A survey of current critical perspectives on how North American indigenous peoples are viewed and represented transnationally. An indispensable resource for readers, students, and scholars of Native literatures in North America, "Native Authenticity" offers a clear, comprehensive, and systematic look at the diversity of critical approaches to the idea of “Indian-ness.” Some of the foremost transatlantic scholars of Native studies in North America and Europe share their insights on this highly charged aspect of the contemporary theoretical field of Native studies. The issue of “authenticity” or “Indian-ness” generates a controversial debate in studies of indigenous American literatures. The articulation of Native identity through the prism of Euro-American attempts to confine “Indian” groups to essentialized spaces is resisted by some Native writers, while others recognize a need for essentialist categories as a key strategy in the struggle for social justice and a perpetually renewed sense of Native sovereignty. Pressure from neocolonial essentializing practices is in conflict with a politics of cultural sovereignty, which demands a notion of “Indian” essence or “authenticity” as a foundation for community values, heritage, and social justice.