Carceral settlerscapes: Antonina Griecci Woodsum, ‘Settler carcerality in Southern California’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2026 | settler colonial studies blog

Carceral settlerscapes: Antonina Griecci Woodsum, ‘Settler carcerality in Southern California’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2026

09Aug26

Abstract: ‘Settler carcerality in Southern California’ examines how, during the first half of the twentieth century, US federal officers, local police, and county sheriffs patrolled the territory of what is now known as Southern California – the traditional homelands of the Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, Luiseño, Serrano, and Cupeño peoples – surveilling and arresting California Native people and white and Mexican residents who interacted with them, often under the pretense of regulating the liquor trade. The intensifying imposition of US laws on Indigenous sovereign nations introduced new power relations between Indian subjects, state officials, and non-Indians who engaged with these communities. This article explores how these policed relations interfered in tribal governance, supplemented surveillance during the national Prohibition era, and disciplined Native participation in New Deal work programs. Theorizing ‘settler carcerality’ reveals that US-state targeting of a seemingly small minority population carried resonant effects beyond the reservation territories of Southern California Native communities. Indexing the assaults of settler carcerality also exposes its failures and the endurance of social relations and political practices that exceeded its punishing rule.

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