11:15 a.m.- 12:15 p.m., 3201 Hart Hall
"A Critical Look at Canada's Indian Act: Interconnecting First Nation Gender and Politics"
Angel Hinzo (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: Within North America, Native American identity has been fundamentally shaped by the colonization process wherein identity is linked to political status. Only through this politicized Indian status are Native American rights to land, economic pursuits, spiritual freedoms, and political rights recognized and sustained by settler states. Indian status is determined through Western Eurocentric policies that have been incorporated into national legal systems. Within the colonization process, Native American women have undergone Eurocentric patriarchal regulation. This regulation has placed restrictions on the Indigenous female body where she is targeted as the carrier of Native American biological and political traits. Despite these historical and contemporary legal restrictions, Native American communities maintain their inherent political rights and continuously challenge political restrictions placed on their sovereignty and physical bodies as they attempt to move towards healing in their communities. This paper will utilize Bonita Lawrence’s (Mi’kmaw) 2003 article “Gender, Race, and the Regulation of Native Identity in Canada and the United States: An Overview” as a starting point to discuss Canada’s Indian Act in constructing First Nation/Indian identity. As a point of departure, this paper will link the Indian Act to Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s feminist theoretical framework to address intersections of race and sex, constructions of white and Indian identity, and the prevalence of violence against Indigenous women. Restorative justice will also be discussed as a possible method of healing from the colonial process perpetuated through Canada’s Indian Act.
"Developing Prisons"
Stephanie Lumsden (Hupa)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: I intend to focus on how the processes of development/modernization help to build the prison industrial complex (PIC), which challenges the sovereignty of Native nations. I want to focus on the creation and criminalization of poverty as it pertains to Indigenous people all over the U.S. and in California in particular. This paper seeks to connect the policies of colonization in California’s history to the incarceration of Indigenous people today.
My research focuses on California in particular because it is a transnational location, it has the largest population of Indian people in the United States, and this state is infamous for its incarceration rates and poor treatment of prisoners. I intend to approach this topic by first exploring the creation of the modern prison, then by discussing land dispossession and the Christianization of Indian people. Next I will move into an analysis of the numbers of Indian people who are incarcerated and what those numbers say about colonization, and finally I will discuss tribal restorative justice. This paper is meant to be an accessible academic piece, one that does not require years in the ivory tower to understand. More than anything, the aim of this paper is to illustrate how sovereignty is compromised by the PIC and to make a contribution to the tribal conversations about what justice could mean for Indian people.
"Wild Rice and Sticky Syrup: Uses of the Erotic in the Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm"
Patricia Killelea
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: This paper focuses on the work of contemporary Anishinaabe poet Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm.
I argue that her poetry actively harnesses what Audre Lorde describes as “the power of the erotic” in order to restore personhood and dignity to Anishinaabe women’s bodies, minds, and beings. In this way, Akiwenzie-Damm’s work enacts a decolonizing poetics. In the context of colonialism, which has historically targeted indigenous women’s bodies and beings as sites of violence and dehumanization, Akiwenzie-Damm’s reclamation of the erotic serves as an empowering example of the ways that issues of embodiment are essential to decolonizing projects. While sexuality has long been discussed in First Nations oral traditions, there exists a gap in the critical literature surrounding indigenous women’s conversations on the erotic. This paper seeks to remedy that silence by analyzing the ways that Akiwenzie-Damm’s poem “the feast” reclaims the power of the erotic in order to assert her own autonomy and the autonomy of the Anishinaabe nation.
Angel Hinzo (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: Within North America, Native American identity has been fundamentally shaped by the colonization process wherein identity is linked to political status. Only through this politicized Indian status are Native American rights to land, economic pursuits, spiritual freedoms, and political rights recognized and sustained by settler states. Indian status is determined through Western Eurocentric policies that have been incorporated into national legal systems. Within the colonization process, Native American women have undergone Eurocentric patriarchal regulation. This regulation has placed restrictions on the Indigenous female body where she is targeted as the carrier of Native American biological and political traits. Despite these historical and contemporary legal restrictions, Native American communities maintain their inherent political rights and continuously challenge political restrictions placed on their sovereignty and physical bodies as they attempt to move towards healing in their communities. This paper will utilize Bonita Lawrence’s (Mi’kmaw) 2003 article “Gender, Race, and the Regulation of Native Identity in Canada and the United States: An Overview” as a starting point to discuss Canada’s Indian Act in constructing First Nation/Indian identity. As a point of departure, this paper will link the Indian Act to Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s feminist theoretical framework to address intersections of race and sex, constructions of white and Indian identity, and the prevalence of violence against Indigenous women. Restorative justice will also be discussed as a possible method of healing from the colonial process perpetuated through Canada’s Indian Act.
"Developing Prisons"
Stephanie Lumsden (Hupa)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: I intend to focus on how the processes of development/modernization help to build the prison industrial complex (PIC), which challenges the sovereignty of Native nations. I want to focus on the creation and criminalization of poverty as it pertains to Indigenous people all over the U.S. and in California in particular. This paper seeks to connect the policies of colonization in California’s history to the incarceration of Indigenous people today.
My research focuses on California in particular because it is a transnational location, it has the largest population of Indian people in the United States, and this state is infamous for its incarceration rates and poor treatment of prisoners. I intend to approach this topic by first exploring the creation of the modern prison, then by discussing land dispossession and the Christianization of Indian people. Next I will move into an analysis of the numbers of Indian people who are incarcerated and what those numbers say about colonization, and finally I will discuss tribal restorative justice. This paper is meant to be an accessible academic piece, one that does not require years in the ivory tower to understand. More than anything, the aim of this paper is to illustrate how sovereignty is compromised by the PIC and to make a contribution to the tribal conversations about what justice could mean for Indian people.
"Wild Rice and Sticky Syrup: Uses of the Erotic in the Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm"
Patricia Killelea
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: This paper focuses on the work of contemporary Anishinaabe poet Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm.
I argue that her poetry actively harnesses what Audre Lorde describes as “the power of the erotic” in order to restore personhood and dignity to Anishinaabe women’s bodies, minds, and beings. In this way, Akiwenzie-Damm’s work enacts a decolonizing poetics. In the context of colonialism, which has historically targeted indigenous women’s bodies and beings as sites of violence and dehumanization, Akiwenzie-Damm’s reclamation of the erotic serves as an empowering example of the ways that issues of embodiment are essential to decolonizing projects. While sexuality has long been discussed in First Nations oral traditions, there exists a gap in the critical literature surrounding indigenous women’s conversations on the erotic. This paper seeks to remedy that silence by analyzing the ways that Akiwenzie-Damm’s poem “the feast” reclaims the power of the erotic in order to assert her own autonomy and the autonomy of the Anishinaabe nation.