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Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science is a nonfiction book written by Dr. Kim TallBear, associate professor and faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. The book explores the complications and potential implications DNA testing has on Native American sovereignty, as well as identity and cultural issues. Dr. TallBear focuses on the science behind genetic testing and it’s potential inaccuracies, how testing could disrupt a tribe and its members ability to determine who is a member, the motivations of genetic testing companies, and the cultural implications DNA testing has on the broader public.

The book is comprised of four chapters, as well as an introduction and conclusion.

Chapter 1: Racial Science, Blood, and DNA, evaluates the history of racial typing and explains the various ways a person’s race is scientifically determined. In this chapter Dr. TallBear closely examines blood quantum and its history. For Native communities, bloodlines are both a symbolic and tenable quality that, along with relationships to a tribe, help identify who is a member. Biological DNA and genetic testing could potentially circumvent indigenous recognition of symbolic bloodlines, and could potentially undermine a tribe’s sovereignty to self determination by setting specific genetic delineations that dictate who is or is not a member of a tribe.

Chapter 2: The DNA DOT-COM: Selling Ancestry, focuses on the companies that perform genetic testing, and examines their mission to specify an individual’s ancestry by identifying their genetic makeup. Companies conducting tests not only target individuals who believe they may have some ancestry, but also Native peoples. DNA companies advertise that their tests can provide proof of Native heritage that will enable individuals to enroll within a specific tribe, irregardless of what the tribes enrollment requirements may actually be. Dr. TallBear states that DNA testing companies are participating in “gene fetishism” by doing so, which does not recognize a tribes right to determine enrollment based on lineal descent.