We Are Still Here (An Indigenous Exploration of Identity, Heritage, and Belonging)

Belonging is one of the most universal human needs, yet for many mixed-race Indigenous people, it can feel uncertain or contested. Tlingit author Alyssa London grew up with this tension, knowing who she was while sensing that others viewed her identity as something to debate.

In We Are Still Here, Alyssa interweaves her own story and conversations with Indigenous people across and beyond the United States to explore the deeper questions beneath identity: What defines belonging? Who gets to validate it? How do Indigenous people carry culture into the present when society often misunderstands or romanticizes them?

Through themes such as:

• Land- and place-based identity,
• Sovereignty and self-determination,
• Tribal economic development,
• Kinship, enrollment, and community-defined belonging,
• Cultural and artistic continuation,
• Representation and erasure, and
• Mixed-race identity and belonging,

Alyssa offers a portrait of Indigenous life that is expansive, ongoing, and deeply human, seeking to lay to rest the painful misconception that "real" Native people exist only in the past.

We Are Still Here is both personal and collective. It reminds readers that identity is not something you earn or prove. It is something you inherit, live, and choose every day, without needing to justify it to anyone.

Heartfelt and hopeful, this book speaks to anyone who has ever questioned where they fit and affirms that belonging and identity are not given to you. They are yours to claim.