: Pan-ethnic labels like Latinx, Hispanic, and Chicanx are predicated on a particularly problematic and unspoken historic relationship with Indigeneity. Beloved literary figures such as Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and Gloria Anzaldúa are foundational to Chicano and Ethnic Studies, but their work has also contributed to an uncritical relationship between Mestizaje and Indigeneity that is predicated upon shared lineage and untapped cultural connection. This appropriation of indigeneity has haunted contemporary social identities and potentially precluded multiethnic coalition. This lecture engages with the interdisciplinary methods of American, Indigenous, and Black Studies to respond to the historically insular shaping of multi-ethnic US literary studies and expand a critical vocabulary for thinking about racial and ethnic identities.