We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition (Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies) - Softcover

Hernandez, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816545626 ISBN 13: 9780816545629

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2023

Synopsis

After centuries of colonization, this important new work recovers the literary record of Oceti Sakowin (historically known to some as the Sioux Nation) women, who served as their tribes’ traditional culture keepers and culture bearers. In so doing, it furthers discussions about settler colonialism, literature, nationalism, and gender.

Women and land form the core themes of the book, which brings tribal and settler colonial narratives into comparative analysis. Divided into two parts, the first section of the work explores how settler colonizers used the printing press and boarding schools to displace Oceti Sakowin women as traditional culture keepers and culture bearers with the goal of internally and externally colonizing the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota nations. The second section focuses on decolonization and explores how contemporary Oceti Sakowin writers and scholars have started to reclaim Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota literatures to decolonize and heal their families, communities, and nations.

About this title

About the Author

Sarah Hernandez (Sicangu Lakota) is an assistant professor of Native American literature and the director of the Institute for American Indian Research at the University of New Mexico. She is a member of the Oak Lake Writers’ Society, an Oceti Sakowin–led nonprofit for Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota writers.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816545626
• ISBN 13: 9780816545629
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232