By the fire we carry: the generations-long fight for justice on native land
(Large Print)
Description
"A powerful work of reportage and American history in the vein of Caste and How the Word Is Passed 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 '90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later"--
"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"--
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Table of Contents
- Prologue
- The crime
- Beginning
- The argument
- Promise
- The appeal
- Betrayal
- The high court
- Coercion
- The twist
- Plunder
- The opposition
- Slow bleed
- The victory
- Legacy
- The backlash
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Further reading
- Appendix: Sensitive or triggering subject matter
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Credits and permissions
- About the author.
More Details
Notes
Published Reviews
Booklist Review
In this thrilling legal exposé, investigative journalist Nagle uses her exemplary skills to scrutinize the Supreme Court case, McGirt v. Oklahoma. Considered one of the most significant Native American rulings in a century, McGirt upheld the existence of the Muscogee reservation, righting a wrong that had been actively overlooked and steadfastly ignored by Oklahoma and the federal government since 1866. Nagle covered the case for six years and as a member of the Cherokee Nation was closely invested in its twists and turns. Here she reveals the intricacies of the murder case that served as a vehicle to challenge disestablishment of the reservation, the lawyers who uncovered the potential connection between that case and the larger Muscogee issue, and the many ways the State of Oklahoma sought to fearmonger its way to victory. In alternate chapters, she explores the journey of the Muscogee, Cherokee, and other tribes to Oklahoma, which highlights a much older crime directly involving her ancestors. Combining impeccable research with rich detail and scintillating prose, Nagle tells a story that is two hundred years in the making and enormously relevant today. Excellent for book groups; fans of Patrick Radden Keefe and David Grann will be transfixed.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Nagle reports in her brilliant, kaleidoscopic debut on the legal battles leading up to Sharp v. Murphy, the startling 2020 Supreme Court decision that upheld the terms of a 19th-century treaty granting the Muscogee Nation land for resettlement in Oklahoma. "I wrote this book because I wanted the story of this historic Supreme Court decision to be well documented," but also "to catalog the cruelty of what brushed aside" in popular discussion of the case, Nagle explains. She interweaves the complex courtroom drama with an empathetic, harrowing recap of the 1999 murder of George Jacobs by Patrick Murphy, the case which revealed that the Muscogee Nation's reservation had never officially been dissolved. Another strand traces the history of the 19th-century forced removal of Native peoples from the Southeast to Oklahoma, including Nagle's own ancestor, Cherokee Nation leader Major Ridge, who was among those who signed away the Cherokee homeland and was murdered for the perceived betrayal. This family saga is the most complex and rewarding part of the story; Major Ridge hoped the relocation would save his people's lives, as President Andrew Jackson (a nefarious presence in Nagle's story) had threatened to chase them "into the sea." Nagle's narrative is lucid and moving, especially as she uses archival sources to recreate the mounting terror experienced by Native peoples in the Southeast as violent mobs of outsiders swarmed onto their land. It's a showstopper. (Sept.)
Reviews from GoodReads
Citations
Nagle, R. (2025). By the fire we carry: the generations-long fight for justice on native land. Large print edition. Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Nagle, Rebecca. 2025. By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-long Fight for Justice On Native Land. Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Nagle, Rebecca, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-long Fight for Justice On Native Land. Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2025.
MLA Citation (style guide)Nagle, Rebecca. By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-long Fight for Justice On Native Land. Large print edition. Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2025.
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Record Information
| Last Sierra Extract Time | Apr 08, 2025 09:57:25 AM |
|---|---|
| Last File Modification Time | Apr 08, 2025 09:57:32 AM |
| Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Apr 08, 2025 01:53:31 PM |
MARC Record
| LEADER | 04689cam a2200505 i 4500 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | 4612016 | ||
| 003 | OCoLC | ||
| 005 | 20250225152500.0 | ||
| 008 | 250215t20252024meuab b 001 0 eng d | ||
| 020 | |a 9781420521818 |q (large print ; |q hardcover alk. paper) | ||
| 020 | |a 1420521810 |q (large print ; |q hardcover alk. paper) | ||
| 035 | |a (OCoLC)1499594286 | ||
| 040 | |a YDX |b eng |c YDX |d OCLCO |e rda |d HBP |d IMT |d NB | ||
| 050 | 4 | |a E93 |b .N19 2025 | |
| 082 | 0 | 4 | |a 323.1197 |2 23/eng/20240314 |
| 100 | 1 | |a Nagle, Rebecca, |e author. | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a By the fire we carry : |b the generations-long fight for justice on native land / |c Rebecca Nagle. |
| 246 | 3 | 0 | |a Generations-long fight for justice on native land |
| 250 | |a Large print edition. | ||
| 264 | 1 | |a [Waterville, Maine] : |b Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, |c 2025. | |
| 264 | 4 | |c ©2024 | |
| 300 | |a 623 pages (large print) : |b illustrations, maps ; |c 21 cm. | ||
| 336 | |a text |b txt |2 rdacontent | ||
| 337 | |a unmediated |b n |2 rdamedia | ||
| 338 | |a volume |b nc |2 rdacarrier | ||
| 340 | |n large print (16 point) |2 rdafs | ||
| 386 | |a Women |2 lcdgt | ||
| 386 | |a Journalists |2 lcdgt | ||
| 386 | |a Indigenous people of America |2 lcdgt | ||
| 490 | 1 | |a Thorndike Press large print nonfiction | |
| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-615) and index. | ||
| 505 | 0 | |a Prologue -- The crime -- Beginning -- The argument -- Promise -- The appeal -- Betrayal -- The high court -- Coercion -- The twist -- Plunder -- The opposition -- Slow bleed -- The victory -- Legacy -- The backlash -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Further reading -- Appendix: Sensitive or triggering subject matter -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Credits and permissions -- About the author. | |
| 520 | |a "A powerful work of reportage and American history in the vein of Caste and How the Word Is Passed 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 '90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later"-- |c Provided by publisher. | ||
| 520 | |a "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"-- |c Provided by publisher. | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Indians of North America |x Government relations. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Indians of North America |x Legal status, laws, etc. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Indians of North America |x Legal status, laws, etc. |z Oklahoma. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Indians, Treatment of |z United States. | |
| 655 | 7 | |a Large print books. |2 lcgft | |
| 655 | 7 | |a True crime stories. |2 lcgft | |
| 655 | 7 | |a Informational works. |2 lcgft | |
| 830 | 0 | |a Thorndike Press large print nonfiction series. | |
| 907 | |a .b27910647 | ||
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| 998 | |e - |d l |f eng |a nt | ||