By the Fire We Carry

The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

De: Rebecca Nagle

Narrado por: Rebecca Nagle

“Rebecca Nagle gives a clear and compelling narration of her look into how a small-town murder in the Muscogee Nation led to a significant 2020 Supreme Court case—and the largest restoration of Native tribal land in American history. . . . An illuminating listen.” — AudioFile

""Impeccably researched. . . . A fascinating book and an important one.” — Washington Post

“[A] brilliant, kaleidoscopic debut. . . . Nagle’s narrative is lucid and moving. . . . A showstopper.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

Most Anticipated Book of the Fall: Washington Post, People, Los Angeles Times, Parade, Bustle, Book Riot

A 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 later

Before 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.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Rebecca Nagle (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Amazing book

Nagle approaches difficult topics with clear eyes and a sense of complexity. She works hard to lay out the history of the US, Oklahoma, the tribes, and her own family. Highly recommend.

The Truth

I found the author’s use of moving between Supreme Court Rulings and American history to be incredibly effective.

An Incredible Feat of History, Research, and Narrative

An incredible book. Important, contemporary, and compelling. The author’s expertise and empathy are on full display.

Fair, thorough, and necessary

Nagel does fantastic, detailed reporting, and the narrative and tone are sharp and strong without hyperbole. This is an important story of a struggle against genocide and for realization of promised civil and human rights in addition to inherent sovereignty for Tribal Nations. I strongly recommend this book and the This Land podcast. Nagel is an invaluable talent.

A precious piece of native history

This book is a precious piece for history and a unique work of investigative journalism inquiring into literal justice and transgressions against native people in the United States of America. The author, Rebecca Nagle is a living treasure for Humanity.

So great to see the full story after This Land pod

I’ve been following this story since first listening to the This Land podcast. This book expands the story greatly, obviously. It is fascinating. The author does a wonderful job with the narration.

Bravo!

The information in this book left me reeling. I have known since I was a teen that I was a Choctaw decendant, but only as an adult did I obtain my Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood and keep contact with the tribe. I have grown more and more curious as I age about my heritage, and the atrocities that European Americans imposed on the indigenous people who were here long before they arrived. I am also happy to see her hold the tribes accountable for their own mistakes. It is shameful and disgusting that politicians still think so little of the people that were trampled on, abused, and stolen from in the making of America. What a hypocrisy.

A Must-Read

You can tell from the outset this book was written with a deep care for truth. The author did a fantastic job of providing a rich context for the Murphy decision. I especially appreciate that the book was not just a cut and dry analysis, but an amalgam of human stories.

great!

A must read for all Indigenous People!! You will feel all of the emotions! Well written.

Fascinating, detailed, often heartbreaking history

I thought I knew a lot of the history presented here, but what I knew was just the general outline, of the past 300 + years of history of the “ five civilized tribes” coexistence and repeated exploitation, removal, abuse and robbery as well as violation of previous agreements with white settlers. Nagel plunges into a huge mass of primary sources giving great detail especially for the Cherokee , the tribal nation of her family and the Muskogee, the tribe which brought the recent Supreme Court Case which by upheld that most of Eastern Oklahoma ( and 40 percent of the entire state) remains reservation land despite most of that land being privately owned by non tribal citizens because of how that land was broken up and systematically and exploitively sold to non tribal people. The vivid details Nagel pulls out of her primary sources, read by the author in a clear voice that lets the voice of those sources shine through, speak for themselves in the oppression experienced by multiple generations of tribal members as well as their determined resilience.

She also covers the story behind the lengthy legal battle leading up to the Supreme Court case, how the case was argued and the reactions to the case since then in detail but with excellent storytelling using human detail that kept me engaged ( in a rare moment where she breaks from a mostly reporting/ historian voice I loved the detail that when Nagel listening on the phone hears Justice Sotomayor mention an article Nagel published in The Atlantic during questioning statistics presented by the State she says “ I screamed” In joy because that research got read and might have made a difference. I would have screamed too!)

None of this reporting is easy to hear. The stories told are tragic, heartbreaking and horrifying. But the Supreme Court verdict is so much more meaningful because if that history because, for once, the existing law that favored tribal sovereignty was actually upheld. Let’s hope it remains that way. I’m really grateful for Nagels reporting and writing this book, it can’t have been easy to delve into so many stories detailing past oppression that destroyed lives, families and cultural heritage. Everyone who wants to know all of American history including the darker parts of it (and the resiiience of people despite that)should read this book.