Decoding Colonial Science: DNA, Identity and Indigenous Sovereignty

This factsheet is a snapshot of TallBear’s work which critiques settler-driven genetic research and attempts to determine who is Indigenous using genetic markers. Tallbear highlights that science is political and colonial, and settlers use it to harm Indigenous Peoples, focusing too much on categorization. Indigenous Peoples resist the use of their genetic materials and argue against the correlation between DNA and identity made by race scientists and others.