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Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature

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Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature University of Nevada, Reno Organizing Fictions: Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Kyle Bladow Dr. Cheryll Glotfelty/Dissertation Advisor May, 2015 © by Kyle Bladow 2015 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by KYLE BLADOW Entitled Organizing Fictions: Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Cheryll Glotfelty, PhD, Advisor Michael Branch, PhD, Committee Member Kathleen Boardman, PhD, Committee Member Greta de Jong, PhD, Committee Member Leah Wilds, PhD, Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, PhD, Dean, Graduate School May, 2015 i Abstract This dissertation considers how environmental humanities, in dialogue with Native studies, can enhance scholarship concerned with environmental justice. Maintaining a critical interest in how materiality—as conceived within material ecocriticism and American Indian relational ontologies—plays into these discourses, the dissertation examines representations of land, water, and community in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century American Indian literature, in order to inform a deeper understanding of contemporary environmental and indigenous movements. Chapter one introduces the project’s theoretical framework and diffractive methodology. The following three chapters, grouped under the presiding images of land, water, and community, examine a range of cultural and literary texts involving environmental justice organizing and activism. Chapter two argues for the liveliness of borders and demarcations of place in the reservation landscapes of novels by Louise Erdrich and Winona LaDuke. Chapter three investigates the discourse of environmental resources, focusing on recent mining projects and water activism in the Upper Midwest and reading online activist websites, the poetry of Cecelia Rose LaPointe, and Linda Hogan’s novel Solar Storms. Chapter four analyzes how the rhetoric of prophecy influences coalitional activism in the work of Leslie Marmon Silko and in the recent indigenous movement Idle No More. The conclusion argues for the evolution of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) discourse using the work of Robin Wall Kimmerer. The dissertation’s title plays on the term “organizing fictions” to refer both to the ontological underpinnings that influence identities and to the fiction and literature that inspires environmental activism. ii Dedication For my parents, and for the land and water. iii Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful to have had the support of a vibrant, inspiring community of friends and colleagues while writing this dissertation. First and foremost, my thanks to my esteemed committee: Cheryll Glotfelty and Mike Branch have been unparalleled mentors and supporters, and Kathy Boardman, Greta de Jong, and Leah Wilds have continually lent their expertise and insight. My gratitude also goes to Erin James and Scott Slovic, whose excellent seminars and mentorship helped this project take shape. Thanks to my Literature and Environment cohort, including Kyhl Lyndgaard, David Stentiford, David P. Johnson II, Meredith Privott (and Camp Meh), English Brooks, Sarah Nolan, Sylvan Goldberg, Jack Fredericks, Andy Ross, Jo Landis, Lauren McCrady, Patrick Russell, Juhi Huda, Tamara Turnbeaugh, Lauren Yero, and Coral Wu. Special thanks to Tom Hertweck, academic superhero, literal and figurative lifesaver, and excellent friend; to Will Lombardi, carpenter-poet, dream colleague, and insightful guide to the postlocal West; and to Jessica Fanaselle, rogue scholar and unparalleled Reno companion. In the English Department at UNR, thanks also to Laurel Griffiths (mitten kids for life!), Jen Forsberg, Cassie Hemstrom, Renee Bryzik, Estibalitz Ezkerra, and Eric Stottlemyer. At UNR, I am honored to have been in the company of brilliant professors who have influenced my work, including Deborah Achtenberg, Deborah Boehm, Cathy Chaput, Katherine Fusco, Justin Gifford, and Debra Harry. Likewise, I appreciate the guidance and inspiration of colleagues and friends beyond UNR, including Joni Adamson, Stacy Alaimo, Mascha Gemein, Amy Hamilton, Jenn Ladino, April Lindala, Serpil Oppermann, and Jaspal Singh. Chi miigwech to Cecelia Rose LaPointe for the kind permission to reprint her iv poetry and for our email conversation. Thanks also to the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Foundation for much-needed financial support in completing the dissertation. Thanks to the good folks of Bibo Coffee Company, in whose Record Street location I spent the most of the past six years. St. James Infirmary, meanwhile, provided respite with some of the most epic dance parties imaginable. The Great Basin Community Food Coop inspired me to frame chapters around land, water, and community, and volunteering there gave me a break from staring at screens to enjoy tending local produce. Profound thanks to my kindred: Kathy, Mike, Kailey, Shannon, and Sean; Kari Stromberg; and the Case and Mendes clans. Alex Mendes appeared right when this project was getting underway. I cannot imagine completing it without his continual support, and I look forward to the future projects we will undertake together. Finally, thank you to the Truckee River and its terminal lakes, Tahoe and Pyramid—the waters that greeted me when I first arrived in Reno, and which have kept me grounded since. I have been blessed to spend these years in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, on Wa She Shu (Washoe) and Numu (Northern Paiute) land. v Table of Contents Abstract . i Dedication . .ii Acknowledgments . .iii Chapter One Introduction: Diffraction Patterns of Material Ecocriticism and Native Studies . 1 Chapter Two Bodies of Land: Entanglements of Place and Personhood . .45 Chapter Three Bodies of Water: Resource Extraction Makes Waves . 90 Chapter Four Collective Bodies: Envisioning Communities Through Prophecy and Coalitional Activism . 134 Conclusion The Future of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Justice Struggles . .176 Works Cited . 194 Appendix . .209 1 Chapter One Introduction: Diffraction Patterns of Material Ecocriticism and Native Studies At a guest lecture for the Literature and Environment Colloquium Series at the University of Nevada, Reno in February of 2012, Serpil Oppermann introduced the audience to the emerging field of material ecocriticism, which reconceptualizes agency to suggest that it is not the prerogative of human beings but also exhibited by nonhuman matter. During the ensuing Q&A, attendees wondered how the field might connect to indigenous worldviews.1 The consensus seemed to be that material ecocriticism reflected so-called ancient, animist traditions. As a student of new materialisms and Native American literature, I was both intrigued and unsettled by this connection. The audience seemed correct to notice similarities. New materialist trends direct us towards a more relational understanding of a dynamic world in which things are not as separate as they might appear, and this view fits well with the traditions of many indigenous worldviews emphasizing human relationships with nonhuman beings and places. But I was also troubled by the assumptions of this audience. For one, Native traditions were spoken of in the past tense, evoking the specter of the vanishing Indian, a trope that implies all “authentic” Native people belong to an inaccessible, precolonial past and that anyone today who claims Native identity is either 1 Where I fail to use specific tribal designations, I use “indigenous” and “Native” interchangeably to refer to original inhabitants and their descendants. I likewise alternate between “American Indian” and “Native American,” recognizing the varied preferences among those who identify with them. 2 too assimilated into Euro-American cultures or otherwise too divested of traditional lands and lifeways to count. This way of relegating indigenous beliefs to the past obscures the presence of contemporary American Indians who hold traditional tribal views and who apply them to their political and environmental activism. Secondly, I was disconcerted with the idea of using generalized Native wisdom to authenticate new materialist claims, a move that echoes decades of New Age exploitation of Native cultural knowledge and practices. If it does not carefully attend to the ways in which it aligns indigenous traditions with its own intellectual project, material ecocriticism risks perpetuating the appropriation and misrepresentation of Native thought endemic in colonial cultures. But despite these potential pitfalls, I resist the hasty dismissal of material ecocriticism because I believe it can be directed in ways that resist intellectual cooptation. The associations made with Native traditions, when explored more critically, could bring scholars from disparate fields into conversations about land, identity, and the material world. Those who profess worldviews long held as incompatible with the paradigm of global capitalism might find new ways to address hegemonic power structures. Given present social and ecological crises and the fact that many indigenous communities face them as “frontline communities,” it is important that they have multiple tools and scholarly allies. We can hope to find in these conversations not only strategies for combatting
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