Critically Sovereign traces the ways in which gender is inextricably a part of Indigenous politics and U.S. and Canadian imperialism and colonialism. The contributors show how gender, sexuality, and feminism work as co-productive forces of Native American and Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and epistemology. Several essays use a range of literary and legal texts to analyze the production of colonial space, the biopolitics of "Indianness," and the collisions and collusions between queer theory and colonialism within Indigenous studies. Others address the U.S. government's criminalization of traditional forms of Dine marriage and sexuality, the Inupiat people's changing conceptions of masculinity as they embrace the processes of globalization, Hawai'i's same-sex marriage bill, and stories of Indigenous women falling in love with non-human beings such as animals, plants, and stars. Following the politics of gender, sexuality, and feminism across these diverse historical and cultural contexts, the contributors question and reframe the thinking about Indigenous knowledge, nationhood, citizenship, history, identity, belonging, and the possibilities for a decolonial future. Contributors. Jodi A. Byrd, Joanne Barker, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Mishuana Goeman, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Melissa K. Nelson, Jessica Bissett Perea, Mark Rifkin
Joanne Barker is Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University, the author of Native Acts: Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity, also published by Duke University Press, and the editor of Sovereignty Matters: Locations of Contestation and Possibility in Indigenous Struggles for Self-Determination.
Introduction. Critically Sovereign / Joanne Barker 1 1. Indigenous Hawaiian Sexuality and the Politics of Nationalist Decolonization / J. Kehaulani Kauanui 45 2. Return to "The Uprising at Beautiful Mountain in 1913": Marriage and Sexuality in the Making of the Modern Navajo Nation / Jennifer Nez Denetdale 69 3. Ongoing Storms and Struggles: Gendered Violence and Resource Exploitation / Mishuana R. Goeman 99 4. Audiovisualizing Inupiaq Men and Masculinities On the Ice / Jessica Bissett Perrea 127 5. Around 1978: Family, Culture, and Race in the Federal Production of Indianness / Mark Rifkin 169 6. Loving Unbecoming: The Queer Politics of the Transitive Native / Jodi A. Byrd 207 7. Getting Dirty: The Eco-Eroticism of Women in Indigenous Oral Literatures / Melissa K. Nelson 229 Contributor Biographies 261 Index 263
"Critically Sovereign is not only a necessary reading for those studying Indigenous politics, it should also be considered a required reading for scholars and activists who study race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and colonialism." - Brionca Taylor (Gender & Society) "Through a collective of brilliant voices, the essays in this book grapple with the significance of gender, sexuality, and politics with searing wisdom. Critically Sovereign gives readers a reason to hope for a decolonized tomorrow." - Dianca Potts (Signature) "A powerful and urgently needed anthology. . . . Critically Sovereign is an essential text for anyone engaged in feminist and queer theory or projects of decolonization." - Stephanie Lumsden (American Indian Culture and Research Journal) "Critically Sovereign offers a strong addition to scholarship or graduate-level coursework engaged with global feminisms. . . . Critically Sovereign provides a timely entry point into the seismic stakes and shifts within Native American and Indigenous studies." - Kirisitina Sailiata (Feminist Review) "This collection rejects the elimination of the Indigenous through the erasure of gender and sexuality. For the queer, femme, and two-spirit people at the center of Indigenous movements for autonomy and freedom, this is a deeply important project. Critically Sovereign is an opening salvo in what I hope is a burgeoning intellectual and intersectional field." - Anne Spice (Women's Studies Quarterly) "For those of us seeking to grow our equity work in educational settings, reading essays like those in this collection allow us to privilege-check our own approaches. The denseness of the material aside, each piece acts as a motivator for equity work and as a reminder that this work cannot be done in a vacuum, and can never be complete without an understanding of intersectionality." - Tracey Germa (Education Forum)
