INTERROGATING INTIMACIES: ASIAN AMERICAN AND NATIVE RELATIONS IN COLONIAL ALASKA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY JULIANA PEGUES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JIGNA DESAI, CO-ADVISOR ERIKA LEE, CO-ADVISOR AUGUST 2013 Copyright © 2013 by Juliana Pegues ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Portions of an earlier version of Chapter 3 were published in “Rethinking Relations: Interracial Intimacies of Asian Men and Native Women in Alaskan Canneries,” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 15, no. 1 (March 2013): 55-66; copyright Taylor & Francis Group; reprinted with permission of Taylor & Francis Group. A slightly different version of Chapter 4 will be published in “’Picture Man’: Shoki Kayamori and the Photography of Colonial Encounter in Alaska, 1912-1941,” College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies. Thank you to the editors and special edition editors of these journals. Many people have guided and supported me throughout my dissertation process, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to recognize them. I am grateful to my committee, exemplary scholars who challenge me to deeply engage and critically think through my project. My advisors Erika Lee and Jigna Desai have been everything I could ask for and more, both phenomenal academics who motivate me to be a better scholar, teacher, parent, and community member. Erika is a formidable historian who has provided me with invaluable training, always asking the important “why?” of my research and project, especially my contributions to Asian American studies. Erika encourages me to “embrace my inner historian,” and I would like to state for the record that she inspires me time and time again to research and write important, compelling, and creative historical narratives. Jigna is a theoretical powerhouse who has unceasingly i engaged my project, challenging me at every step in this process to take seriously my work and its implications. While I may have appeared overwhelmed at certain moments, I have always benefited from her keen insights on race, gender, sexuality, and empire. Erika and Jigna have been with me from the start of my academic career. Sitting in on Erika’s Asian American history class was the catalyst for completing my undergraduate degree as a non-traditional age student, and both Erika and Jigna have provided instrumental guidance in two of my most life-changing decisions: to apply to graduate school and to embrace motherhood while still a budding scholar. Jean O’Brien also mentored me from my undergraduate years, always helping me to recognize the importance of indigeneity and sovereignty within my ongoing engagement with critical and comparative ethnic studies. More recently, Jeani’s scholarship has been instrumental in my own understanding of settler colonial time. David Chang has sharpened this project immensely, and I greatly value his knowledge on colonialism and racial formation, as well as his insistence that I can always write in clear language. I deeply appreciate Kale Fajardo’s insights, especially his intersectional outlook on Asian American postcolonialism and queer theory. Yuichiro Onishi has been a fabulous interlocutor, always providing me with a close and engaged reading, and staunchly supporting the radical potential of my project. I am honored to have worked with such a generous and thoughtful group of mentors. I’m also indebted to other professors at the University of Minnesota who supported my development as a scholar through their leadership in the early stages of my project. Thank you to Louis Mendoza, Josephine Lee, Richa Nagar, Karen Ho, Lisa ii Albrecht, and Eden Torres. I greatly benefited from the motivation and support of two writing groups. Writing with Hui Nui Wilcox and Jasmine Kar Tang kept me on my toes in all the right ways—especially our approach to a holistic and balanced writing practice. As a professor, Hui was especially generous in writing with two graduate students, not only with insightful feedback but also in sharing her own work. I also had the good fortune to write with Jasmine Kar Tang and Charlotte Karem Albrecht. I am honored to have read their brilliant scholarship, and their friendship and support made all the difference in my finishing this dissertation a sane person. I look forward to celebrating their ongoing accomplishments in academia and in society. As a graduate student I have worked with incredibly talented colleagues. My tenure in the graduate student of color organization Más(s) Color was one of the most impactful experiences at the University of Minnesota. I thank my Más(s) Color colleagues, especially Cathryn Merla-Watson and Tlahtoki Xochimeh, for demonstrating a fierce and unapologetic political integrity. Thank you also to my rogue Marxist cohort Elizabeth Ault, Ryan Lee Cartwright, and Doug Jensen who helped strengthen my social theory analysis and hone the focus of my project. My appreciation also to fellow grad students Karissa White, Elakshi Kumar, Tom Sarmiento, and Karla Padrón for coffee dates, working together on events and panels, and for the occasional venting session. Though it can be daunting to be at a large institution such as the University of Minnesota, I received multiple opportunities from many different centers and programs. The Asian American Studies program was an intellectual home that also honed my iii teaching skills. A special thank you to Saengmany Ratsabout for his administrative prowess and for his company in the office. The American Indian Studies Workshop was likewise an integral part of my intellectual growth and I wish to thank astute faculty and students who provided me with feedback throughout different stages of my project: Brenda Child, Angelica Lawson, Clint Carroll, Boyd Cothran, Demetri Debe, Kelly Condit-Shrestha, Kate Williams, Jameson Sweet, Kasey Keeler, and Katie Phillips. It saddens me that I only met Jessica Arnett in my last year at the University of Minnesota but I’m excited for her work on colonial Alaska and Indigenous resistances. I was lucky to be a residential fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at a critical time in the formation of my project, in the crucial shift from research to writing. Hats off to Ann Waltner, Karen Kinoshita, and Susannah L. Smith for fostering a wonderfully vibrant intellectual community. Special thanks to Kelly Quinn for her enthusiastic support for my project, and to Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley and Cindy Garcia. Omi and Cindy, I deeply appreciate our efforts during our IAS tenure to write together as new mothers. I have benefited from the Community of Scholars Program in the Office of Diversity in Graduate Education throughout my graduate career, starting with my participation in the COSP Summer Institute prior to starting graduate coursework. I have the much admiration for Director Noro Andriamanalina, in her steadfast commitment to the success of under-represented graduate students. I wish to acknowledge the considerable funding that I received as a graduate student. The Diversity of Views and Experience (DOVE) fellowship through the Office for Diversity in Graduate Education allowed me to focus on coursework in the early iv stages of graduate school. The MacArthur Fellowship provide by the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change and the Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship not only provided time for research and writing but facilitated wonderfully productive conversations with faculty and student cohorts. Research travel was made possible through the Graduate Fellowship Office’s Thesis Research Grant, the American Indian Studies Workshop Dissertation Research Award, and a Predissertation Research Award provided by Erika Lee and the Department of History. Additional research, conference, and travel funding was provided by the Department of American Studies, the Asian American Studies Program, the Community of Scholars Program, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, and a Graduate Research Partnership Program in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies Award. Receiving a Consortium for Faculty Development Pre and Post Doctoral Fellowship at Macalester College provided the time and resources for me to complete my dissertation. I’ve had an amazing experience teaching students at Macalester and I’m in the company of the superlative American Studies faculty and staff. I’m looking forward to another year with Jane Rhodes, Duchess Harris, Karin Aguilar-San Juan, SooJin Pate, and Kathryn Scott. I also wish to acknowledge the many scholars who engaged my work at conferences, in conversations, and through correspondence. That this list is long reflects the generosity of spirit from these scholars. Thank you to Moon-Ho Jung, Dean Saranillio, Manu Vimalassery, Janey Lew, Iyko Day, Dylan Rodriguez, Anjali Arondekar, Vicente Diaz, Anna Tsing, Rachel Buff, May Fu, Peter Rachleff, Paul Lai, v Johanna Ogden, Chris Dixon, Mark Rifkin, Jack Halberstam, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, and Henry Yu. A shout out to my two favorite academic organizations, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and the Association for Asian American Studies with particular thanks to my fellow panelists at a working papers session at AAAS: David Palumbo Liu, Hsiu-chuan Lee, Shireen Roshanravan, and Jen-feng Kuo. My research would not have been possible without the generous assistance of several institutions and individuals. The archival support I received at the Alaska State Library has been outstanding; hearty thanks to James Simard, Anastasia Tarmann, Sandra Johnston, and the rest of the staff at the ASL. The Shoki Kayamori photographs in Chapter 4 appear courtesy of the Alaska State Library. The Sealaska Heritage Institute has been similarly instrumental, especially Zachary Jones, Rico Worl, Christy NaMee Eriksen, and Rosita Worl. The generosity and warmth I received from Yakutat residents made researching Shoki Kayamori an absolute pleasure. Thank you to Don Bremner, George Ramos, Lorraine Adams, Bert Adams, Sr., Raymond Sensmeier, Caroline Powell, Fran Latham, Byron Mallott, and Tina Ryman for their time and knowledge.