Joseph Lee is an Aquinnah Wampanoag journalist. He teaches creative writing at Mercy University and his work has been published in The Guardian, Buzzfeed News, Vox, Electric Literature, and High Country News, among other outlets. He was a Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and a Senior Indigenous Affairs Fellow at Grist. He has won multiple awards from the Indigenous Journalists Association for environmental coverage.
What’s the big idea?
Nothing More of This Land is an exploration of Indigenous identity from the perspective of Joseph’s complex, modern upbringing as a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe. He grapples with the consequences of missing history, stereotypes, and federal obstacles to discover the core meaning and importance of family, home, and community.
Below, Joseph shares five key insights from his new book, Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity. Listen to the audio version—read by Joseph himself—below, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Home is not just where you live.
I’m Aquinnah Wampanoag, and that’s a small tribe on Martha’s Vineyard. Martha’s Vineyard is primarily known for being a wealthy summer vacation destination where presidents and movie stars hang out on beaches, eating lobster and oysters. But it’s also been the home of my people, the Aquinnah Wampanoag, for over 10,000 years. As the island has grown into a vacation spot, it has become very expensive for my family and my tribe to live on the island.
Property values and taxes continue to rise, year after year. There are also limited professional opportunities beyond the tourism economy. Due to these and other factors, most of the tribe no longer lives on Martha’s Vineyard. Today, about three-quarters of the tribe lives off-island. That includes me. I grew up in the Boston suburbs and now live in New York City.
I don’t really see the fact that our community is spread out, living in different places, as a weakness. I think it’s a strength. For generations, our people have been leaving the island and returning—working on whaling vessels, serving in the military, starting a family off the island, pursuing an education, and much more. But we’ve never lost touch with our homelands and our community. Home doesn’t just have to be the place where you were born or the place where you live. It can be both of those and more. You can maintain ties with a place and people without living there.
2. Don’t let other people define your identity.
Indigenous identity is one of the most policed and stereotyped identities in the world. American education and popular culture portray “being native” in a certain way. You have to wear traditional regalia. You have to be into singing and drumming. You have to be very spiritual. You have to have a connection with the land. In some cases, people think that to be an Indigenous person, you have to exist only in the past. Growing up, it was hard for me to understand what it meant to be a native person when I didn’t live up to those stereotypes.
Native identity is also regulated by the federal government, which determines federally recognized sovereign nations in the United States. For years, my tribe was told that we weren’t a legitimate nation and it took great work to get that status. But I’ve learned that political status isn’t everything in the same way that those stereotypes I was taught as a kid aren’t everything. Although there are many unique aspects to the way Indigenous identity is understood in this country, there are important lessons that everyone can learn from this.
“Growing up, it was hard for me to understand what it meant to be a native person when I didn’t live up to those stereotypes.”
It’s easy to try to live up to what other people say we should be or feel. It’s harder to remember that we define who we are, both individually and as a community. As I traveled the country, speaking with Indigenous people from a range of tribes, I met people who’d wrestled with the same questions I had. They eventually learned that it was up to them to decide what being Indigenous means. Whether you’re Indigenous or not, it’s up to you to define your identity.
3. Understanding the United States means understanding Indigenous history.
Most Americans learn about my tribe in school when they learn about the Pilgrims and their first Thanksgiving. I learned those stories too, but after that, I never really heard much about my tribe. It’s like we disappeared, but I knew we didn’t because I was Wampanoag and grew up going to tribal summer camp, cranberry harvest festival, and other tribal events. I knew we didn’t disappear, but I also didn’t really know what happened in between.
A big part of why I wanted to write this book is to help fill that gap. As I learned more about my tribe’s history and the history of other Indigenous people in this country, I realized that there’s no way to talk about American history without talking about Indigenous history. If we can’t understand the complexity of Indigenous history, we can’t understand our own country.
It’s not just about understanding the past; it’s about understanding the current moment. Indigenous people have been a part of every moment of this country’s history. But those histories are often ignored, causing massive gaps like the one between the first Thanksgiving and me going to tribal summer camp. Our education has done us a disservice by not acknowledging those gaps, let alone filling them. It’s our responsibility to fill those gaps. When we do, we’ll have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of who we are as a country and people. Once we have that, we get closer to solving our world’s biggest problems. To understand the whole picture and move forward, we need to include Indigenous people.
4. The world has a lot to learn from Indigenous people.
As a journalist covering climate and environmental stories, I’ve noticed a trend in recent years. There’s a lot of talk about Indigenous knowledge and how Indigenous people are the best stewards of the land. People also talk about how Indigenous and other marginalized communities are in the front lines of climate change. Those things are all true. Indigenous knowledge, also known as traditional ecological knowledge, refers to the deep relationships that Indigenous people often have with the land and waters they inhabit, the animals that surround them, and the people in their community. Only recently has Western science caught up to that knowledge.
Many studies have found that Indigenous lands often have the most biodiversity. Indigenous lands are well kept, with clean water and air. Non-Indigenous communities are starting to pay attention to this amid climate crises around the world. But despite this growing awareness, Indigenous rights are still threatened and Indigenous people are still marginalized.
“Many studies have found that Indigenous lands often have the most biodiversity.”
Even though there is a growing awareness of Indigenous knowledge and wisdom, I don’t think there’s been an equal awareness of Indigenous rights. For those things to go together, the world has to spend time listening to Indigenous people, and not just observing and saying, Hey, those people might know what they’re doing. The world has to let Indigenous people be leaders and have a seat at the table. There are so many issues that the world should listen to Indigenous people about.
None of that’s going to happen if Indigenous rights and land continue to be violated at every possible turn.
5. Community is built through everyday action.
I used to think that there was only one way to be Wampanoag or Indigenous. I didn’t know how to get beyond those stereotypes, but I also wasn’t sure how to make that identity my own. Growing up, I went to tribal summer camp, my parents took me to tribal events and gatherings, and I spent time with my cousins. It was all great, but as I grew up, life moved on. I went to high school, college, moved away, got a job, and it was harder to stay in touch with that part of myself. I had less time to spend in Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard. I had less time to spend going to tribal events. It was harder to prioritize those things.
Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started taking a Wampanoag language class over Zoom. It was the first time a class like that had been offered online, and it was the first time I had engaged with my Wampanoag community virtually. Being Wampanoag was something I had always done in person, on Martha’s Vineyard, in Aquinnah, on our lands with my community. I never thought about it as something that could exist outside of those circumstances. I never thought it was something that could exist on my computer. But taking that class, learning the language, connecting with cousins, meeting new cousins, just feeling really close with my community and culture and our history really changed a lot for me. I realized that I didn’t need to rely on tribal events; I just needed to put the work in if I wanted to be part of the community.
It’s easy to agonize about who we are and what it means to be something. But the real work is in being in the community. The work is reaching out to people, taking initiative, and not waiting around for community to happen to you. The real work is dedicating the time and effort to build that community and ensure that it strengthens and grows.
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