Reimagining Indigenous Identity through Performance Text-Counting Coup on the "Cop in the Head" Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Rocha, Sheila Ann Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 16:25:22 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621740 REIMAGINING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY THROUGH PERFORMANCE TEXT— COUNTING COUP ON THE “COP IN THE HEAD” By Sheila A. Rocha Copyright © Sheila A. Rocha 2016 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISPLINARY PROGRAM IN AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Sheila A. Rocha, titled Reimagining Indigenous Identity Through Performance Text— Counting Coup on the “Cop in the Head” and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date: May 12, 2016 Dr. Patrisia Gonzáles Date: May 12, 2016 Dr. Lawrence Evers Date: May 12, 2016 Dr. Damián P. Baca Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. _______________________________________________ Date: May 12, 2016 Dissertation Director: Dr. Patrisia Gonzáles 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Sheila A. Rocha 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing is a very personal act, one that requires many hours of physical discomfort and isolation that keeps us away from exercising relationality with those we need and want to spend our precious time. So, let me ask forgiveness for not attending to all the needs of my community and for not participating in the many irreplaceable moments that have taken place with family and loved ones. I hope you forgive my solitude that was necessary in order to complete this sometimes seemingly unending chapter in my life. I use the moment of completion to celebrate all of you who are in so many ways integrated into the whole of this narrative. Patrisia Gonzáles guided me with great energy, conviction, and friendship through this entire dissertation experience. My eternal “thanks”. Drs. Damian Baca and Larry Evers received me and supported me on this voyage, seeing me through to completion. Acknowledgements include: My mother, Georgia Fish, of the Tsalagi and pɔˈla͡tsɨ, who, on some abstruse level, believes in me. You demonstrated fortitude in the face of challenge and endured hurdles with resilience. All my love and gratitude. Also, my grandmother, Evelyn Fish, who holds me in her delicate palm from across the heavens. My Daddy who is fulfilling a grander destiny in the waters of eternity and ensuring my entry into the sea of perpetuity. My daughters Malina, Celia, Tashía, and Serena—my life—for surviving the oft’ time difficult challenges in this mortal world; my prayers that you continue soaring, growing, and loving. My marido, Mike Valerio. You have supported me, at times housed me, y todavía me vuelves loca. Ni modo, gracias por todo. My brother, Nicholas, who provided me good conversation, friendship, distraction, and the significant insignificance of old movies, old legends, good story and R & B to keep us both going. Let’s sing together forever. My eldest takoja Eva Xiomara (la milagra), Adelita (la esperanza) Acalia (la fuerza) who will carry the medicine of story and breathe life into the generations. My Leticia (la maestra), Dalia (la jefa), Alfredo III (el poderoso), Calum (el sabio) and Gabriela (la flor), who are the grand independent variables of this larger myth. THRIVE and lead. Develop your many talents, this world needs your gifts. My Grandpa Orlan. My sister Della. My nephew Malachi. My dearest Pete. My guardian angel, Darrell, and all my relations. My step-father, Phil Caniglia, who believed in my potential and relentlessly championed for my success. My dear Miguel Gutierrez. There is no way to express my admiration for you. You are part of my life’s best adventures and most meaningful dialogue. Twenty-five years of friendship continues to uplift me. My hunka até, Lester Killscrow. Pilamayaye. You showed me the interconnectedness of our peoples’ stories. Miss you, still. 4 My mashké Joni Tobacco for the medicine, our sisterhood, and giving me a place to call home when I needed one Barbara Robins—you never let me forget that I must stay on my trajectory and be “me”. You remained my advocate through it all. We must drink ourselves dizzy with good coffee. Joe Quintana. A day will come when we will once again paint our face with red ink, hunt the white turkey in the hills of Pine Ridge, and face the throes of a winter squall with bow in hand. Sandi Byrd and Diana Cournoyer—kindred spirits who emulate the essence of a Wolakota way of life. John Pappan and Rudi Mitchell. John you never forgot me in my toughest of times. Rudi, you nudged me forward. April Petillo, Aresta Tsosie, Derwin Begay, and Robert Beauvais who went through the “boarding school” experience with me once upon a time, and transformed into warriors able to leap insurmountable odds in a single bound. Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez for being my champion. Gerald Vizenor for your gentle spirit and prolific insistence that we remain more than “just” the trace of ourselves. Grandpa George Whitewater who oversees the immediacy of the inner worlds from the Spirit world and keeps me on task. Reema Nasr for not putting me on valium and reminding me with humor the body/mind response to stress. Liz Clifford, Moody Plenty Wounds, Richard Barea, Cassie Rhoads and Val Killscrow for promoting the words that made our hearts swell. Brother Hermus Lone Dog for the medicine ways and kind-heartedness. To Zintkala Oyate and the wanbli’s. To the Lakota Oyate and the students on and off the Pine Ridge reservation for their loving support and principles of Wolakota that held me together: Terry Featherman, Art Hopkins, Alex Loeb FireThunder, Mahpiya Menard, Jesse Pina, Kiri Close, Michelle May, Tawa Ducheneaux, Chrysan Smallwood, Grant Weston, Arrow Red Bear, Dakota High Hawk, Vereen White, Marcel Bull Bear and so many others for comprising the intricate parts of a Native universe that saw me through this process. Wópila tanka! 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 9 Reimagining the Text as Play Script 9 The Research Question 12 Preliminary Studies 13 Rationale 14 CHAPTER 2 INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES & LITERATURE REVIEW 15 Theoretical Framework 15 Storying Identity through Performance Text 20 Navigating Vizenor 22 Survivance 25 Presence/Absence 26 Postindian Versus the Indian Versus the Simulation 27 Manifest Manners 30 Transmotion 31 Vizenor as Defiant Survivance 31 Crossing Critical Borders of Identity 32 Story and Performance 39 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY, RESEARCH DESIGN & PROCESS 42 Overview 42 Research Questions 43 Qualitative 44 Why Art Based Research (ABR) 44 Research Design 46 Process—Sorting the Archive 50 Summary 53 CHAPTER 4 COUNTING COUP ON THE COP IN THE HEAD 54 Cast of Characters 54 Prologue 56 ACT I - Scene 1 57 ACT I - Scene 2 70 ACT I - Scene 3 89 ACT I - Scene 4 92 ACT II – Scene 1 104 ACT II – Scene 2 134 ACT II – Scene 3 137 ACT II – Scene 4 142 ACT II – Scene 5 145 ACT II – Scene 6 150 ACT II – Scene 7 153 ACT II – Scene 8 155 6 ACT II – Scene 9 163 ACT III – Scene 1 172 ACT III – Scene 2 183 ACT III – Scene 3 215 ACT III – Scene 4 227 ACT III – Scene 5 229 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 237 Summary 237 Research Intent 237 Findings 238 Simulations 238 Transrationality Identity 238 Conscientization 240 Psychic Restlessness 240 Resilience 241 Warrior Survivance 242 Significance & Contributions 246 Research Limitations 248 Actualizing the Anchor 250 APPENDIX A: Stage Directions 252 APPENDIX B: Glossary of Theater Terms 253 APPENDIX C: Development of Character Lineage 255 REFERENCES 256 7 ABSTRACT This dissertation interrogates obscured Indigenous identities by way of an original dramatic script that employs story-telling as an inherent cultural device that sustains a sense of peoplehood. In an art-based inquiry, I use Gerald Vizenor’s’ notion of “postindian” to respond to the ways in which postindian identities establish “survivance”; that is, how the presence, resistance and endurance of Indigenous lives challenge simulations. Native histories in the shadow of dominance can be reimagined through cultural acts of resilience that overcome internalized oppressions or what Augusto Boal referred to as the “cop in the head”.