With a chapter on ‘White Women’s Participation in the Attempted Genocide of Native American People’ (by Karla J. Strand), and ‘Whiteness and Indigeneity: Feminism as a settler colonial discourse’ (by Ruth Alminas and Cory Pillen): Leigh-Anne Francis, Janet Gray (eds), Feminists Talk Whiteness, Routledge, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

With a chapter on ‘White Women’s Participation in the Attempted Genocide of Native American People’ (by Karla J. Strand), and ‘Whiteness and Indigeneity: Feminism as a settler colonial discourse’ (by Ruth Alminas and Cory Pillen): Leigh-Anne Francis, Janet Gray (eds), Feminists Talk Whiteness, Routledge, 2024

06Sep24

Excerpts: While investigations of the effects of colonization on Indigenous peoples at first contact in what is now known as the United States are numerous, most are focused on European white men as primary actors. With only a few exceptions, scholars have mostly ignored the unique roles of European white women. Most existing investigations exhibit anti‑Indigenous assumptions, adhere to the global north’s oppressive norms of research, or are passively voiced and apologist in tone, excusing white women from accountability as they center white people’s accounts instead of Native perspectives. None of them address the complicity of white women in what I and others argue was the attempted genocide of Native Americans.

This chapter starts from the position that feminists hoping to mount a meaningful challenge to white supremacy and heteropatriarchy must acknowledge the role feminism plays in legitimating the ongoing project of settler colonialism. Settler colonialism refers to the persistent structures of domination through which a group of invasive colonizers come to stay, claiming Indigenous lands as their own by displacing, eradicating, or subjugating Indigenous populations and asserting supreme and exclusive authority over the territory. It is important to note that settler colonialism is not a singular event that took place in the distant past, but rather a process that is continually perpetuated through the narratives and the political and legal institutions imposed by the colonizers. The goal of this chapter is to frame and generate meaningful dialogue about the complicity of feminism in upholding settler colonialism, and the possibilities for a just path forward.

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