The settler colonial census: Sarah Dees, ‘Religion on the Brink: Settler-Colonial Knowledge Production in the US Census’, in Tisa Wenger, Sylvester A. Johnson (eds), Religion and US Empire: Critical New Histories, New York University Press, 2022, pp. 85-102 | settler colonial studies blog

The settler colonial census: Sarah Dees, ‘Religion on the Brink: Settler-Colonial Knowledge Production in the US Census’, in Tisa Wenger, Sylvester A. Johnson (eds), Religion and US Empire: Critical New Histories, New York University Press, 2022, pp. 85-102

26Jul22

Excerpt: Settler colonialism entails an outside community’s seizure of lands and resources from the original inhabitants of a territory.1 But more than this, these outsiders, or settlers, seek to supplant and erase the lands’ original inhabitants.2 These twin processes of settler colonialism—physical and ideological erasure— have been ongoing in the United States.3 Over the course of the nineteenth century, the borders of the United States continued to expand from the original colonies into Native territories further west.4 From the 1803 Louisiana Purchase to expansions in the Northwest and Southwest via war and negotiation in the mid- nineteenth century, the United States executed land deals with Mexico and European imperial powers. In addition, the US federal gov-ernment negotiated numerous agreements and treaties with Indigenous nations to gain access to Native lands.

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