Nothing More of This Land
Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity
-
- USD 14.99
-
- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
A Time Must-Read Book of 2025
An NPR Books We Love Most pick
From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world.
Before Martha’s Vineyard became one of the most iconic vacation destinations in the country, it was home to the Wampanoag people. Today, as tourists flock to the idyllic beaches, the island has become increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Growing up Aquinnah Wampanoag, journalist Joseph Lee grappled with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can continue to grow, and more broadly, what it means to be Indigenous.
In Nothing More of This Land, Lee weaves his own story and that of his family into a panoramic narrative of Indigenous life around the world. He takes us from the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard to the icy Alaskan tundra, the smoky forests of Northern California to the halls of the United Nations, and beyond. Along the way he meets activists fighting to protect their land, families clashing with their own tribal leaders, and communities working to reclaim tradition.
Together, these stories reject stereotypes to show the diversity of Indigenous people today and chart a way past the stubborn legacy of colonialism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Lee debuts with a potent exploration of what it means to be Indigenous, beginning with his own childhood spent summering on Martha's Vineyard, the Wampanoag homeland, where he attended tribal summer camp and learned the Wampanoag language but also performed tribal customs for tourists. Looking back at such disconcerting aspects of his tribal education, including "the absence of history" in his curriculum, Lee launches into a "personal investigation" of his tribe. He explains the "anomaly" of the Wampanoag, who remained independent far longer than their neighbors, until the mid-18th-century rise of the whaling industry made "once far-flung" Martha's Vineyard "newly relevant." Lee's discoveries about his own family during this period complicate "the simple story I had been told about colonization," as "the booming industry drew immigrant men and freed slaves" to the area, including a Black South American who married into his family. Lee also recaps how Wampanoag locals squared off against white homeowners over land rights in the 1970s, political turmoil which led Lee himself to journalism. He reported on attempts by Native groups around the world to "legally codify the rights" of rivers and animal species, and this work awakened him to a more expansive view of what Indigeneity looks like—not just "political sovereignty" but stewardship of the land and collective identity-making. A deft combination of affective memoir and keen journalism, this profound examination of identity and place impresses.
