Native Feminisms Engage American Studies

Building on previous work that problematizes U.S. settler colonialism and the development of a U.S. empire, this forum aims to make a critical intervention in the field of American studies by centering the analytical categories of both gender and indigeneity. This forum originated partly as a series of roundtables presented at the ASA in 2006 and will be further developed in an upcoming edited volume, Native Feminisms without Apology, published by the University of Minnesota Press. Native feminisms go beyond simply addressing women's status or calling for the inclusion of indigenous women's voices. Rather, Native feminisms transform how we understand the project of sovereignty and nation-building in the first place. They challenge how we conceptualize the relationship between indigenous nations and nation-states, how we organize for sovereignty, and how we tie sovereignty to a global struggle for liberation. The writings in this collection suggest that not only is colonialism a gendered process, but so is decolonization. The imposition of patriarchy within Native communities is essential to establishing colonial rule, because patriarchy naturalizes social hierarchy. Thus, when Native activists lack a strong analysis of heteropatriarchy, they are less equipped to interrogate some of the colonial paradigms that might be implicit within purportedly pro-sovereignty political projects.

Although few Native women have written on the topic of feminism, most argue that feminist politics are in conflict with the politics of sovereignty and self-determination. These writings have all made valid critiques of mainstream (usually white and middle-class) feminist politics. However, this forum calls into question several assumptions often made by those arguing that Native women cannot be feminist. One of the most cited writings on Native American women and feminism is Annette Jaimes Guerrero's "American Indian Women: At the Center of Indigenous Resistance in North America," in The State of Native America. In this early piece, she argued that Native women activists, except those who are "assimilated," do not consider themselves feminists—and that according to Native women, feminism is an imperial project that assumes a U.S. colonial stranglehold on indigenous nations. Thus, to support sovereignty, the logic goes, Native women activists reject feminist politics. Although Guerrero has since revised her opinion on the question of feminism, her earliest work is still often taken as representative of Native women as a whole because relatively little has been published by Native women on feminist theory.¹ Indeed, the scholarly and activist public tends to oversimplify Native women activists' theories about feminism, the struggle against sexism both within Native communities and the society at large, and the importance of working in coalition with non-Native women. These theories are not monolithic and cannot simply be reduced to the dichotomy of feminist versus nonfeminist. In addition, the very simplified manner in which Native women's activism is theorized has made it difficult to articulate political and scholarly projects that simultaneously address sexism and promote indigenous sovereignty.

Counter to any neo-Native logic that assumes feminism is an imperial imposition, our collective project here tackles patriarchal male dominance as a source of colonial oppression. This forum thus speaks to the interventions Native feminist theory makes in American studies, Native studies, ethnic studies, and gender studies. At a time when tribal nations have begun to pass bans on same-sex marriage in the name of "Indian tradition," we find it important to interrogate the process by which the politics of sovereignty are being built on the backs of women and those who are not gender- or heteronormative. Similarly, at a time when antiwar activists rally under the slogan "peace is patriotic," we also find it important to interrogate the unquestioned allegiances that even many radical activists have to a settler colonial state that is built on the logics of heteropatriarchy.

Herein, Renya Ramirez argues that both indigenous women and men should develop a Native feminist consciousness based on the assumption that struggles for social autonomy will no longer include the denial of Native women's gendered concerns and rights. She documents how Native scholars have privileged race and tribal nation over gender. Focusing...