“I have always walked around wondering if I was Native enough,” says Professor Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz in the School of Planning and Public Affairs (SPPA). “Part of that is, I grew up in Iowa, but my tribe is the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, about 1000 miles away.”
This inquiry into identity became the seed for Schuettpelz’s new book, The Indian Card: Who Gets to be Native in America. The book blends memoir, original research, interviews, historical archival research, and census data, delving into Native identity.
“The book tracks the question of how we arrived at the place we are at in terms of Native identity,” Schuettpelz says. “Particularly thinking about Native enrollment, tribal enrollment, and grappling with the idea of who is Native enough.”
It took Schuettpelz about three years to compile the data set used in the book. The Indian Card is meant for a broad audience, not just academia.
“The Indian Card is intended to help further the conversation of how our policies that were written 100 or more years ago continue shaping Native people today, and in some cases, in ways that are harmful and problematic,” Schuettpelz says.
The Native Policy Lab
Schuettpelz is the founder and director of the Native Policy Lab, which seeks to strengthen data-driven and evidence-based public policy in Indian Country. Schuettpelz notes how writing her book influenced projects within the Native Policy Lab.
“Several of the Native Policy Lab projects came out of me writing this book and thinking about land and justice and the ways that federal policy has not been equitable or ethical,” Schuettpelz says.
“One of the projects we're working on is records return of Indian boarding school survivors,” Schuettpelz says. “Returning their records to them, their families, and their tribes, was something I began thinking a lot about as I interviewed Indian boarding school survivors for the book.”
The on-the-ground nature of these projects speaks to the ethos of the Native Policy Project that archival, data-based work should affect real, positive change for Native communities.
“The other project we're working on in the lab is a Native land project, which is a database on every treaty that was written, signed, and ratified between the federal government and Native nations,” Schuettpelz describes. “Most importantly, we’re thinking about how much land was essentially stolen through each of those treaties.”
This Fall, Schuettpelz took graduate students in the Native Policy Lab to Kansas City to go into the National Archives.
“It's not just that we're going into the National Archives, we're also figuring out how what we find can be returned to the tribes,” Schuettpelz says. “In that way, it's a really pragmatic connection to the work of social justice and the work of righting these wrongs that have existed in policy for decades.”
Schuettpelz enjoys the opportunity to connect with Native students at Iowa through the Policy Lab and in her classes.
“I don't necessarily market my classes or my Native Policy Lab to Native students, but somehow they find me, and I think that's amazing,” Schuettpelz says. “A lot of my students and research assistants in the lab are Native students. That's one thing that I'm really proud of because I think it's important that we train the future leaders in terms of not just how to do the historical research and create a database, but also how to use that stuff to make change.”
Working with Iowan Communities in the SPPA
As an Associate Professor of Practice in the School of Planning and Public Affairs (SPPA), Schuettpelz specializes in Tribal policy, homelessness, and affordable housing.
“One of the things that we're really proud of here is the amount of work that our students get to do on the ground with communities,” Schuettpelz says.
“All of our students must complete a policy project with a community that's run through the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, IISC.”
The IISC projects partner students completing their capstone with Iowa’s rural and urban communities to identify, create, and realize a project which addresses an economic, environmental, or sociocultural issue relevant to the community.
“There's something really important about the fact that the communities they're working with are all Iowa communities. We're really helping them think about problems and challenges that are local to where they live right now, regardless of where they end up after they graduate,” Schuettpelz says.
Schuettpelz’s work as a scholar, writer, and policy practitioner sets an example for SPPA students on how to be an agent for change that creates sustainable and equitable futures for Native people, righting wrongs embedded in policy.