The first twos essay in the December issue center on the year 1811 to explore contested meaning-makings about land, time, colonialism, race, freedom, and self-determination. The following three essays analyze literature, performance, and photographs to examine the role of poetic, aesthetic, and affective modes of racialization and anticolonial resistance. The issue’s final two essays approach contemporary colonialism in the Pacific through analyses of the contestations of commemorative practices and nuclear colonialism. We are delighted to feature a forum of essays in tribute to the legendary Chicana advocate and journalist Elizabeth "Betita" Martínez, who passed away on June 29, 2021. Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi reviews three works interrogating the anti-Indigenous structures of militarism, settler colonialism, and liberal empire; while Nishant Upadhyay discusses four recent books tracing the colonial history of anti-trans violence and points to the futures signaled by trans of color framework. Two event reviews discuss Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970 and Coded: The Hidden Love of J. C. Leyendecker, a documentary film on t work of one of the most prolific illustrators of the "golden age" of American illustration.
From Buffalo Dance to Tatanka Kcizapi Wakpala, 1894–2020: Indigenous Human and More-Than-Human Choreographies of Sovereignty and Survival
By Tria Blu Wakpa
My essay, “From Buffalo Dance to Tatanka Kcizapi Wakpala, 1894–2020: Indigenous Human and More-Than-Human Choreographies of Sovereignty and Survival,” presents the first extensive study of Buffalo Dance (1894), one of the earliest films to depict Native Americans, and in particular, Lakota men. I draw on community-engaged research to illuminate Buffalo Dance as a brilliant expression of Lakota sovereignty and survival within and beyond US settler colonial confines. Extending research by Indigenous studies scholars, I define sovereignty as Native expressions of agency and authority—rooted in Indigenous worldviews, languages, narratives, experiences, and practices—that relate to human and/or more-than-human collectives and promote Native wellbeing and futurities.
The essay concludes by considering the contemporary implications of the Buffalo Dance choreographies as they relate to Tatanka Kcizapi Wakpala (Buffalo Fighting Creek), an offering made in 2020. Created by George Blue Bird (Oglala Lakota), who is a direct descendant of a performer in Buffalo Dance, Tatanka Kcizapi Wakpala is another Lakota performance of sovereignty and survival. While settler colonial confines, including incarceration, continue to harm Native people, communities, and nations, these choreographies affirm Native presence and futurities.
Untitled drawing of scenes from powwows in prison by Alexander Rock Rosado (Oglala Lakota) (2021).
I am not the only academic or educator to recognize Blue Bird as a remarkable knowledge keeper, innovator, and human being. In his own words, Blue Bird is a “father, grandfather, self-taught artist, traditional dancer, ceremony man, activist, singer, songmaker, writer, and pow wow announcer” (Blu Wakpa and Blue Bird 4). He is currently imprisoned at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, where he has served thirty-nine years of a life sentence without the possibility of parole. South Dakota is one of the most punitive states in the U.S., and the proportion of Native women who are imprisoned “exceeds that of men.”
In recent years, at least three Native/Lakota young women who were pregnant or had recently given birth have perished in police custody. On July 6, 2015, Sarah Lee Circle Bear was pregnant when she died in police custody; on April 28, 2020, Andrea “Andi” Circle Bear (Cheyenne River Sioux) became the first female in federal custody to die due to COVID-19. “A loving mother of six,” Andrea Circle Bear was five months pregnant at the time of her sentencing and gave birth while unconscious and on a ventilator via an emergency, caesarian section. Native women advocates have discussed Andrea Circle Bear’s death as a “very preventable and unjust killing of our sister.” On December 2, 2022, Abbey Lynn Steele was found unconscious at the Pennington County Jail. She had given birth via an emergency surgery only five days prior to her arrest. Following her death, the Native community organized a vigil outside the Pennington County Jail along with a statement calling for institutional accountability.
Untitled drawing of scenes of Native American motherhood by Alexander Rock Rosado (Oglala Lakota) (2022).
Aware of the many ways that settler colonial structures disproportionately harm Indigenous women, I am also inspired by the insights and artistry of Blue Bird and other Native people. They have shaped my community-engaged research in powerful ways, and I hope our work contributes to structural changes. I am motivated by Linda Tuhiwai Smith who writes “part of an ethical and respectful approach” to research depends on reporting back “to the people in culturally appropriate ways and in a language that can be understood” (Smith 16). Working to ensure reciprocal relationships through meaningful action, I have organized exhibitions of artwork and words by people who are incarcerated and featured paintings by Blue Bird. American Quarterly’s editorial board selected another painting by Blue Bird for the issue’s cover, and monetarily reimbursed him for his artwork.
Blue Bird also facilitated reporting back by designating me as a speaker in the powwow program in December 2022 at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. I discussed Tatanka Kcazpi Wakpala, the creek that he dug in the prison yard, and shared about his insights and my essay with Native men who are imprisoned and their relatives who gathered. Like the 1894 Buffalo Dance performance, Tatanka Kcazpi Wakpala can be understood as a powerful declaration of Lakota/Native sovereignty that adamantly refuses to be extinguished. Calling attention to these events as well as community statements that challenge settler colonial policies and practices—which have repeatedly led to the untimely death of Native women—demonstrates the necessity of structural change to promote Native wellbeing.