Decoding Colonial Science: DNA, Identity and Indigenous Sovereignty

TallBear’s work critiques settler-driven genetic research and attempts to determine who is Indigenous using genetic markers. Science is political, and settlers use it to harm Indigenous Peoples, furthering colonialism. Science is inherently colonial and focuses too much on categorization. Settler scientific practices are historically harmful and dehumanizing, including grave robbing for skeletal analysis and modern DNA extraction, all contributing to a broader goal of using Indigenous Peoples and their DNA as objects, ignoring their sovereignty. Race is a constructed phenomenon which was created to justify colonization and racial hierarchies, and roots back to a false notion of ideal genetic purity. Modern direct-to-consumer genetic testing uses Indigenous DNA as its foundation, profiting off of and patenting Indigenous genetic material. Indigenous Peoples resist the use of their genetic materials and argue against the correlation between DNA and identity made by race scientists and others.