This Land Is Not Your Land Land Loss on Turtle Island and Indigenous Resistance

Background

The main dataset used is the Invasion of America map. This map documents Indigenous land loss from 1776-1886, linking treaties to approximately 730 areas of land loss totaling 1.5 billion acres of land. This loss is associated with violence, displacement, and the construction of legal worlds to justify treaties that were often broken, changed without consent, and un-honored by the United States government. There is no dataset that can capture or quantify the personal and collective trauma of loss and this is why my project is also inspired by oral histories, stories from my relatives here on Turtle Island, and my own knowledge of my peoples' displacement from their homelands in Abiayala.

Process

Inspired by my mother and the significantly cultural nature of making within many Indigenous communities, I decided to center my data visualization around wood work, embroidery, and beading. The making practices of my Nahua culture often tell stories through creative work, and this is done most frequently through textile work which is what I aimed to do with my project. Instead of embroidering fabric, I wanted to embroider wood to demonstrate the resistance of Native people and to reinforce a connection to the land. Daniel Cobb's Say We Are Nations : Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America Since 1887 demonstrates the continued tradition of resistance that Native people have. Before 1887, this was in armed resistance against a colonial state since the first contact with colonizers, kinship and the preservation of culture even when subject to violent displacement, and the passage of stories from generation to generation.

I used an awl to puncture holes into the wood to begin my project. Because the making of this project was largely inspired by my culture, I wanted to incorporate an important element of making from Turtle Island. Specifically, the use of an awl. What this Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village by Janet Spector has a fictional story inspired by an awl found at an archeological site. Spector, rather than seeing the awl as just an "artifact," situated the awl in its cultural history, its present significance, and in the context of Dakota life. My use of the awl is a similar attempt to situate my project in the living making culture of Indigenous communities that has survived colonialism and that continues to survive settler colonialism.

The Meaning of the Embroidery

The embroidery design starts with treaties. The square perimeter is meant to represent the logic behind the United States' government push for land dispossession and forced displacement of Native people on Turtle Island. This was often done with "honor," under the rhetoric of legal and just treaties. However, the reality was that treaty making was often done because Native communities had no other choice, were coerced, or were misunderstood by the legal frameworks of the United States that paid no respect to the peace traditions among Indigenous communities. Approximately 730 pieces of thread represent these treaties. They are unbound, to represent the many broken and un-honored treaties. They cover the larger circle of embroidery which is made up of spikes meant to demonstrate their true nature, not as "legal" and "just" agreements but as colonial tools for displacement and subsequent land theft. The red threads within the spikes are meant to represent the violence, the millions of lives lost, and the genocidal policies of the United States government that is associated with the loss of land and forced displacement.

The inner circle is beadwork representing the current 326 reservations on Turtle Island. The beads are bound together by embroidery thread, attached to green cloth to represent land, and this cloth is embroidered through the wood. The bead colors are significant as they represent colors of the Earth. There are different shapes, sizes, and design clusters to represent the diversity of Indigenous communities. There are strings of beads reaching out towards the spikes and the treaties. This is meant to show the resistance of Indigenous communities against settler-colonialism and the fight for land as it continues today, and that has never stopped. It also represents a connection to history that is our present and that has never been forgotten.

Empty Space

The spaces left empty on the wood are the stories that we don't know. It is also the land loss, resistance, and interactions between indigenous peoples and settlers before 1776. Many of our historical references have been written by white men who describe indigenous peoples in dehumanizing ways and that document violence against them. However, this is countered by the strong oral tradition within many Indigenous communities. It also meant to represent the many Indigenous communities today who are not "recognized" by state governments or the federal government, and who continue to face restrictions and obstacles due to the legal frameworks created by the United States to control the land and to attempt to control Native communities.

Sources/Works Referenced

Saunt, C., & Bernardes, S. (n.d.). How the United States Took Over an Eighth of the World. Invasion of America. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://usg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=eb6ca76e008543a89349ff2517db47e6

Cobb, D. M. (2015). Say We Are Nations : Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America Since 1887. University of North Carolina Press. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/lib/unc/detail.action?docID=4322248&pq-origsite=summon#

Wilson, A. C. (1996). Grandmother to Granddaughter: Generations of Oral History in a Dakota Family, 7-13. American Indian Quarterly. https://doi-org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.2307/1184937

Spector, J.D. (1993). What This Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village. (1 ed.). St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Title Image Credits: Rena Schild/Shutterstock

By: Bri Alonso-Vazquez for INLS 690, Information Professionals in the Makerspace