Indigeneity, Belonging, and the Afterlife of Colonialism: Morgan Talty’s Fire Exit (2024)

Year 2025, Issue: 64, 113 - 124, 30.12.2025

Regine Rosenthal

Abstract

Following his first success with the story collection, Night of the Living Rez (2022), the Native American writer Morgan Talty published in 2024 his first novel, Fire Exit, again to great acclaim, marking him as a new Indigenous voice to pay attention to. This paper illustrates how, different from other creative works by contemporary Native American writers, Fire Exit presents a captivating story not only of life on and off the reservation but mostly of the various personal, legal, and cultural complications of present-day Indigenous belonging. Demonstrating the author’s search for some deeper truth beyond the lived reality of Native descent, the essay explores in detail the novel’s portrayal of the intricate, multilayered meaning of inclusion, exclusion, citizenship, identity, blood quantum, postcolonial survival, and, more specifically, the complex implications of “internal tribal matters” for present-day Native Americans of the Penobscot Tribe in Maine.

Keywords

Indigenous belonging , legal status , inclusion , exclusion , post/colonial history , blood quantum

Supporting Institution

Dartmouth College

References

• Bayor, Ronald H., editor. Race and Ethnicity in America: A Concise History. Columbia UP, 2003.
• Berger, Bethany. “Separate, Sovereign, and Subjugated: Native Citizenship and the 1790 Trade and Intercourse Act.” William and Mary Law Review, vol. 65, no. 5, 2024, pp. 1117–35, scholarship.law. wm.edu/wmlr/vol65/iss5/4/.
• Duthu, Bruce. “Interview with Morgan Talty.” 10 Jan. 2025, www.alumni.dartmouth.edu/stories-news/ dartmouth-book-club-fire-exit-author-morgan-talty-16-126.
• Edugyan, Esi. “A Tribal Eviction, a Blood Secret and the Knotty Question of Belonging.” Review of Fire Exit, by Morgan Talty. The New York Times, 2 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/books/review/ fire-exit-morgan-talty.html.
• Erdrich, Louise. The Round House: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2012.
• Hampton, Charlotte. “Review: Fire Exit Is Spellbinding.” Review of Fire Exit, by Morgan Talty. The Dartmouth, 12 July 2024, www.thedartmouth.com/article/2024/07/fire-exit-review.
• Lincoln, Kenneth. Native American Renaissance. U of California P, 1983.
• Momaday, N. Scott. House Made of Dawn. Harper & Row, 1968.
• “Native American Heritage Month—A Reading List for Adults.” Flyleaf Books, 2025, www.flyleafbooks. com/native-american-heritage-adult.
• NoiseCat, Julian Brave, and Emily Kassie, directors. Sugarcane. National Geographic, 2024, films. nationalgeographic.com/sugarcane.
• “Summary of the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement of 1980.” Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, www.mitsc.org/mitsc-narrative-summaries/summary-of-the-maine-indian-land-claims-act-of-1980.
• Talty, Morgan. “The Citizenship Question: We the People.” The Georgia Review, Spring 2020, www. thegeorgiareview.com/posts/the-citizenship-question-we-the-people/.
• ---. Night of the Living Rez: Stories. Tin House, 2022.
• ---. Fire Exit: A Novel. Tin House, 2024.
• ---. “I’ll Show You My Indian If You Show Me Yours.” Esquire, 28 May 2024, www.esquire.com/news- politics/a60847601/blood-quantum/.
• Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. U of Nebraska P, 1999.
• Yourish, Karen, et al. “These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration.” The New York Times, 7 Mar. 2025, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites- words-dei.html.