"What is a REAL Indian?" appears at first blush to ba a simple question. It is after all, just a question about identity, however, any question about identity is never simple. When asked who we are and were we come from we often answer with simple and often reflexive words such as, 'I am a man', or, 'I am an American', yet, when one begins to critically examine the notion of identity from either an individual or group perspective such examinations begin to diffuse and can become difficult to examine because the responses one gets when asking the question, "What is a REAL Indian?" are often different and varied for the answers are dependent upon one's worldview.
For some the question of "What is a REAL Indian?" is itself an inappropriate question because it's basis is formed from racializing projects that not only have their beginnings in colonial imaginings of who live in what was known as 'The New World' but also are based off of Papal Bulls in order to justify brutal and often genocidal colonial projects in order to spread Christiandom. While for others, the concept of being of Indianness is itself not only central, but is vital in the construction of one's identity. Furthermore, these two positions (and there are several more) are further complicated because the 'American Indian/Native American/Etc.' are the only racialized group in the United States who must prove who they are and where they come from due to a unique and often contradictory relationships that tribal nations/communities have with the federal government.
At its core, Half of Anything is not about defining "What is a REAL Indian?" is. It is instead intended to create new conversations on the multiple and often contradictory ways we accept, reject, acquiese, play, and try and understand "What is a REAL Indian?" means to us, both individually and collectively in the 21st century.
