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In Defense of Our Relatives
[journal article]
Abstract Groups often act against threats to their kin, but what if one group denies the very existence of another’s relatives? Among the people of Oceti Sakowin, what it means to care for 'relatives' starkly contrasts conventional non-Native ways of reckoning with water, land, and other beings. If, accordin... view more
Groups often act against threats to their kin, but what if one group denies the very existence of another’s relatives? Among the people of Oceti Sakowin, what it means to care for 'relatives' starkly contrasts conventional non-Native ways of reckoning with water, land, and other beings. If, according to an indigenous view, sacred places are relatives, then words like 'emergency' or 'crisis' are apt to describe Indigenous people's feelings about clashes such as what recently occurred around Standing Rock, North Dakota. There, the matter of what counts as kin was a central ingredient to collective protests that, even if labeled as a one-off defeat, may empower those who have been historically disempowered. Led by a well-coordinated and social media-savvy Indigenous youth movement, the struggle to protect a relative - a river, in this case - may indicate a renewed sense of efficacy among Indigenous peoples, perhaps especially among those who had not previously identified as activists.... view less
Keywords
American Indian; indigenous peoples; ethnic group; youth movement; protest movement; sovereignty; racism; United States of America
Classification
Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnosociology
Free Keywords
Dakota Indians, Lakota Indians; Protest camps; Sacred space; Social media; Standing Rock Indian Reservation (N.D. and S.D.)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 142-160
Journal
Studies in Arts and Humanities, 3 (2017) 2
ISSN
2009-8278
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0