Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Constructing Indigenous Identity in Contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts

Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Constructing Indigenous Identity in Contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Yu, Yingwen Citation Yu, Yingwen. (2021). Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Constructing Indigenous Identity in Contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts (Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA). 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, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 02/10/2021 07:03:37 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/660197 TRANS-PACIFIC DIALOGUE: CONSTRUCTING INDIGENOUS IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY NORTHERN NATIVE AMERICAN AND TAIWANESE INDIGENOUS TEXTS by Ying-wen Yu __________________________ Copyright © Ying-wen Yu 2021 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2021 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by: Ying-wen Yu titled: Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Constructing Indigenous Identity in Contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________May 13, 2021 Jennifer Jenkins Homer Pettey _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________May 14, 2021 Homer Pettey _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________May 13, 2021 Amy Fatzinger 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 13, 2021 Jennifer Jenkins Dissertation Committee Chair Deaprtment of English ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Words cannot express my gratitude to my family for their love and support throughout this entire process. This work would not have been possible without the support of my Dissertation Committee. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, for her invaluable input throughout the dissertation process and the years in the Ph. D program. Her critical provocations and thoughtful readings helped me consider the larger nuances of my topic. I would like to thank Dr. Amy Fatzinger for her brilliance, understanding and humor. Her knowledge on American Indian Studies helped me consider my dissertation within a broader context. I would like to thank Dr. Homer Pettey for his patience during my moments of panic, and suggestions during the moments of clarity. I would like to give special thanks to professors of the Native American Literature study group in Taiwan for showing me the magical doorway to Native American literature. My gratitude extends to A. Robert Lee for his support, encouragement, guidance, and for believing in me, and to Gerald Vizenor for his friendship and being a significant source of inspiration. My completion of this project could not have been accomplished without the encouragement and friendship of my dear friends. Your support and love make me feel at home in this foreign country, and your sense of humor and occasional sarcasm keep me sane. Finally, to my caring and supportive husband, Jorge, and my loving daughter, Mia: my heartfelt thanks. Xie-xie. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ….………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Introduction. Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Contracting Indigenous Identity in Cotemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts ………………………………..…6 Chapter 1. Stories Make the World: Voices of Ancestors in N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain and Dadelavan Ebau’s See You Again, Eagle………………….…..31 Chapter 2. Adapting to Natural Disasters with Humor in Ofelia Zepeda’s “The Floods of 1993 and Others” and Walis Nokan’s “Tribal Disaster Studies”……………………….…74 Chapter 3. Writing Home, Writing Memories in Thomas King’s Truth & Bright Water and Rimuy Aki’s The Hometown of Lapaw………………………………………….…105 Chapter 4. All-My-Relations: Humans, Nature, and Culture in Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale and Ahronglong Sakinu’s The Wind Walker……………………….……….140 Chapter 5. Boats of Transmotion and Indigenous Presence in Gerald Vizenor’s Treaty Shirts and Chien-hsiang Lin’s Kawut na Cinat’kelang (Assembling the Big Boat)……….…..180 Conclusion. The Future of Trans-Pacific Dialogue: “The World Begins at a Kitchen Table”— Indigenous Foodways as An Example………………………………..……….……215 References………………………………………………………………………………………225 5 ABSTRACT Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Constructing Indigenous Identity in Contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts pursues a comparative approach, emphasizes Indigenous perspectives, and interrogates the complexity of Indigenous identity formation through relationships with family, community, culture, and nature. The juxtaposition of Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous texts in Trans-Pacific Dialogue demonstrates an innovative and productive comparative approach that contributes to the global Indigenous conversation, promotes the visibility of Taiwanese Indigenous texts for the global Indigenous community, and broadens global Indigenous fields of inquiry. Both N. Scott Momaday and Ebau demonstrate the importance of ancestors’ voice and stories in affirming their Indigenous identity in The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) and See You Again, Eagle (2004), respectively. Ofelia Zepeda’s “The Floods of 1993 and Others” (1995) and Walis Nokan’s “Tribal Disasters Studies” (2016) showcase both poets utilizing Native humor in storytelling to assert the narrative of survival. As homing-in is a significant trope in Native American literature, I argue that both Thomas King’s Truth and Bright Water (2000) and Rimuy Aki’s The Hometown of Lapaw (2010) decolonize home with Indigenous knowledge and practice of recovery and survival for individual, community, and culture. Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale (2008), and Sakinu’s The Wind Walker (2000) honor Traditional Ecological Knowledge and strengthen the relationship between Indigenous identity and nature. Finally, Gerald Vizenor’s Treaty Shirts (2014) and Lin Chien Hsiang’s documentary Kawut na Cinat’kelang: Rowing the Big Assembled Boat (2009) assert Indigenous identity through the right of motion and cultural sovereignty. 6 Introduction Trans-Pacific Dialogue: Constructing Indigenous Identity in Contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous Texts Trans-Pacific Dialogue is a comparative framework of contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous texts that seek to provide Indigenous-centered perspectives on Indigenous identity formation in the context of a global Indigenous voice and community. Being one of the first comparative frameworks between Native American literature and Taiwanese Indigenous texts, Trans-Pacific Dialogue bridges the gap between the two islands, Turtle Island and the island of Taiwan. Despite the differences in languages, cultures, and spatial locations, Trans-Pacific Dialogue examines the dynamics and complexity of Indigenous identity formation in relation to story, family, community, culture, and nature in Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous literatures, thereby broadening the conversation among global Indigenous communities. Echoing Chadwick Allen’s notion of trans-Indigeneity which “acknowledges the mobility and multiple interactions of Indigenous peoples, cultures, histories, and texts,”1 Trans-Pacific Dialogue seeks to scrutinize the significance of Indigenous identity formation in contemporary Northern Native American and Taiwanese Indigenous texts, chart productive relationships across the geographical and language boundaries, and demonstrate Indigenous-centered methodologies and literary texts. Identity formation is an ongoing process in which people see themselves and develop relationships with others, and it is also shaped by “recognition, absence of recognition or misrecognition by others.”2 Because various competing 1 Chadwick Allen, Trans-Indigenous Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), xiv. 2 Hilary N. Weaver, “Indigenous Identity: What Is It, and Who Really Has It?” American Indian Quarterly 25, no.2 (Spring, 2001), 243. 7 factors constitute the process of identity formation, shared characteristics such as language, ethnicity, nationality, and culture, to name a few, create a sense belonging and solidarity. Just as human identity is multilayered, Indigenous Identity is complex and multifaceted. In “Indigenous Identity: What Is It, and Who Really Has It?” Hilary N. Weaver points out that Indigenous identity is generally comprised of “self-identification, community identification, and external identification,”3 which is often highly contested

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