiteness-as-capacity-for-property-ownership, which given our system of government, is always conflated with Civil Rights, which is always conflated w/ full humanity. /2

It’s true that pre-1950 US Censuses racialized people as “W,” “I,” or “B” but this is the way _White_ systems organized identity. Racialization in other words, is a White supremacist technology. Which is another way of saying, it is a settler-colonial technology. /3

Natives don’t organize themselves or their identity using race. Rather, identity is based upon tribal/nation sovereignty, kinship, & cultural relations. This is why I think it’s confusing when non-Natives see White/Black Natives, bc their Native identity isn’t based on race /3

This is not to say that Native communities are insulated against racism, but it is to say that “Nativeness” isn’t based on skin tone, color, wearing buckskin, or “looking Indian”. Most non-Natives haven’t been taught about the long violence of colonialism in this country /4

Most non-Natives don’t know that more than 70% of Natives live in US cities & not on reservations. Or that the government intentionally removed Natives from their kinship systems & connections to language, etc. Most don’t know this still goes on today /4

Most non-Natives don’t know that for almost 100 years, the primary source of slavery in the New World incl. later USA, were Natives. Or that Native slavery on the west coast lived on well into the 20th century. /5

While there is some overlap be Native enslavement & institutionalized antiblack chattel slavery, there are important differences too. The 2 exp are incommensurable, which underscores why it’s important not to make assumptions or interpolate 1 w/ the other /6

The other side of this is ‘Elizabeth Warren Syndrome,’ where folks (assuming Nativeness is racial) traffic in White technologies of DNA, blood quantum, etc. This is why u hear people say: “full-blood, half-blood, etc” w/o any real cultural/kinship connection to a tribe /7

This too is based on understanding Indigeneity as a race, which is exactly what Trump & others want it to be, bc this undermines Nativeness as national-sovereignty. This ironically goes against the US treaties made w/ tribes _as_ separate sovereign nations /8

This bears repeating bc it is so often unappreciated: the US government has hundreds of foreign treaties with Native Tribes bc these tribes have always been recognized by law as sovereign nations. These treaties include laws on what the US is responsible to do for the tribes /9

These treaty obligations are not some special provision for a special racialized category of people. Rather, they are international laws be the USA & tribal governments. This again shows how unique Natives are outside of other racialized populations in the USA /10

Indigenous history isn’t taught in our schools, Treaty law isn’t taught in our law schools. It is *not* in the interest of the US government to teach its citizens about these things OR for racialized groups to find overlap/solidarity/mutuality. This is intentional /11

This is why “decolonize” doesn’t make any sense to Native peoples if “decolonize” doesn’t include real material practices of decolonization (like giving land back/ honoring the treaty obligations, etc). This is why “decolonize” is incommensurable w other possible mutualities /12

But this also illustrates why any racialized Native can traffic in antiblackness just like any racialized Non-Native can traffic in settler colonialism. This is an uncomfortable truth that requires patience, humility, & mutuality.

Here’s a great learning resource: