ABSTRACT
Race helped to shape the author Roger Echo-Hawk earliest experience of the world. People saw him as an Indian and the author learned to see himself that way and the author believed in the whole concept of race. As a child, being Indian and having race felt shallow and mysterious at first, but it felt real enough. It felt important, too it wasn't at all a slight matter to have race. Race tells us a lie a lie that defaces the true nature of humanity. The idea of race has more to do with satisfying the human impulse to sort people into convenient social groupings than with providing an accurate biological definition of humankind. This chapter discusses the nature of race is mostly confined to academic circles. In our world, constructions of race powerfully support both personal identity and social meaning, and the racial structures of American culture seem unambiguous, unshakeable.
