Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature ed. by Qwo-Li Driskill, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, and Lisa Tatonetti (review)

Heteropatriarchy, imposing a totalizing measure of modern sexuality, is the baseline for settler-colonial society. Therefore, powerful stories of indigenous sovereignty, Two-Spirit conceptions of gender, sexuality, and community have consistently been targeted throughout the expansion of settler-colonialism. Nevertheless, Two-Spirit artists and activists persist in contemporary Native America: they continue to practice and represent tribal-specific gender constructions and social systems. A recent surge in both artistic production by queer Native people and critical scholarship dedicated to Two-Spirit issues was the impetus for the editors to assemble Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. Defined by the editors as an “assertion of the decolonial potential of Native two-spirit/queer people healing from heteropatriarchal gender regimes,” a theory of Sovereign Erotics recognizes the myriad ways that colonial power has tethered settler colonialism to non-Native modern sexualities—and that a queer Native/Two-Spirit critique can offer crucial insight and support for decolonization projects (3).

Sovereign Erotics is a valuable tool for scholars and educators interested in exploring the tribal-specific concerns of queer Native writers as well as the intersections between Native American and Euroamerican literatures. Exploring the crossroads of imperialism and sexuality, Maurice Kenny reveals how a copy of Tarzan, a literary relic of colonial exoticism given to him as a present during his childhood, once gave contours to his then nascent personal expression of sexual desire: “I have it still, / re-read it a year ago, / remembered / how important / it was to my dreams” (77). Guided by the belief that the erotic structures the social in crucial ways, this collection juxtaposes private scenes of intimacy (“Clementines” by Deborah Miranda) with narratives set in public spaces such as a school playground (“Kid” by Carrie House) and a Halloween party at a New Orleans bar (“Ghost Dance” by Chip Livingston).

The four sections—“Dream/Ancestors,” “Love/Medicine,” “Long/Walks,” and “Wild/Flowers”—organize Sovereign Erotics thematically. The first section serves as a bridge between older generations and young Two-Spirit writers. Originally written in 1981, Paula Gunn Allen’s “Some Like Indians Endure” sets the framework for the collection’s intergenerational dialogue. She searches outside of heteronormative temporalities for anticolonial histories as well as commonalities with non-Native communities. Her prospective opening statement—“I have it in my mind that / dykes are indians”—materializes into a conceptual foundation later in the poem: “Because the only home / is each other / they’ve occupied all / the rest / colonized it: an / idea about ourselves is all / we own” (21). This poem is echoed by the following piece in the collection, Kim Shuck’s “Warrior.” Shuck’s final lines emphasize the collaborative process necessary for this recovery work: “How about this: / Help me pull the bullets from the trees. / Learn my language / I’ll learn your history” (26). The third section’s centerpiece, “Ander’s Awakening,” is Daniel Heath Justice’s prequel to his separately published trilogy The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles (2011). This prequel allows us to better value how Justice conceptualizes decolonization by creating a fantasy setting that is radically informed by Two-Spirit legacies. Justice’s piece represents one of the fundamental objectives of Sovereign Erotics: to serve as a critical horizon for young readers trying to imagine better lives in the here and now.