Culture | Off the reservation

A poignant reflection on Native American “blood quantum” laws 

A new novel follows a man cast out from the tribe in which he grew up

The eastern branch of the Penobscot River near Patten, Maine
Photograph: Craig Dilger/The New York Times/Redux/eyevine

HOW NATIVE AMERICAN is Native American enough? That is the question at the centre of “Fire Exit”, Morgan Talty’s heart-wrenching debut novel about a man’s exile from his community. Charles Lamosway has been barred from living on the Penobscot reservation in Maine not because of any misdeed, but because of “blood quantum laws”, which specify how closely related to the tribe a member must be.

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