Daniel Justice

In the past I had a very trusting and inclusive approach to Cherokee identity, one that placed self-identification in parallel with verified citizenship in a federally recognized Cherokee Tribal Nation. This was partly just an openness to the complexities of peoples’ experiences and family stories, but if I’m being honest it was also a reflection of my own insecurity in having not been raised culturally Cherokee or brought up in Cherokee community. But expansive inclusivity like this, no matter how well-intentioned it may be, has particularly negative consequences for Cherokees, as we’re the main focus for fraudulent or unverifiable claims to Native identity (sometimes for profoundly mercenary purpose, and often in ways that displace tribal sovereignty).

Over the past decade my thinking on self-identification and its impacts has significantly changed on these issues with the accumulating and ever more egregious impacts of identity misinformation on the Baby Veronica ICWA case, the effects of Elizabeth Warren’s repeatedly debunked family history claims, hundreds of millions of dollars in Native grants being awarded to people fraudulently claiming Cherokee identity, and academics building prominent and often lucrative careers on unsubstantiated heritage claims among the most prominent examples, as well as a number of painful interpersonal and professional violations of trust that have, sadly, made me far more skeptical and circumspect on these matters. (And it’s not just Cherokees who deal with this; I live in Canada, where the Red River Métis people of the prairies also deal with their share of non-Indigenous people claiming vague and often stereotypical “Métis” identity specifically for access to treaty rights and resources.)

While many writers and scholars I’ve discussed and cited as Cherokees in the past are enrolled and recognized citizens of one of the three Cherokee Tribal Nations–Cherokee Nation (CN), United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB), or Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI)–others are not, and over time many of these claimant writers’ family heritage stories have come under scrutiny and have in some cases been reliably disproven. As a result, I’m now firmly of the position that the best and most reliable way to confirm the foundations of Cherokee belonging is through recognized Cherokee citizenship. As such, authority to determine who is or is not Cherokee belongs exclusively with the CN, UKB, and EBCI, who together have a very substantial documentary archive to support extensive lived relationships, community-grounded oral histories, and persistent kinship understandings.

I’ve certainly accepted and held up some unsubstantiated claimants as Cherokee in the past, but that uncritical inclusivity has resulted in the repeatedly unhappy experience of some of these people instrumentalizing our friendship or professional relationship or my publications as evidence of their identity claims. Indeed, it’s happened so often that I now have to clearly and unequivocally state that any personal or professional connections I’ve had with noncitizen claimants are not, under any circumstances, to be understood as my offering either public or private validation or verification of their unsubstantiated heritage claims. Similarly, inclusion of any noncitizen claimant writer or scholar in my past scholarship should not be read as affirmation, verification, nor endorsement of their heritage claims. Absent clear and verifiable recognition by our Nations, they cannot reasonably or ethically be considered Cherokees. Indigenous belonging is embedded in collective accountability, not individualistic assertions, and only the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes can substantiate genuine Cherokee affiliation and connection. Any statement, presumption, or implication to the contrary–in general or in specific reference to me or to my work, or to that of other Cherokee citizens–is a clear and unequivocal error of fact, and in far too many of these cases, also a violation of trust.

A truly ethical inclusivity requires reasonable, informed, and compassionate boundaries; we can attend to the very real complexities in peoples’ families and relations without displacing legitimate Cherokee kinship and political sovereignty. At the end of the day it’s incumbent on individual writers, scholars, artists, etc. who claim Cherokee heritage to be transparent about how they are (or are not) connected to federally recognized Cherokee communities, as per the Cherokee Scholars’ Statement on Sovereignty and Identity, to which I am a signatory and which I fully support. If these claimants aren’t verifiably connected to our Nations through citizenship or confirmable relations, they shouldn’t claim affiliation: not publicly, not privately.

My current work is more directly attentive to these matters and firmly grounds Cherokee belonging in the sovereign rights of our three Tribal Nations to determine belonging. Even so, I remain fully responsible for the ways my past published work stands, stumbles, or falls on these issues, and in future revised editions of these works I will do my utmost to honestly address, clarify, and correct these matters as thoughtfully and as carefully as I can. I’ve begun that reparative work with the forthcoming fully revised and edition of Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History, Citizenship and Sovereignty Edition (to be published December 2025).

‘siyo nigad’!  My site is due for a pretty substantial reimagining and update soon, but in the meantime you’ll find topics of personal and professional significance here, including Indigenous literary studies, speculative fiction and Indigenous wonderworks, Cherokee history, politics, and belonging, other-than-human kinship and animal studies, weird and wonderful wild things like raccoons and badgers, heraldry and fantasy literature, and Indigiqueer/two-spirit arts, literature, and expression. Thanks for visiting!

Although primarily an Indigenous literary and cultural studies scholar focusing on Cherokee Studies, Indigenous kinship, belonging, and nationhood, and the other-than-human, my research also extends into gender and sexuality studies, animal studies, and speculative fiction.