ABSTRACT
Scientists and the public alike are on the hunt for “Native American DNA.”2 Hi-tech genomics labs at universities around the world search for answers to questions about human origins and ancient global migrations. In the glossy world of made-for-television science, celebrity geneticist SpencerWells travels in jet planes and Land Rovers to far flung deserts and ice fields. Clad in North Face® gear, he goes in search of indigenous DNA that will provide a window into our collective human past. Others – housewives, retirees, professionals in their spare time – search for faded faces and
long-ago names, proof that their grandmothers’ stories are true, that there are Indians obscured in the dense foliage of the family tree. Some are meticulous researchers, genealogists who want to fill in the blanks in their ancestral histories. They combine DNA testing with online networking to find their “DNA cousins.” Some have romantic visions of documenting that “spiritual connection” they’ve always felt to Native Americans. A few imagine casino pay outs, free housing, education, and healthcare if they can get enrolled in a Native American tribe. Applicants to top-ranked schools have had their genomes surveyed for Native American DNA and other non-European ancestries with the hope of gaining racial favor in competitive admissions processes. Former citizens of Native American tribes ejected for reasons having to do with the financial stakes of membership have sought proof of Native American DNA to help them get back onto tribal rolls (Bolnick et al. 2007, Harmon 2006, Harris 2007, Koerner 2005, Simons 2007, Takeaway Media Productions 2003, Thirteen/WNET 2007, Wolinsky 2006, Marks 2002). Genetic scientists, family tree researchers, and would-be tribal members – often with little
or no lived connection to tribal communities – have needs and perspectives that condition the production and use of Native American DNA knowledge in ways that rarely serve Native American communities themselves. How did it come to be that Native American bodies are expected to serve as sources of biological raw materials extracted to produce knowledge that not only does not benefit them, but may actually harm them by challenging their sovereignty, historical narratives, and identities? Science andTechnology Studies (STS) scholars and those in related fields have addressed the
co-constitution of racial and ethnic identities with genetic markers – both ancestry markers and those that are biomedically relevant (for example, Fullwiley 2008, Kahn 2006, Montoya 2011,
Nash 2003, 2004, Nelson 2008a, 2008b). Such analyses often focus on cultural, social, and economic differences historically of such communities in relation to dominant populations. STS scholars have dealt less so with issues of Native American identity as implicated by genetics, with several notable exceptions (for example, Reardon 2005, Reardon and TallBear 2012, TallBear 2008, 2013).This is no doubt because the Native American racial/ethnic category has the additional aspect of being characterized by the unique government-to-government relationships of tribes with the U.S. state. Like most academic fields STS does not seem particularly cognizant of this aspect of indigenous life in the U.S.On the other hand,Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) is the field in which Native American identity and governance issues are expertly treated. In its U.S. formation, NAIS engages little with the biological and physical sciences. Where it focuses on governance, it emphasizes the law over governance through science. Approaches from both fields are needed to understand the topic at hand. I inhabit both fields.
