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Ts'msyen Revolution: the Poetics and Politics of Reclaiming

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Ts'msyen Revolution: the Poetics and Politics of Reclaiming University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2015 Ts'msyen Revolution: The Poetics and Politics of Reclaiming Robin R. R. Gray University of Massachusetts - Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Indigenous Studies Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Gray, Robin R. R., "Ts'msyen Revolution: The Poetics and Politics of Reclaiming" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 437. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/437 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TS’MSYEN REVOLUTION: THE POETICS AND POLITICS OF RECLAIMING A Dissertation Presented By ROBIN R. R. GRAY (T’UU’TK) Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2015 Department of Anthropology © Copyright by Robin R. R. Gray (T’uu’tk) 2015 All Rights Reserved TS’MSYEN REVOLUTION: THE POETICS AND POLITICS OF RECLAIMING A Dissertation Presented By ROBIN R. R. GRAY (T’UU’TK) Approved as to style and content by: _____________________________________________ Jane Anderson, Chair _____________________________________________ Sonya Atalay, Chair _____________________________________________ Demetria Shabazz, Member __________________________________________ Thomas Leatherman, Department Chair Department of Anthropology DEDICATION To the Nine Allied Tribes and the people of Lax Kw’alaams—past, present and future. In honor of my late grandmothers—through them my family has a place to stand in Waap Liyaa’mlaxha, Gisbutwada, Gitaxangiik. We reclaim to honor their lives. My grandmother Norah Rita Gray, My great-grandmother Elizabeth nee Gulbrandsen, nee Wright Dorothy Gulbrandsen, nee Wright, (1937 – 1977) nee Moody (1905 – 1983) Finally, dedicated to one of my research partners and teachers from Lax Kw’alaams—the late Smooygit Xyuup, Wayne Ryan (1930-2013). His spirit of reclamation will live on. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my co-chairs Jane Anderson and Sonya Atalay for their invaluable guidance, support and pedagogy. They have been attentive and nurturing advisors, and they have made meaningful contributions to my intellectual and professional development. I also extend my gratitude to committee member Demetria Shabazz for great conversations and helpful suggestions at all stages of this work. I must also acknowledge my mentor and Bennett sister Johnnetta B. Cole for recruiting me as an undergrad, for taking me on as her student, and for teaching me that I could do the type of anthropology that matters to my people. I am forever grateful to you. My heartfelt appreciation goes to the members of my Community Advisory Committee: Christine Martin, Sagipaayk Tom Dennis, Mosgm Gyaax Joanne Finlay and ‘Wiiksigoop Lynda Gray. Their combined leadership and activism is an enduring source of inspiration. I would like to thank each of them for their guidance and for helping me to maintain accountability and responsibility to our communities and the research process. I am so grateful to my research partners for their invaluable contributions throughout the case studies. Without each of you and your collective energy this work would not have been possible. Further, our research would not have been as dynamic without critical contributions from our Elders and Tribal leaders. A special thank you goes to Smooygit Nisgulpoo/ Łpndaam Eric Green, Smooygit Liyaa’mlaxha Leonard Alexcee, Sigyidmhana’a Goold’m Nits’k/Wii Gandoox Mona Alexcee, Smooygit Aldm łxah Murray Smith, Galdmalgyax SkyLaas Jack White, Smooygit Łuum Howard Green, Smooygit Xbinhoon Stan Dennis, Sr., Sigyidmhana’a Nis Lee Moisk Sadie Dennis and v Da gan gwadoox Rita Hayward. You are great role models for our people and communities, and you have taught me so much about what it means to be Ts’msyen. I want to thank the University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate School and the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project for fellowship support, and the Mikisew Cree First Nation for integral personal and academic assistance. I would also like to acknowledge Aaron Fox from the Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University for travel assistance at key points throughout the repatriation case study. For all of the support, networking and learning opportunities, I would like to thank Jo-ann Archibald and the Supporting Aboriginal Graduate Enhancement (SAGE) project, colleagues and friends at UMass Amherst, and everyone who has helped me to think through the ideas presented in this dissertation. Thank you to Elisa Campbell from UMass OIT for helping me with formatting. I am especially grateful to anyone who has taken time out of their busy schedules to read my works in progress. I would like to extend my gratitude to Ts’maaymban William White, Sarah Lewis, Christina Gray, Aaron Fox and Natalie Baloy for helpful feedback and comments on manuscript drafts. The unwavering love, support and encouragement from my parents ‘Wiiksigoop Lynda Gray and Stan Tourangeau, my brother Musii’n Phil Gray, my Ts’msyen and Mikisew Cree relatives, and my extended family and close friends is irreplaceable. Thank you for urging me to stay determined in my path and to never forget where I come from! vi ABSTRACT TS’MSYEN REVOLUTION: THE POETICS AND POLITICS OF RECLAIMING SEPTEMBER 2015 ROBIN R. R. GRAY (T’UU’TK), B.A.S., BENNETT COLLEGE FOR WOMEN M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Co-Directed by: Professors Jane Anderson and Sonya Atalay As a result of the settler colonial project in North America, Ts’msyen have been thrust into a state of reclamation. The purpose of this study was to examine the distinctiveness of what it means for Ts’msyen to reclaim given our particular history and experiences with settler colonialism. Utilizing the poetics and politics as a theoretical, methodological and practical framework, this dissertation synthesizes the motivations, possibilities and obstacles associated with Ts’msyen reclamation in the contemporary era. Further, as a contribution to the literature on decolonization, Indigenous nationhood, Indigenous subjectivity, Indigenous methodologies and repatriation of Indigenous cultural heritage, I report on two multi-sited, auto-ethnographic, and community-based research initiatives: (1) a repatriation case study focusing on the legal and ethical dimensions associated with reclaiming Ts’msyen songs from archives, and (2) a case study focusing on embodied sovereignty and heritage reclamation with an urban Ts’msyen dance group. To contextualize the information generated from my engagements with over 200 Ts’msyen, I also offer my own experiences as a Ts’msyen hana’ax (woman), and as a dancer and a singer. Primary data are derived from a series of listening gatherings, translation workshops and talking circles from the repatriation case study; and a Photovoice project, vii talking circle and dance ethnography from the dance group study. Secondary data are derived from Ts’msyen lived social realties in the third space; academic literature; current affairs and archival research. Key findings show (a) the ways in which Ts’msyen laws and systems of property ownership are enacted when Ts’msyen sing and dance, (b) how an Indigenous research paradigm develops organically based on an ethos of relational accountability, (c) how Indigenous standpoints alter ethnographic form and disrupt objectified knowledge production, (d) and where to put the theories of decolonization into praxis in settler colonial contexts. Ultimately, this dissertation is representative of a Ts’msyen manifesto. It is a call for a renunciation of contemporary ethics, policies, laws, discourses and practices that continue the work of structured dispossession and Indigenous elimination, while it is also an active assertion of Ts’msyen nationhood, sovereignty, precedent, laws and ways of knowing, being and doing. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 A. Understanding the Poetics and Politics of Reclaiming ............................................. 1 B. Situating the Research Foci ...................................................................................... 9 C. Research that Matters .............................................................................................. 15 D. Chapter Overview ................................................................................................... 20 2. FROM THE PEOPLE: ON BEING TS’MSYEN ....................................................... 24 A. Introduction ...........................................................................................................
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