Synopses & Reviews
This important collection of essays expands the geographic, demographic, and analytic scope of the term genocide to encompass the effects of colonialism and settler colonialism in North America. Colonists made multiple and interconnected attempts to destroy Indigenous peoples as groups. The contributors examine these efforts through the lens of genocide. Considering some of the most destructive aspects of the colonization and subsequent settlement of North America, several essays address Indigenous boarding school systems imposed by both the Canadian and U.S. governments in attempts to andquot;civilizeandquot; or andquot;assimilateandquot; Indigenous children. Contributors examine some of the most egregious assaults on Indigenous peoples and the natural environment, including massacres, land appropriation, the spread of disease, the near-extinction of the buffalo, and forced political restructuring of Indigenous communities. Assessing the record of these appalling events, the contributors maintain that North Americans must reckon with colonial and settler colonial attempts to annihilate Indigenous peoples.
Contributors. Jeff Benvenuto, Robbie Ethridge, Theodore Fontaine, Joseph P. Gone, Alexander Laban Hinton, Tasha Hubbard, Margaret D. Jabobs, Kiera L. Ladner, Tricia E. Logan, David B. MacDonald, Benjamin Madley, Jeremy Patzer, Julia Peristerakis, Christopher Powell, Colin Samson, Gray H. Whaley, Andrew Woolford
Review
andquot;Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America is one of the best anthologies I have read in the field of American Indian and Indigenous studies. Within North American history, few have seriously tackled the central question of this anthology: to what extent were Indigenous-settler relations genocidal? The failure of U.S. and Canadian scholars to address this question in a deep and sustained way makes this insightful collection particularly timely and important.andquot;
Review
andquot;The field of genocide studies is finally waking up to the colonial dimensions of genocide, both in terms of Lemkinand#39;s own ground-breaking work and now more broadly in the work of numerous contemporary scholars. This excellent collection deals head on with the often neglected, or intentionally ignored, cases of colonial genocides in North America, and for that reason alone it will make a significant contribution to the field of genocide studies. Moreover, the quality of individual contributions will ensure this key text sets the standard for many years to come.andquot;
Review
andldquo;This is a welcome addition to the ongoing discussions in the increasingly sophisticated literature that explores the applicability, extent, and lasting significance of genocide in North Americaandhellip;. and#160;The editors deserve praise for the comparative dimensions of the volume, which look across time and space in North America and rightly anchor their project in the emerging field of critical genocide studiesandhellip;. Highly recommended.andrdquo;
About the Author
Andrew Woolford is Professor of Sociology and Criminology and Social Justice Research Coordinator at the University of Manitoba.
Jeff Benvenuto is a Ph.D. student in the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University, Newark.
Alexander Laban Hinton is the Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs, and the UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University, Newark.
Theodore Fontaine is the author of Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools: A Memoir.
Table of Contents
Foreword / Theodore Fontaine vii
Introduction. Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America / Jeff Benvenuto, Andrew Woolford, and Alexander Laban Hinton 1
Part I. Intersections and Trajectories
1. Discipline, Territory, and the Colonial Mesh: Indigenous Boarding Schools in the United States and Canada / Andrew Woolford 29
2. Global Capital, Violence, and the Making of a Colonial Shatter Zone / Robbie Ethridge 49
3. Genocide in Canada: A Relational View / Christopher Powell and Julia Peristerakis 70
Part II. Erasure and Legibility
4. California and Oregonand#39;s Modoc Indians: How Indigenous Resistance Camouflages Genocide in Colonial Histories / Benjamin Madley 95
6. Memory, Erasure, and National Myth / Tricia E. Logan 149
7. Residential School Harm and Colonial Dispossession: Whatand#39;s the Connection? / Jeremy Patzer 166
Part III. Transformations
8. The Habit of Elimination: Indigenous Child Removal in Settler Colonial Nations in the Twentieth Century / Margaret D. Jacobs 189
9. Revisiting Choctaw Ethnocide and Ethnogenesis: The Creative Destruction of Colonial Genocide / Jeff Benvenuto 208
10. Political Genocide: Killing Nations through Legislation and Slow-Moving Poison / Kiera L. Ladner 226
11. Dispossession and Canadian Land Claims: Genocidal Implications of the Innu Nation Land Claim / Colin Samson 246
Part IV. (Re)Imaginings
12. Colonial Genocide and Historical Trauma in Native North America: Complicating Contemporary Attributions / Joseph P. Gone 273
13. Buffalo Genocide in Nineteenth-Century North America: andquot;Kill, Skin, and Sellandquot; / Tasha Hubbard 292
14. Genocide in the Indian Residential Schools: Canadian History through the Lens of the UN Genocide Convention / David B. MacDonald 306
Afterword. Colonial Genocide and Indigenous North America: A View from Critical Genocide Studies / Alexander Laban Hinton 325
Contributors 333
Index 339