PDF Summary:Whiskey Tender, by Deborah Jackson Taffa

In Whiskey Tender, Deborah Jackson Taffa explores the history of colonial dispossession and its lasting impact on Native American communities. She examines how colonial powers used religion, law, and economic policies to seize Indigenous land and dismantle tribal sovereignty—and how these mechanisms of oppression created generations of trauma, erasure, and displacement for her own family and countless others.

Taffa also discusses Indigenous resistance and cultural survival. She describes how Native Americans adapted their spiritual practices, participated in intertribal activism, and built movements like Red Power to reclaim their rights and preserve their cultures. Through her family's story, Taffa shows how Native communities have worked to rebuild in the face of centuries of systemic oppression while navigating the tension between assimilation and cultural preservation.

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We will now examine the legal, political, economic, and material mechanisms of dispossession.

Legal and Political Mechanisms of Dispossession

The United States used legal and political mechanisms to seize the land and rights of Native Americans. Taffa highlights the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act, which announced that tribes had lost their sovereignty.

(Shortform note: The 1871 Indian Appropriations Act didn’t declare that tribes had lost their sovereignty. Instead, it ended the practice of making treaties with tribes.)

Economic and Material Dispossession

Colonial policies and environmental exploitation have also led to economic and material dispossession for Indigenous communities. Taffa’s family lost their land and their ability to farm it due to the Dawes Allotment Act and the government’s sale of their farmland. They were left with only a small portion of their original land, and the government allowed white farmers to take over a large part of their reservation. The family also struggled to secure housing because reservation plots couldn't be used to secure building supplies. Additionally, her grandma’s homeland was contaminated by uranium mining, which poisoned the water and the land, leading to health problems for her family and community.

Wastelanding

Scholars have argued that the changes to land use and housing, as well as the impact of uranium mining on Native homelands, are part of a larger process of “wastelanding.” In her book Wastelanding, Traci Brynne Voyles argues that the US government and mining companies have historically viewed Native lands as “wastelands” that are suitable for resource extraction and nuclear testing. This perspective has led to the concentration of nuclear-related industries on Native lands, which has had devastating consequences for Indigenous communities.

Manifestations of Harm and Trauma

Taffa describes how her family experienced racism and aggression in Farmington. Her dad became the first Native American foreman at his plant, and his supervisor hurled slurs and threats of violence. The supervisor was later convicted of manslaughter for kidnapping a Native American and abandoning him on train tracks to die. Her family moved to Farmington in 1974, just after three white teens committed acts of torture and murder against three Navajo men. The teenagers faced juvenile charges and were sent to reform school for a short period. Navajo demonstrators marched for seven consecutive weekends, demanding justice. The mayor minimized how serious the violence was, and the city council denied the activists an additional permit. The police fired teargas at Navajo protesters, sparking a riot.

(Shortform note: Researchers who study Indigenous politics often use the term “settler colonialism” to describe the relationship between the US government and Native Americans. The historian Patrick Wolfe coined the term to describe the process by which settlers take over Indigenous land and resources. Wolfe argues that settler colonialism is a structure, not an event, and that it’s ongoing. Researchers who study border towns like Farmington argue that the violence that occurred there is part of a larger pattern of settler colonialism. They argue that border towns are sites of ongoing violence and dispossession, and that the violence that occurs there is not just the result of individual prejudice, but is part of a larger system of settler colonialism.)

The federal Civil Rights Commission looked into Farmington and discovered widespread racism across the entire community. The city's electoral districts were altered to permit Navajos to hold positions on the County Commission. The U.S. Department of Justice sued San Juan Regional Hospital because it declined to provide emergency room treatment to Native Americans. The city faced an employment discrimination lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission.

(Shortform note: Public records confirm that the Civil Rights Commission held hearings in Farmington, the Justice Department sued the hospital, and the EEOC sued the city. The Commission’s findings and the lawsuits are summarized in a 1975 article in the Albuquerque Journal. The article also notes that the city’s electoral districts were redrawn to allow Navajo representation on the County Commission.)

Her father also faced pressure to fit in and succeed. He took pride in his success, but other Native Americans resented him for it. He wanted his children to be part of the mainstream American society, but he also wanted them to understand that Native Americans are excluded from the American identity.

The National Museum of the American Indian

While Deborah Jackson Taffa’s father wanted his children to understand that Native Americans are excluded from the American identity, some authors argue that the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, DC, presents Native Americans as part of the American identity. The NMAI is a museum dedicated to the history and culture of Native Americans. The authors argue that the NMAI presents Native Americans as part of the American identity by showing how Native Americans have contributed to the history and culture of the United States.

Indigenous Resilience and Cultural Rebuilding

We will now explore the vehicles of cultural and spiritual resilience.

Vehicles of Cultural and Spiritual Resilience

Adaptive Spiritual Practices

The book explores the integration of Indigenous spiritual practices with various faiths. Taffa’s father familiarizes her with the religious group for multiple Indigenous nations that uses peyote in its ceremonies. The church, which started in 1918, was a "Christian religion that used peyote as a sacred rite." Her father explains that peyote is a remedy for enhancing balance of the spirit, clarity of the mind, and health of the body. He shares a myth about the practice from the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, who inhabited the desert where the cactus grew.

(Shortform note: In How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan explains that psychedelics such as mescaline (the active compound in peyote) appear to work by binding to serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in the cortex and temporarily disrupting the normal patterns of communication in the brain’s default mode network. This loosening of rigid neural hierarchies is experienced by many people as an opening of perception and emotion, greater cognitive flexibility, and, in some cases, enduring relief from anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental and physical distress.)

The tale describes a community struggling through a dry spell. Dehydrated and starving, a woman and her grandchild wander through the desert until they finally collapse. Just before death, a voice tells them to eat. Without any guidance, they spot some peyote, eat it, and lose consciousness. After they awaken, they feel fed and energized, despite being affected by the hallucinogenic substance. It rescues them, and they bring the prized plant back to help their community, too. This has led to peyote being considered a medicinal guide for survival.

(Shortform note: Ethnographic histories of peyote use among the Kiowa and Comanche suggest that these origin stories developed during the late 19th century, when peyote use was spreading north from Mexico. This was a time when these peoples were facing starvation, disease, and the collapse of their traditional food systems. The plant’s ability to dull hunger and fatigue was likely woven into narrative form as a medicinal guide for survival.)

Taffa’s mother is Catholic and believes that it's sinful to attend any church other than a Catholic one. She thinks that the use of peyote is devilish and that it will make them lose their minds. Taffa attempts to persuade her mom that the ritual is not religious but practical, and that people of various faiths can gain from its healing benefits. Her mother won't listen and insists they need to trust God's plan. Taffa's father tells her to respect and listen to her mom. He explains that, although President Carter enacted the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, there are still state laws, and sometimes Native people are arrested by local police for using peyote as a sacrament. Taffa tells her father that the cops in the Navajo area are Native, so there won't be any problems.

(Shortform note: Taffa’s argument that the use of peyote as a sacrament has healing benefits is supported by some researchers. In a study of Native Americans who were long-term members of a church that uses peyote as a sacrament, researchers found that these individuals had better mental health and lower rates of alcoholism than Native Americans who didn’t use peyote. The researchers also found that the use of peyote didn’t cause any cognitive impairment. The researchers concluded that the use of peyote as a sacrament can have healing benefits.)

Her mother raised her voice, refusing to listen. Taffa realizes that her mother accepts all the disparagements Catholicism has leveled against Native practices throughout the centuries. For generations, Indigenous people who defied the order faced harsh punishments and even death. Taffa thinks of her grandparents, Grandpa Ed and Grandma Esther, who had vastly different cultural backgrounds but were open to finding middle ground in their beliefs. Grandma Esther chose the Quechan cremation ceremony despite a priest's objections, and Grandpa Ed honored Grandma’s tribe's matrilineal tradition by permitting her to register their children and grandchildren with Laguna citizenship instead of the Quechan Nation.

(Shortform note: In We Have a Religion, Tisa Wenger explores how Pueblo and other Native leaders in the twentieth century drew on the dominant Euro-American category of “religion” less as a simple reflection of their beliefs than as a political strategy to defend ceremonial practices, land, and forms of community authority. Missionaries and government officials had long refused to recognize Native ritual life as religion at all—labeling it superstition, idolatry, or mere custom—and this denial justified efforts to suppress dances, ceremonies, and Indigenous governance. In response, Pueblo communities selectively adopted Catholic symbols and practices, reclassified certain rituals as “religion” in order to invoke the language of religious freedom, and used the very terms and institutions introduced by colonial Christianity as tools to protect their own ceremonial systems and kinship structures rather than to abandon them.)

Taffa wishes her mother would be flexible, but she fears complexity. She knows her mother dislikes that her father is pleased by her curiosity about Native practices. She feels trapped in their conflict over authority. Taffa tells her mother that she can't prevent her from attending the Native American Church. Her father tells her to settle down. Taffa tries to convince her mother that her father's friend isn't suggesting they reject Jesus, and that he is also a Christian. She tells her mother that she doesn't have an issue with Jesus and just wants to learn. She calls her mother hypocritical for thinking that God only speaks to white people. Her father tells her, “Enough.”

(Shortform note: In the anthology Native and Christian, many Indigenous Christian authors describe churches where attending Native ceremonies is not considered sinful. They believe that God speaks through their peoples and that they can still follow Jesus. They reject the idea that God only speaks through white people.)

Taffa's mother begins to cry, and Taffa realizes she's crossed a line. She goes outside, gets on her bike, and feels let down by her parents. At night, she sits on a bench, reflecting on the church. She feels the immensity of the universe and realizes that her mother, afraid, attempts to compress its vastness. She needs uncomplicated, anomaly-free explanations and straightforward narratives to feel in control of life’s vastness, whereas her father’s people understand the universe's depth. Life is more expansive than their experiences. There are better choices for Tommy and everyone.

(Shortform note: Taffa’s mother’s reaction to the universe’s “immensity” is understandable. In The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker argues that human beings, once they become conscious of their own mortality, are stalked by an underlying terror that they manage by creating and clinging to cultural “hero-systems” and rigid belief structures that portray existence as ordered, meaningful, and manageable. He explains that this need for order and control is a necessary “vital lie” of character, allowing the person to deny the full chaos and contingency of reality and to feel safely embedded in a coherent, intelligible world.)

Taffa dislikes how her mother expects them to reduce the wonderful and the scary to straightforward, tedious guidelines. Taffa's father tells her that because of their faith, her parents are flexible, resilient, and powerful. They consider their union and their familial responsibilities sacred. Taffa respects their resilience, though she can't forgive the country's racism.

Faith as a Coping Mechanism

Taffa’s conflicting feelings about her parents’ faith reflect the different ways people cope with trauma. In The Psychology of Religion and Coping, Kenneth I. Pargament argues that religion can be a powerful tool for coping with adversity, but only when it’s flexible and open to interpretation. He explains that when people view their faith as a set of rigid rules, it can actually make coping with stress and trauma more difficult. This is because rigid religious beliefs can lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and helplessness when people are unable to live up to their own standards. In contrast, when people view their faith as a relationship with the divine, they’re more likely to find comfort, strength, and meaning in their beliefs.

Active Strategies for Cultural Rebuilding

Taffa also discusses the Red Power movement and intertribal activism, which helped rebuild Native culture. The Red Power effort was a rights rebellion powered by activism across tribes. It began during the summer of 1961 at the American Indian Chicago Conference, the first large intertribal meeting organized by the National Congress of the American Indian (NCAI). For decades, the National Congress of American Indians pursued justice through the established system, working to influence legislation and bringing lawsuits. The Indian Youth Council (IYC), an organization formed that same year in Gallup, New Mexico, was asked to present in Chicago.

(Shortform note: In Red Power Rising, Bradley Shreve argues that the Red Power movement didn’t emerge from a single conference, but from years of pan-Indian organizing, earlier national and regional intertribal conferences, urban Indian associations, and treaty-rights and civil-rights campaigns. By the early 1960s, the National Indian Youth Council was able to launch its militant, youth-driven activism precisely because organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians had already created enduring networks and a shared intertribal political consciousness dating back to the 1940s. Shreve’s research shows that the 1961 Chicago conference was neither the first major intertribal meeting nor the sole origin point of Red Power.)

A generational conflict emerged. Like their predecessors in the NCAI, IYC affiliates considered joblessness, bias, and inadequate housing as lesser struggles. Their primary goals included returning ancestral lands, recognizing treaty rights, and Indigenous sovereignty—concerns that fell outside the scope of mainstream civil rights. Yet the parallels stopped there. The younger generation criticized the older group's reliance on litigation as a "weak" strategy. IYC members grew restless and called for a revolutionary change in society that would be more aggressive than politely seeking improved treatment.

(Shortform note: Not everyone agrees that litigation and “mainstream” civil rights issues are lesser struggles. In Blood Struggle, legal scholar Charles F. Wilkinson argues that the modern rise of Native nations has depended above all on determined use of the law and national politics—that when tribes organize skilled legal teams, pursue cases through the courts, and press their claims in Congress and federal agencies, they can win transformative decisions and statutes that protect tribal homelands, reinforce inherent powers of self-government, and secure concrete gains for their communities. He explains that many of the leaders he profiles in the book see litigation and national-level lobbying as powerful tools for advancing tribal sovereignty and land recovery.)

The Indian Youth Council's founders, Mel Thom of the Paiute tribe and Shirley Hill Witt of the Mohawk tribe, said the NCAI misrepresented Indigenous youth by reacting too mildly to federal misdeeds. Inspired by the Black Panthers and other radical organizations, the IYC founders referred to their elders as "Uncle Tomahawks" for presenting white politicians with headdresses and for making resolutions that never led to progress. Their rhetoric ignited a movement, and over the next decade, Native Americans transitioned from patriotic to nationalist pride, embracing a more militant approach: fishing demonstrations in the Pacific Northwest, taking control of the BIA in DC, and occupying Alcatraz the year Taffa was born. The Red Power uprising and intertribal activism helped rebuild Native culture.

(Shortform note: The term “Uncle Tomahawks” was a deliberate play on “Uncle Tom,” a derogatory term used in the Black freedom struggle to describe Black people who were seen as too accommodating to white interests. By combining “Uncle Tom” with “tomahawk,” a symbol of Native American culture, the IYC founders were mocking established Native leaders for being too closely aligned with the US government and not assertive enough in their advocacy for Indigenous rights. This term reflected a broader shift in Native activism during the 1960s, as younger activists began to reject the more conciliatory approaches of their elders in favor of a more confrontational stance that emphasized Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. This shift was part of a larger trend in civil rights movements of the era, where marginalized groups increasingly demanded not just inclusion in mainstream society, but recognition of their distinct identities and rights.)

The Indian Relocation Act, which was intended to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream society, had the opposite effect. Spearheaded by activists Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt, who were both Ojibwe, various tribes came together to exchange their cultures at Urban Indian Centers. Understanding that unity offered strength, they participated in a movement for civil rights driven by activism across tribes.

(Shortform note: In The Urban Indian Experience in America, historian Donald L. Fixico argues that the Indian Relocation Act did, in fact, promote assimilation. He explains that the federal relocation program transferred thousands of American Indians from reservation communities into cities where access to jobs, housing, education, and public services was controlled by non-Indians.)

The movement was a response to the failure of the Relocation Program to improve the lives of Native Americans, which instead separated many people from their families and culture. It was also a response to the federal government’s refusal to fulfill its promises to Native Americans, including land reclamation and honoring treaties. The movement was successful in uniting Native Americans across tribal lines and in raising awareness of their struggles. It also led to the establishment of a network of intertribal powwows, which allowed Native Americans to exchange cultural and traditional knowledge with each other. The movement, however, was not without its challenges. The federal government attempted to discredit pan-Indian organizations and pledged to work solely with the governing bodies of individual tribes. The movement also faced resistance from some Native Americans, including the Navajo, who worried it would lead to the homogenization of their cultures.

The Shift to Self-Determination

Another impact of the movement was that it led to a shift in federal policy from “termination” to “self-determination.” In Like a Hurricane, Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Warrior argue that by the mid-1970s, the wave of Indian activism that began in the late 1960s had produced the most dramatic change in federal Indian policy since the Indian New Deal. He explains that the United States formally abandoned the policy of termination and moved toward a doctrine of tribal self-determination, a shift embodied in President Nixon’s 1970 special message on Indian affairs and consolidated in legislation such as the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.