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By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

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Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLERThe New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024 • A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year • An NPR 2024 “Books We Loved” Pick • An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2024 • A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year • A Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2024Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction"Impeccably researched. . . . A fascinating book and an important one.” — Washington Post“[A] brilliant, kaleidoscopic debut. . . . A showstopper.” — Publishers Weekly, starred reviewA powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century laterBefore 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation. Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper (September 10, 2024)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063112043


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 49


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.13 x 9 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #15,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #7 in Native American Demographic Studies #22 in Native American History (Books) #97 in Sociology Reference


#7 in Native American Demographic Studies:


#22 in Native American History (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews


  • Excellent!!!
Great writing....research....and perspective. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Native American history....as well as how the McGirt Supreme Court decision will impact the 21st century. Excellent read.
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2024 by Ray

  • Fantastic book, a must read!
I just finished reading ‘By the Fire We Carry’ by Rebecca Nagle. Once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down, fantastic book! Nagle ties historical atrocities to current events perhaps better than any other author I’ve read. I have followed her work as a journalist and I expected it to be good but it was so much better than I expected. One insight I want to share because it kind of blew my mind. Anyone who knows anything about Federal Indian Law in the US knows that it is incredibly confusing and self-contradicting from beginning to end. Nagle quoted legal scholar Maggie Blackhawk when she described it as a battlefield. It is not a coherent set of laws, it is a written record of wins and losses as Native people battle their colonizers in the courts of the conquerors. She also explains that when Native people fight in the courts the biggest obstacle is actually ignorance of the law, including amongst judges, and extending to the top. It is rare for even a Supreme Court Justice to have any real familiarity with Indian Law, and their ignorance shows, time after time. There is so much more in the book! Nagle is a descendant of Cherokee leaders Major Ridge and John Ridge. The story she tells is actually about the Creek, or Muscogee, Nation, but it parallels Cherokee history and Nagle weaves back and forth between describing the political battles behind recent Supreme Court decisions and telling the story of her own ancestors as they grappled with the colonial aggression that would ultimately lead to removal and the Trail of Tears. I can not recommend this book highly enough ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2024 by J. Hurd

  • Why has this never been made right!
Well written history of the treatment of the indigenous peoples of our country. If anyone deserves reparations it is them. Shame on our government for Never righting the horrible atrocities done to them!!!!
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2024 by Peggy M. Burgess

  • Critical Investigation of Native American Land Rights
This is an excellent book and follows the trials of Native Americans who have been promised much and given little. It traces a legal battle that ended in the Supreme Court during Trump's first term. It was interesting to learn that much of Oklahoma is really located on a reservation.
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2024 by L. Fitzharris

  • The heartbreaking truth about the legacy of injustice imposed on our Native American communities.
A stunning achievement in research, storytelling and writing. One cannot walk away from the reading feeling hopeful about the future of Indigenous rights, nor for the future of the United States to withstand the forces of corruption, greed, hypocrisy and lies inherent in our history and society, but one can take away a profound admiration for the capacity of the human spirit to persevere for righteousness, to endure, to seek justice, and to hold on to what is morally valuable for future generations. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2024 by Leslie Simmons

  • The Trail of Tears and More
A chronicle of the multiple way indigenous citizens have lost their property and culture to government imperatives. The author can trace her personal heritage to early Muskogee relatives. She intertwines her family history with government actions ranging from Jackson’s enforced taking of their lands, various treaty offenses, and the allotments. Outstanding documentation supports the history. Ultimately, the author begins and ends with the story of a recent Supreme Court ruling recognizing a large portion of Oklahoma as a reservation, a first time ruling in favor of indigenous people. A detailed and sad tale. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2024 by Elizabeth Ann Wagar

  • Come on Now - American Natives had a rough go!
Ms. Nagle reports on an American Tragedy, from the Trail of Tears to near present day. As a 3nd generation American, my appreciation for Native Americans continues to evolve in appreciation. There is no time machine that will allow today's citizen to right the wrongs, but this is a brilliant record of why we need to try. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2024 by Wheel Boy

  • Excellent book
Rebecca Nagle makes a complicated story highly accessible. If you are new to Native histories, this is an excellent one to begin with. It pair with her outstanding podcast This Land (2 seasons), also worth your time!
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2024 by Col Col

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