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We Are Still Here: Indigenous Perspectives of Resistance

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We Are Still Here: Indigenous Perspectives of Resistance WE ARE STILL HERE: INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES OF RESISTANCE A Dissertation by SHARI LYDEANA VALENTINE Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Joe Feagin Committee Members, Stjepan Mestrovic Robert Mackin William McIntosh Head of Department, Jane Sell August 2019 Major Subject: Sociology Copyright 2019 ABSTRACT In this qualitative study, I endeavor to tell the story of Indigenous resistance, particularly in North America. This story is told through interviews with more than 130 Indigenous activists from 29 Native nations who demonstrate the enduring and coherent nature of Indigenous resistance. I contend that the cultural matrix of Indigenous peoples serves as an abeyance organization to produce recurring activism that conforms to a coherent Indigenous worldview. This worldview produces movements which consistently prioritize protecting the land, centering spiritual principles, fostering community and featuring vital participation by women. From the Ghost Dance ceremonies of the 1800s to the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, Indigenous peoples have resisted the dominant western paradigms. They have fought for a worldview that is not compatible with the white patriarchal domination of people and nature. This research illuminates an Indigenous worldview. What appears as an Indigenous “rhetoric of survivance” is actually deeply linked to a cultural, political and social epistemology with foundational and organic concepts like time, kinship structures and reciprocity – with concomitant “sacred civics” of “blood and responsibility” and a unique cosmology held in memory and trafficked orally. Through annals and volumes of academic research across disciplines and cultures not only American Indians, but Indigenous peoples in general, remain marginalized. This marginalization takes place in a variety of ways. Often, it occurs as invisibility: there is simply no mention of Indigenous peoples. At other times, when Indigenous peoples appear, scholars caricature or romanticize them as an extinct species. This marginalization is expected inside mainstream discourses; it is more puzzling in discourses that fight oppression such as feminist ii theory or race theory. Frequently, Indigenous peoples are appropriated for discursive purposes and overlooked in the discussion of material realities and solutions. Examples from social movement theory, critical race theory and feminist theory serve to illustrate this pattern. This research highlights the voices and ideas of Indigenous peoples to tell their own story in response to the marginalization and misrepresentation of usual academic discourse. iii DEDICATION This work is dedicated with awe and gratitude to the seven generations who have gone before and the seven who will come after. To all the Indigenous peoples who have resisted annihilation physically and spiritually for so many centuries. Mitakuye Oyacin. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to begin by thanking the many, many Native people who patiently listened and responded to my endless questions for decades, long before and during the official dissertation process. Thank you to all of the Native people who resisted and taught me the value and power of resistance and the beauty of spirit. Thanks especially to my dearly departed grandmothers—the Irish one who led me to believe I could do anything and the Lakota one who taught me how to do so many things. To Ate, Charles Chipps, who believed in me and told me so, always. Christi Barrera, you were so very kind when I was such an insecure first generation college student totally out of her depth. And you were still so very kind on the final defense day when you made it all seem so simple and normal. Thank you. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to my committee. Dr. Mestrovic, your insight always spurred me in uncharted directions and you always agreed to write one more recommendation letter. Dr. McIntosh, your kindness and support was a comfort from the time I first met you. You saved me with your agreement to serve on my committee when I lost my outside member. Dr. Rob Mackin, your confidence in me as a new graduate student gave me a boost I am not sure you ever realized. I am so glad you were there from beginning to end. Dr. Jane Sell, thank you. Thank you for all of the kindness, for every conversation in the hall and every recommendation letter and every time you made me believe in myself and my ideas. Dr. Joe Feagin is the reason I became a sociologist, the reason I came to A&M and the reason this dissertation got written. Joe, your patience, insight and guidance meant everything. v Without your steady support and faith, I would not have finished, or probably even started. Thank you for the insight, the encouragement and the time you spent helping me. And bless you for those many, many recommendation letters. Finally, I thank my husband, Bear, who supported me steadfastly from beginning to end in too many ways to count. And, my gratitude to my daughter, Erin, who always inspires me and whose support was so cheerfully and invaluably present particularly in the final grueling steps of this marathon. vi CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES Contributors This work was supervised by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor Joe Feagin, Professor Stjepan Mestrovic and Professor Robert Mackin of the Department of Sociology and Professor William McIntosh of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science. All work conducted for the dissertation was completed by the student independently. Funding Sources There are no outside funding contributions to acknowledge related to the research and compilation of this document. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ............................................................ vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. viii I INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 Relevant Literature ...........................................................................................................6 Legal Histories .................................................................................................................7 Rhetorics of Resistance, Spirituality and Community ...................................................11 Accounts of Events ........................................................................................................14 Social Movement Literature and Theory .......................................................................16 II METHODS.................................................................................................................... 23 Sources of Information ...................................................................................................23 Indigenous Methods .......................................................................................................25 Pitfalls in the Process .....................................................................................................28 III AN INDIGENOUS WORLDVIEW ............................................................................ 34 Social Movement Theory ...............................................................................................36 Feminist Theory Appropriation .....................................................................................37 Criticism of Critical Race Theory ..................................................................................42 Indigenous Theory .........................................................................................................43 Tenets of Indigenous Worldview ...................................................................................48 Reciprocity and Giving ..................................................................................................49 Sacred Civics ..................................................................................................................54 Memory and History ......................................................................................................57 Survival is Essential .......................................................................................................59 We Are All Related ........................................................................................................64 viii Chapter Page IV LAND IS IDENTITY .................................................................................................. 68 Indian Wars ....................................................................................................................71 V SPIRITUALITY AND COMMUNITY AS CENTRAL TO RESISTANCE ............. 79 Spirituality in AIM and Standing Rock .........................................................................82 The Trail of Broken Treaties ..........................................................................................95 Wounded Knee
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