Reembodying Our Occupied Geographies: Boyd Cothran's Remembering the Modoc War, Benjamin Madley's An American Genocide, and the Future of Native American Studies

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaiah Lorado Wilner
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Native American Studies ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
Blood Meridian ◽  
Wounded Knee

Narratives of innocence are stories born of the dispossession of bodies from lands that continue to serve as vectors of violence, reenacting the scene that created them. The term was introduced by Boyd Cothran to describe the cunning afterlife of conflicts between settler states and indigenous peoples: state violence yields stories that reiterate erasure, weaponizing memory to forget the lessons of colonization. In a situation of violence that produces silence, names resonate as instruments of clarity, cutting through erasure. Genocide is a name historians are now using to describe a process of erasure that created modern California, a process indigenous people have long discussed that narratives of innocence have silenced. Through a reading of Cothran's book Remembering the Modoc War and Benjamin Madley's book An American Genocide against an older literary genre on violence ranging from Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, I take California as an emblem of a profound alteration in the way the United States processes the trace memory of indigenous erasure. A historical reckoning is now underway as indigenous people reembody their occupied geographies, returning their stories to the land and, in the process, reconfiguring the national narrative.

A Study on the works of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn with reference to Indian Genocide

IJOHMN ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
V. Padmanaban
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Native American Studies ◽  
American Government ◽  
White American ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The People ◽  
Indigenous Lands ◽  
Westward Movement ◽  
Wounded Knee

This work is a study on the works of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn who is proficient scholar and hails from South Dakotas and Sioux nations and their turmoil, anguish and lamentation to retrieve their lands and preserve their culture and race. Many a aboriginals were killed in the post colonization. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn grieves and her lamentation for the people of Dakotas yields sympathy towards the survived at Wounded Knee massacre and the great exploitation of the livelihood of the indigenous people and the cruelty of American Federal government. Treaty conserved indigenous lands had been lost due to the title of Sioux Nation and many Dakotas and Dakotas had been forced off from their homelands due to the anti-Indian legislation, poverty and federal Indian – white American policy. The whites had no more regard for or perceiving the native’s peoples’ culture and political status as considered by Jefferson’s epoch. And to collect bones and Indian words, delayed justice all these issues tempt her to write. The authors accuses that America was in ignorance and racism and imperialism which was prevalent in the westward movement. The natives want to recall their struggles, and their futures filled with uncertainty by the reality and losses by the white and Indian life in America which had undergone deliberate diminishment by the American government sparks the writer to back for the indigenous peoples. This multifaceted study links American study with Native American studies. This research brings to highlight the unchangeable scenario of the Native American who is in the bonds of as American further this research scrutinizes Elizabeth’s diplomacy and legalized decolonization theory which reflects in her literature career and her works but defies to her own doctrines.

Indigenous Studies in the United States and Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrey Jean Hanson ◽  
Sam McKegney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Indigenous Voices

Indigenous literary studies, as a field, is as diverse as Indigenous Peoples. Comprising study of texts by Indigenous authors, as well as literary study using Indigenous interpretive methods, Indigenous literary studies is centered on the significance of stories within Indigenous communities. Embodying continuity with traditional oral stories, expanding rapidly with growth in publishing, and traversing a wild range of generic innovation, Indigenous voices ring out powerfully across the literary landscape. Having always had a central place within Indigenous communities, where they are interwoven with the significance of people’s lives, Indigenous stories also gained more attention among non-Indigenous readers in the United States and Canada as the 20th century rolled into the 21st. As relationships between Indigenous Peoples (Native American, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) and non-Indigenous people continue to be a social, political, and cultural focus in these two nation-states, and as Indigenous Peoples continue to work for self-determination amid colonial systems and structures, literary art plays an important role in representing Indigenous realities and inspiring continuity and change. An educational dimension also exists for Indigenous literatures, in that they offer opportunities for non-Indigenous readerships—and, indeed, for readers from within Indigenous nations—to learn about Indigenous people and perspectives. Texts are crucially tied to contexts; therefore, engaging with Indigenous literatures requires readers to pursue and step into that beauty and complexity. Indigenous literatures are also impressive in their artistry; in conveying the brilliance of Indigenous Peoples; in expressing Indigenous voices and stories; in connecting pasts, presents, and futures; and in imagining better ways to enact relationality with other people and with other-than-human relatives. Indigenous literatures span diverse nations across vast territories and materialize in every genre. While critics new to the field may find it an adjustment to step into the responsibility—for instance, to land, community, and Peoplehood—that these literatures call for, the returns are great, as engaging with Indigenous literatures opens up space for relationship, self-reflexivity, and appreciation for exceptional literary artistry. Indigenous literatures invite readers and critics to center in Indigeneity, to build good relations, to engage beyond the text, and to attend to Indigenous storyways—ways of knowing, being, and doing through story.

Intolerance toward Native American Religions

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
John Corrigan ◽  
Lynn S. Neal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
North America ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Native American Religions

Settler colonialism was imbued with intolerance towards Indigenous peoples. In colonial North America brutal military force was applied to the subjection and conversion of Native Americans to Christianity. In the United States, that offense continued, joined with condemnations of Indian religious practice as savagery, or as no religion at all. The violence was legitimated by appeals to Christian scripture in which genocide was commanded by God. Forced conversion to Christianity and the outlawing of Native religious practices were central aspects of white intolerance.

scholarly journals Book Review: Native American Almanac: More than 50,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous Peoples

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Lisa Euster
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Native Communities ◽  
Other Information

The authors emphasize early what Native American Almanac is not: an almanac, an encyclopedia, nor a scholarly work, among other things. It is described as a well-researched “historical overview of Native communities in what is now the United States” (ix). Despite the title, it is heavily focused on the post-contact period. The main arrangement is by geographical region, with an overview chapter and one discussing urban settings. Each chapter is introduced by a regional history, followed by discussion of tribes, their histories, and other information.

Hyperincarceration and Indigeneity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thalia Anthony ◽  
Harry Blagg
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Colonial Governance ◽  
Colonial Oppression

Indigenous people have been subject to policies that disproportionately incarcerate them since the genesis of colonization of their lands. Incarceration is one node of a field of colonial oppression for Indigenous people. Colonial practices have sought to reduce Indigenous people to “bare life,” to use Agamben’s term, where their humanity is denied the basic rights and expression in the pursuit of sovereign extinguishment. Across the settler colonies of Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, the colonial drive to conquer land and eliminate Indigenous peoples has left deep scars on Indigenous communities and compromised bonds to kin, culture, and country. Indigenous people have been made refugees in their own countries. Contemporary manifestations of penal incarceration for Indigenous people are a continuation of colonial strategies rather than a distinct phase. The concept of “hyperincarceration” draws attention to the problem of incarceration and its discriminatory targets. It also turns our attention to the turnstile of incarceration in Western postmodernity. However, the prison is but one form of exclusion for Indigenous people in a constellation of eliminatory and assimilatory practices, policies, and regimes imposed by colonial governance. Rather than overemphasizing the prison, there needs to be a broader conceptualization of colonial governance through “the camp,” again in the words of Agamben. The colonial institutionalization of Indigenous people, including in out-of-home care, psychiatric care, and corrective programs, is akin to a camp where Indigenous people are relegated to the margins of society. We eschew a narrow notion of hyperincarceration and instead posit a structural analysis of colonial relations underpinning the camp.

Lawyers and the Legal Business of the Cherokee Republic in Courts of the United States, 1829–1835

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Norgren
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Pluralism ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Resolution System ◽  
Conflict Mediation

When Europeans first arrived, the Native American societies of North America had a variety of systems of social control and conflict mediation. These indigenous peoples were not heir to the concept of equal protection of the law derived from the Magna Carta, nor to notions of individual rights defended in the English Bill of Rights (1689) and Western Enlightenment political thought. Theirs were systems of custom and commandment of their own need and development. Therefore, after the contact period, whenever conflict arose a central issue of cultural pluralism surfaced: whose resolution system would be used when mediation was necessary.

scholarly journals HOW DID THE GARIFUNA BECOME AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE? - RECONSTRUCTING THE CULTURAL PERSONA OF AN AFRICAN-NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN CENTRAL AMERICA

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Palacio
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Home Country ◽  
American People ◽  
Identidad Cultural ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Siglo Xix ◽  
People Movement

¿Cómo fue que los Garifuna adquirieron el estatus de indígenas? Reconstrucción de la persona cultural de los nativos de Centroamérica. El título del artículo aquí presentado pretende llamar la atención al relativo reciente origen la nomenclatura “indígena” en referencia a nativos del Nuevo Mundo. Los Garifuna –grupo indígena conformado a partir dela mezcla entre nativos americanos, africanos y el carácter bio-cultural legado por los europeos – constituyen un tópico adecuado para el estudio de la formación y retención de la identidad cultural en la revoltura caribeña. Esta presentación inicia destacando la formación de la matriz cultural en el tiempo y el espacio dentro de un contexto en el que la sabiduría convencional que detentaban los pueblos originarios fue exterminada. Continua, haciendo referencia a la creación de oportunidades por parte de los Garifuna para consolidar su identidad en el Caribe oriental a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, en que se suscitaron décadas de conflicto armado impuesto sobre ellos por los británicos. Termina, con citas de ejemplos de vida del mismo autor relativas a su activismo en los ámbitos académico y movimiento popular indígena en Belice, su país de origen, desde el inicio de la década de 1970.   ABSTRACT The title of this presentation draws attention to the relatively recent origins of the ‘indigenous’ nomenclature to the persona of indigenous peoples in the New World. The Garifuna – an indigenous people formed from the blending of Native American, African, and European bio-cultural traits – are an appropriate topic for the study of the formation and retention of cultural identity within the Caribbean Basin. This presentation starts with the formation of their cultural matrix over time and space within a context, where conventional wisdom held that all native peoples had been exterminated. It continues with the Garifuna creating opportunities for the consolidation of their identity in the Eastern Caribbean during the latter of half of the nineteenth century, within decades of armed conflict imposed on them by the British. It ends by the author citing examples from his own involvement in academic and popular activism within the indigenous people movement in his home country Belize since the early 1970s.  

scholarly journals Managing the Sacred Lands of Native America

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxanne T. Ornelas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The United States ◽  
Native America ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
Sacred Lands

This research paper is a review of ten years of sacred lands management and policy in the United States. The author reports from the unique position of having been involved in national and international meetings with communities of indigenous peoples and intergovernmental stakeholders during this time. Discussion includes an historical overview of such topics as environmental justice and the 2001 Native American Sacred Lands Forum, one of the first national meetings in the United States to specifically address the sacred lands of Native Americans. Further discussion draws attention to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 as a gateway to better sacred lands management and policy for Native Americans in the future.

scholarly journals Concrete Lessons: Policies and Practices Affecting the Impact of COVID-19 for Urban Indigenous Communities in the United States and Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather A. Howard-Bobiwash ◽  
Jennie R. Joe ◽  
Susan Lobo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Policies And Practices

Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and human rights lens to review policies and practices impacting the experience of COVID-19 for urban Indigenous communities. Our analysis integrates a discussion of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, and the strengths of Indigenous community-building, as these shape the urban Indigenous experience with COVID-19. Mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we highlight the perspectives of Indigenous organizations which are the lifeline of urban Indigenous communities, focusing on challenges that miscounting poses to data collection and information sharing, and the exacerbation of intersectional discrimination and human rights infringements specific to the urban context. We include Indigenous critiques of the implications of structural oppressions exposed by COVID-19, and the resulting recommendations which have emerged from Indigenous urban adaptations to lockdown isolation, the provision of safety, and delivery of services grounded in Indigenous initiatives and traditional practices.

scholarly journals Re-examining Indigenous Conceptualizations of Family and Community Involvement

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-74
Author(s):  
Jeremy Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Family And Community Involvement ◽  
Home And School

In this article, I highlight the importance of schools and educators serving Indigenous children and youth to draw upon the power of family and community engagement that is culturally defined and guided by Indigenous values and knowledge systems. In addressing these concepts, I draw upon my own personal narratives and current research with American Indian families in an urban setting. The expectation of this research was to develop an understanding of how parents respond to a process of constructing healthy and purposeful relations between the home and school for student success among American Indian families living in an urban setting. Throughout, I use the terms Native American, American Indian, and Indigenous peoples interchangeably. Native American and American Indian refers specifically to Indigenous peoples of the United States. When I use the term Indigenous peoples, it is intended to reflect people joining in the global effort to decolonize their worldviews and reposition our epistemology and ontology. 

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