By the Fire We Carry - by Rebecca Nagle (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"No part of the judiciary exposes the chasm between American ideals and institutional practice like federal Indian law. In By the Fire We Carry, Nagle, a Cherokee journalist, turns a case most Americans haven't heard of into a legal thriller." --New York Times Book Review

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 - Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year - NPR 2024 "Books We Loved" Pick - Esquire Best Book of the Year - Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of 2024 - Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize - Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard First Book Prize

An "impeccably researched" (Washington Post) 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.

Review Quotes

"A powerful work of reportage and American history..." - Next Big Idea Club, September 2024 Must-Read Books
"Rebecca Nagle delivers a true life legal thriller with rare ambition and scope. . . . One of the best books of the year." - Parade, 30 Best New Book Releases This Month
"[A] gripping legal thriller . . . . This is essential reading on American history." - 425 Magazine, 3 Books to Fall for This September
"This powerful, important story is a must-read addition to any American's historical education." - People, Best Books of September 2024
"Nagle is skilled at explaining the intricacies of the legal arguments in terms that a layperson can understand. . . . She compellingly describes not only the historical wrongs committed against Indigenous peoples, but also how we can't excuse those wrongs by assuming that they were acceptable to their contemporaries because of some kind of lesser moral standard. . . . Impeccably researched. . . . A fascinating book and an important one." - Washington Post
"Nagle's gripping historical and legal chronicle sheds light on a centuries-long struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and tribal land in Oklahoma." - New York Times Book Review
"A brilliant, kaleidoscopic debut. . . . A showstopper." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Essential reading for considering how the country can end this cycle of irreparable damage and move toward a more just future." - BookPage, starred review
"No part of the judiciary exposes the chasm between American ideals and institutional practice like federal Indian law. In By the Fire We Carry, Nagle, a Cherokee journalist, turns a case most Americans haven't heard of into a legal thriller." - New York Times Book Review
"A vital account. . . . With precision and ease, Nagle defines and contextualizes legal terms and historical figures, allowing the reader to gain footholds for exploration and discussion as well as pass judgment on the supposed impartial nature of the American government and Supreme Court....essential reading for considering how the country can end this cycle of irreparable damage and move toward a more just future." - BookPage, starred review
"[A] fascinating history of Native American land, the U.S. government's broken promises and outright theft of said land, and the legal battles fought by Indigenous peoples to reclaim what is theirs." - Ilana Masad, NPR's Books We Love
"A powerful history. . . . Blending reportage and historical research into a propulsive narrative that reads like a legal thriller. . . . Detailed and impassioned, it's a gripping corrective to the historical record, and not to be missed." - Esquire
"Terrific. . . . Nagle writes with sensitivity and empathy for the Native American communities she grew up in and around." - The Atlantic
"A clear and compelling narration. . . Nagle, a journalist whose reporting includes her podcast, This Land, is a practiced speaker, and she makes complex history accessible to listeners. She weaves the personal and political together into an illuminating listen." - Literary Hub, "AudioFile's Best Audiobooks of November"
"Richly reported." - The New Yorker, Briefly Noted
"[A] brilliant, kaleidoscopic debut. . . . Nagle's narrative is lucid and moving . . . . a showstopper." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A narrative as propulsive and affecting as it is infuriating." - Vanity Fair