theres a difference between assimilation and being fluent in another culture and many native people who are critical of natives who gain any kind of success in america dont acknowledge this.

the either/or mindset stems in part from the fact we are unable to govern ourselves freely, which means the ultimate boundary between us and the US is ourselves, rather than the political boundaries of our nations and our governments, which places unrealistic pressure on...

our personal identities to be consistent and “the same,” to be the stability we need bc our nations are unstable. this is something people in most nations dont have to deal with.

the other part of this is we were forced to absorb the american idea that theres only one way to be a “real indian,” and just like the idea of “indian blood,” we now recapitulate american ideas about us as if those ideas originated with us.

what happens when you believe theres only one way to be a “real indian” is you then believe there is a way to destroy “the Indian,” which creates a desire to freeze identity at the individual and collective levels in order to make sure we dont “disappear.”