Your Great-Grandmother Wasn’t a Cherokee Princess // $5 Indians

The IDE Impolite Conversation Podcast

According to the US Census, the Native American population has grown by 1600% from 1960 to 2020. We’re closing out our theme of race as a social construct by exploring the phenomenon of White men purchasing Native American identity prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dr. Lezli is joined by Dr. Gregory Smithers, a professor of American history at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Reclaiming Two-Spirits. His book is a sweeping history of indigenous traditions of gender, sexuality, and resistance. The two converse about what set the train of $5 Indians in motion, why it was so easy and lucrative for White men to purchase Indigenous identity, and why present-day Indigenous tribal leaders are grappling with what to do with the descendants of those who purchased Indigenous identity and are currently on tribal rolls.

Relevant and Recommended Reads:

• Dawes Act (1887) | National Archives
• Paying to Play Indian: The Dawes Rolls and the Legacy of $5 Indians
• The race-shifting of 'Pretendians' : NPR

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Pod Team = Dr. Lezli Levene Harvell (Host & Executive Producer) / Justin Bates (Sound Engineer)

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