University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 2020 Drawing Identities: An Ethnography of Indigenous Comic Book Creators Melissa Ann Kocelko University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Indigenous Studies Commons, and the Other Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Kocelko, Melissa Ann, "Drawing Identities: An Ethnography of Indigenous Comic Book Creators" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1778. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1778 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Drawing Identities: An Ethnography of Indigenous Comic Book Creators ______________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences University of Denver ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ____________ by Melissa Kocelko August 2020 Advisor: Esteban Gómez ©Copyright by Melissa Kocelko 2020 All Rights Reserved Author: Melissa Kocelko Title: Drawing Identities: An Ethnography of Indigenous Comic Book Creators Advisor: Esteban Gómez Degree Date: August 2020 Abstract This research examines the experiences of Indigenous comic creators when making comic books, and I aim to investigate the individual and communal motivations for creating comics. Representations of Indigenous characters and storylines have primarily been told through a white lens in mainstream comics. Within the past five years, this trend has shifted with increased academic and public attention on Indigenous comic books and the rise of comic conventions like Indigenous Pop X. I argue that these comics are acts of decolonization and self-determination where creators use comics as educational tools and as a form of cultural preservation by documenting Indigenous histories, languages, and perspectives. The data was captured through participant observation at Indigenous Pop X and semi-structured interviews with six self-identified Indigenous comic book creators. These experiences were categorized with thematic and narrative analysis, and analyzed through the frameworks of postmodernism, decolonizing theories, and Tribal Critical Race theory. ii Acknowledgements Thank you first and foremost to all of my participants for their time, insight, and patience during this process. I would like to acknowledge and thank all of the professors that guided me during the creation of this thesis. This could not have been done without help from Dr. Alejandro Cerón, Dr. Bonnie Clark, Dr. Dean Saitta, Dr. Kelly Fayard, and my advisor Dr. Esteban Gómez. Thank you to my cohort for your humor, camaraderie, and overall support: Laura Hughes, Lucor Jordon, Madison Dillard, Manuel Ferreira, Nicholas Dungey, Sarah Beales, Talaya Banks, and especially Madeline Rahme for you answering any and all of my questions regarding IRB, writing, and more. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my family; in particular, it is for Pa and Sandy. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: Background ............................................................................................... 10 Overview ................................................................................................................. 10 Settler-Colonialism ................................................................................................. 10 Pop Culture ............................................................................................................. 14 History of Comics ................................................................................................... 17 Comics Terminology........................................................................................... 19 Indigenous Comics .............................................................................................. 21 Scholarly Study of Indigenous Comics........................................................... 24 Storytelling.............................................................................................................. 26 Indigenous Storytelling ........................................................................................... 28 Chapter Three: Theory ..................................................................................................... 31 Postmodernism........................................................................................................ 31 Decolonizing Theories ............................................................................................ 34 Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) ................................................................ 40 Chapter Four: Research Design ....................................................................................... 45 Research Scope ....................................................................................................... 45 Research Methods ................................................................................................... 47 Participant Observation ....................................................................................... 49 Semi-Structured Interviews................................................................................. 50 Chapter Five: Life Histories............................................................................................. 52 Overview ................................................................................................................. 52 Dale Ray Deforest ................................................................................................... 54 Keith Jim ................................................................................................................. 71 Weshoyot Alvitre .................................................................................................... 79 Elizabeth LaPensée ............................................................................................... 101 Jay Odjick ............................................................................................................. 110 Jim Terry ............................................................................................................... 141 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 161 Chapter Six: Analysis .................................................................................................... 163 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 163 Story Creation ....................................................................................................... 163 Storytelling............................................................................................................ 169 Story Production ................................................................................................... 172 Themes .................................................................................................................. 174 iv Access ............................................................................................................... 175 Artistic Freedom ............................................................................................... 182 Collaboration ..................................................................................................... 186 Education .......................................................................................................... 189 Multimodality.................................................................................................... 192 Representation ................................................................................................... 193 Stories Evolve as We Evolve ............................................................................ 196 Chapter Seven: Conclusion ............................................................................................ 200 References ....................................................................................................................... 206 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 228 Appendix A: Semi-Structured Interview Questions ............................................. 228 v List of Figures Figure 1.1: Page 41 from Will Eisner’s Comics & Sequential Art ................................... 20 Figure 1.2: Page 66 from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art .... 21 Figure 5.1: