Resisting “the World of the Powerful”: “Wild” Steam and the Creation of Yellowstone National Park

In this essay, I argue that steam operates as a critical, other-than-human actor in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park and a broader, colonial posture towards the natural world that reflects a sharp division between nature and culture on the settler landscape—reiterating what Marisol de la Cadena and Mario Blaser call “the world of the powerful,” and a “world where only one world fits” (2018, pp 2-3). By appearing in contradictory contexts of powerful engines and pristine nature, steam was bifurcated into natural and cultural registers in order to justify the establishment of the natural park and the colonists’ claim to Yellowstone as “property,” foreclosing alternative relationships to the land such as those of the region’s Indigenous residents. Approaching this research from the perspective of a settler on Indigenous lands, I am invested in engaging new materialist and ecological methodologies in the important work of decolonial critique. Adopting Nathan Stormer’s (2016) “new materialist genealogy” and Nathaniel Rivers’ (2015) treatment of wildness in service of a decolonial agenda, I demonstrate how steam’s inherent repulsion to nature/culture dichotomies contests the very idea of the park itself, Yellowstone’s importance to the settler state’s expansion into the west, and its popular understanding as an exemplar of environmental politics. Further, this essay provides a methodological and theoretical intervention for new materialist and ecological scholarship to support decolonial projects in solidarity with Indigenous resistance. By unraveling dominant discourses that persist in collective identification with Yellowstone, the borders of the park that denote iconicity and exemplarity, unspoiled nature from capitalist development, become brittle, fragile, and so, too, does their dominance in discourses about environmentalism. By disrupting Yellowstone and undermining its dominance, we can demonstrate, unequivocally, that another world—indeed worlds—are possible.

Defining Energy in Nineteenth-Century Native American Literature

Native American authors in the first half of the nineteenth century—the dawn of the Anthropocene in some accounts—were witness to the rapid expansion of settler-colonialism powered by new ideologies of energy and fueled by fossil capitalism. These authors, though, resisted extractive metaphors for energy and fuel, offering more organic and intimate visions of energy instead. Using energy humanities theories developed by Warren Cariou (Métis) and Bob Johnson, among others, this article will analyze Mary Jemison’s (Seneca) autobiography; Jane Johnston Schoolcraft’s (Ojibwe) poem, “On the Doric Rock, Lake Superior”; and John Rollin Ridge’s (Cherokee) novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta. These works show how Native American authors defined energy as cyclical and intimate in contrast to the growing settler society’s vision of linear, unending extraction. This article argues that nineteenth-century Native American Anglophone literatures expand the scope of the energy humanities by describing energy intimacy while also extending the histories of Indigenous resistance to settler energy imaginaries. Nineteenth-century Native American literatures can make important contributions to the scope of the energy humanities and need to be integrated into the field to grasp the full scale of current environmental crises.

Extraction, Indigenous Dispossession and State Power: Lessons from Standing Rock and Wet’suwet’en Resistance

When Indigenous-led resistance to land- and water-killing projects threatens extraction, settler-colonial state and corporate institutions use security mechanisms to eliminate such “threats.” Using as case studies the pipeline conflicts of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s (especially Unist’ot’en Camp’s) resistance to Coastal GasLink (CGL) in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in North Dakota, United States (US), this paper explores how fossil-fuel extraction interacts with critical infrastructure (CI) securitization to further Indigenous land dispossession. I argue that although the Wet’suwet’en and Standing Rock cases both involved the state and corporations criminalizing Indigenous resistance to extraction—to uphold fossil-fuel capital interests—the Wet’suwet’en case is unique because Canadian actors attempted to pacify resistance through symbolic appeals to Indigenous rights. Indigenous communities across the world are violently oppressed for peacefully defending their water, land, and communities. However, the motives and strategies of violence are unique for every colonial jurisdiction exercising violence, and for every Indigenous community impacted. I compare and contrast the rationales and strategiesof both cases through an in-depth content analysis of passages from TigerSwan surveillance and BC Supreme Court injunction documents. I discuss my findings within theoretical debates on dispossession and securitization.

POSKOLONIAL DALAM CANTIK ITU LUKA KARYA EKA KURNIAWAN (POSTCOLONIAL IN NOVEL CANTIK ITU LUKA BY EKA KURNIAWAN)

Postcolonial in novel Cantik itu Luka by Eka Kurniawan. This researchisto describe the meaning of the resistance of the natives was fighting the colonials in the novel Cantik Itu Luka by Eka Kurniawan. The results showed that the postcolonial form of indigenous resistance to the invaders in the novel Cantik was wounded by Eka Kurniawan. It was known that the characters in the novel did not want to defend the western tradition and the discrimination of the Dutch colonial government which gave the indigenous and Dutch limits in gaining freedom in their lives. The character in the novel believes that he has the same rights in obtaining equality in life as Westerners. People in the novel “Cinta Itu Luka” realizedby the natives should not be stupid and easily controlled by Western nations. Therefore, my character seeks to defend his right to obtain freedom in life and not be bound to others. The meaning of the resistance of the natives in resisting the colonials in the novel Cantik Ini Luka by Eka Kurniawan is the reaction of the indigenous people at that time was diverse. Some refused, but there were those who welcomed kindly even cooperated and not a few who did not approve of it. The resistance is not only in terms of the grille but also openly in order to get independence even though there must be self-sacrifice both material and life. Key words: postcolonial, resistensi, novelsAbstrak Poskolonial dalam novel Cantik itu Luka karya Eka Kurniawan. Penelitian ini untuk mendeskripsikan bentuk poskolonial resistensi pribumi terhadap penjajah dalam.Untuk mendeskripsikan makna perlawanan kaum pribumi dalam melawan kaum kolonial dalam novel Cantik Itu Luka karya Eka Kurniawan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Bentuk poskolonial resistensi pribumi terhadap penjajah dalam novel Cantik itu luka karya Eka Kurniawan diketahui bahwa Tokoh dalam novel tidak ingin mempertahankan tradisi barat dan diskriminasi pemerintah kolonial Belanda yang memberi batas pribumi dan Belanda dalam memperoleh kebebasan dalam kehidupan mereka. Tokoh dalam novel tersebut berkeyakinan bahwa dia memiliki hak yang sama dalam memperoleh kesetaraan hidup seperti orang-orang Barat. Tokoh pada novel Cantik Itu Luka menyadari jika pribumi tidak seharusnya bodoh dan mudah dikuasai bangsa Barat. Oleh sebab itu, tokoh aku berusaha untuk mempertahankan haknya dalam memperoleh kebebasan dalam hidup dan tidak terikat pada orang lain. Makna dari perlawanan kaum pribumi dalam melawan kaum kolonial dalam novel Cantik Itu Luka karya Eka Kurniawan yaitu Reaksirakyat pribumi saat itu beragam. Ada yang menolak, namun ada yang menyambut ramah bahkan bekerja sama dan tidak sedikit yang tidak menyetujuinya. Perlawanan tersebut tidak hanya dari segi gerilya namun juga secara terang-terangan agar bisa mendapatkan kemerdekaan walaupun harus ada pengorbanan diri baik materi maupun nyawanya. Kata-kata kunci: poskolonial, perlawanan, novel

Climate Imperialism: Ecocriticism, Postcolonialism, and Global Climate Change

Global climate change threatens to kill or displace hundreds of thousands of people and will irrevocably change the lifestyles of practically everyone on the planet. However, the effect of imperialism and colonialism on climate change is a topic that has not received adequate scrutiny. Empire has been a significant factor in the rise of fossil fuels. The complicated connections between conservation and empire often make it difficult to reconcile the two disparate fields of ecocriticism and postcolonial studies. This paper will discuss how empire and imperialism have contributed to, and continue to shape, the ever-looming threat of global climate crisis, especially as it manifests in the tropics. Global climate change reinforces disparate economic, social, and racial conditions that were started, fostered, and thrived throughout the long history of colonization, inscribing climate change as a new, slow form of imperialism that is retracing the pathways that colonialism and globalism have already formed. Ultimately, it may only be by considering climate change through a postcolonial lens and utilizing indigenous resistance that the damage of this new form of climate imperialism can be undone.