Violence and Indigenous Communities: Confronting the Past and Engaging the Present

In contrast to past studies that focus narrowly on war and massacre, treat Native peoples as victims, and consign violence safely to the past, this interdisciplinary collection of essays opens up important new perspectives. While recognizing the long history of genocidal violence against Indigenous peoples, the contributors emphasize the agency of individuals and communities in genocide’s aftermath and provide historical and contemporary examples of activism, resistance, identity formation, historical memory, resilience, and healing. The collection also expands the scope of violence by examining the eyewitness testimony of women and children who survived violence, the role of Indigenous self-determination and governance in inciting violence against women, and settler colonialism’s promotion of cultural erasure and environmental destruction.

By including contributions on Indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada, the Pacific, Greenland, Sápmi, and Latin America, the volume breaks down nation-state and European imperial boundaries to show the value of global Indigenous frameworks. Connecting the past to the present, this book confronts violence as an ongoing problem and identifies projects that mitigate and push back against it.

SUSAN SLEEPER-SMITH is a professor of history at Michigan State University and the author of six books, including Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690–1792 and Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes.

JEFFREY OSTLER is the Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History at the University of Oregon and the author of four books, including The Lakotas and The Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground and Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas.

JOSHUA L. REID (Snohomish) is an associate professor of American Indian studies and the John Calhoun Smith Memorial Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington. He is the author of The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs.