Table Of ContentSovereign Acts
EditEd by
FrancEs nEgrón-MuntanEr
Sovereign Acts
contesting colonialism across indigenous
nations and Latinx america
THE UNIVERSITY OF
ARIZONA PRESS
TUCSON
The University of Arizona Press
www.uapress.arizona.edu
© 2017 by The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved. Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-3212-4 (paper)
Cover design by Lisa Force
Cover photo: Border Door, 1988. Site Specific Installation/Intervention Performance. Golden wooden
door, nails, keys, door knob, blue wooden frame and hinges. Free-standing workable door installed on
the Mexico/USA border ¼ mile east of the Rodriguez International Airport. The performance extended
to the neighborhood where the artist grew up in Tijuana, where he gave out over 250 keys, inviting the
residents of La Colonia Roma and Altamira to use his Border Door. Artist: Richard A. Lou. Photo by
James Elliott, 1988.
Publication of this book is made possible in part by the proceeds of a permanent endowment created with
the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Negrón-Muntaner, Frances, editor.
Title: Sovereign acts : contesting colonialism across indigenous nations and Latinx America /
edited by Frances Negrón-Muntaner.
Description: Tucson : The University of Arizona Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017007889 | ISBN 9780816532124 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Indians of North America—Government relations. | Indians of North America—
Politics and government. | Indians of North America—Civil rights. | Hawaiians—Government
relations. | Hawaiians—Politics and government. | Hawaiians—Civil rights. | Sovereignty.
Classification: LCC GN380 .S7 2017 | DDC 323.1197—dc23 LC record available
at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007889
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
FrancEs nEgrón-MuntanEr
I. NAvIgAtINg SovereIgNty
1. Contested Sovereignties: Puerto rico and American Samoa 39
Fa‘anoFo LisacLairE upErEsa and adriana María
garriga-LópEz
2. Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of recognition 82
gLEn couLthard
3. the Decolonial Deadlock in guam 107
MichaEL Lujan bEvacqua
4. recognizing Native Hawaiians: reality Bites 125
–
davianna poMaika‘i McgrEgor
II. SovereIgN BoDIeS
5. C hairmen, Presidents, and Princesses: the Navajo Nation,
gender, and the Politics of tradition 153
jEnniFEr nEz dEnEtdaLE
vi | Contents
6. Same-Sex Marriage in the Cherokee Nation: toward Decolonial
Queer Indigeneities 175
jEssica a. F. harkins
7. Bloodline Is All I Need?: Sovereignty and Hawaiian Hip-Hop 199
stEphaniE nohELani tEvEs
8. of Shadows and Doubts: White Supremacy, Decolonization,
and Black-Indian relations 230
brian kLopotEk
9. the Look of Sovereignty: Style and Politics in the young Lords 254
FrancEs nEgrón-MuntanEr
III. LIfe WItHout SovereIgNty
10. Sovereignty Still? 285
MadELinE roMán
11. Indigenizing Agamben: rethinking Sovereignty in Light
of the “Peculiar” Status of Native Peoples 296
Mark riFkin
12. King of the Line: the Sovereign Acts of Jean-Michel Basquiat 336
FrancEs nEgrón-MuntanEr with yasMin raMirEz
Contributors 373
Index 379
Acknowledgments
this book is based on a conference titled “Sovereignty Matters” that
I organized at Columbia University in 2005. The conference’s main
goal was to explore the praxis of sovereignty for various groups that
are often viewed as partially or totally “sovereignless,” including Native
Americans, First Nations, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans. Since the
volume would not have come into being without the lively conference de-
bates, I would like to begin by thanking all the participants, including Amí-
lcar Antonio Barreto, Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán,
Maivân Clech Lâm, Christine DeLisle, Vicente M. Diaz, Adriana María
Garriga-López, Guillermo Irizarry, Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé, Dan Taulapapa
McMullin, Angelia Means, Davianna Pōmaika‘i McGregor, Jon Osorio,
Elizabeth Povinelli, Bruce Robbins, Audra Simpson, Andrea Smith, Robert
Underwood, Fa‘anofo Lisaclaire Uperesa, Charles Venator-Santiago, and L.
Lehuanani Lono Yim. Many thanks also to the Center for the Study of Eth-
nicity and Race’s past and current staff—Teresa Aguayo, Josephine Caputo,
Arleny Guerrero, and Johnny Roldán-Chacón—for their invaluable sup-
port in organizing the conference and assisting in the completion of this
volume.
viii | Acknowledgments
As the collection took shape, it came to comprise the work of schol-
ars from different fields and countries who were not present at the event.
Several colleagues played important roles in identifying and connecting
me with new contributors. The first was historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
Simply put, without her, this book would not exist. When the conference
ended, I had not yet decided whether I would embark on the editing of what
is now my third volume when she had already contacted a possible pub-
lisher on my behalf. Scholar and activist Andrea Smith similarly led me to
the research of key contributors, and I am deeply grateful for her generosity.
I would also like to express my appreciation to scholars Mishuana Goeman
and Gary Okihiro, who kindly shared their thoughts about the most daring
recent work on sovereignty in indigenous, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander
studies.
In addition, the collection is fortunate to include writings that have be-
come essential reading in crucial debates. Many thanks to Claire Smith
(Palgrave Macmillan), Jeff Moen (University of Minnesota Press), Miriam
Juarez (University of California, Los Angeles), and Xavier Totti (CENTRO:
Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies) for permission to include ver-
sions of the following texts: Mark Rifkin’s “Indigenizing Agamben: Rethink-
ing Sovereignty in Light of the ‘Peculiar’ Status of Native Peoples” from Cul tural
Critique (73 [Fall 2009]); Glen Coulthard’s “Subjects of Empire: Indigenous
Peoples and the ‘Politics of Recognition’ in Canada” gathered in Contemporary
Political Theory (6 [November 2007]), presently titled “Indigenous Peoples and
the Politics of Recognition”; Jennifer Nez Denetdale’s “Chairmen, Presidents,
and Princesses: The Navajo Nation, Gender, and the Politics of Tradition,”
originally printed in Wicazo Sa Review (21, no. 1 [Spring 2006]); Stephanie No-
helani Teves’s “Bloodline Is All I Need?,” published in American Indian Culture
and Research Journal (35, no. 4 [2011]); and my essay “The Look of Sovereignty:
Style and Politics in the Young Lords,” which first appeared in Centro Journal
(27, no. 1 [2015]). Portions of Brian Klopotek’s “Of Shadows and Doubts: White
Supremacy, Decolonization, and Black-Indian Relations” appeared in IndiVis-
ible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas, edited by Gabrielle Tayac
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2009), and “Dangerous Decolo-
nizing: Indians and Blacks and the Legacy of Jim Crow” in Decolonizing Native
Histories: Collaboration, Knowledge, and Language in the Americas, edited by
Acknowledgments | ix
Florencia E. Mallon (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012). Similarly, I
thank Janet Hicks, Todd Leibowitz, and the Artists Rights Society for allowing
us to reproduce three images by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
I am also very thankful to the University of Arizona Press peer reviewers
for their detailed and insightful comments on the entire manuscript and to
Audra Simpson, who was a constant source of support throughout the entire
process in multiple ways, from participating in the conference to lifting my
spirits and reading the introduction: muy agradecida. My immense gratitude
likewise goes to Deborah Cullen-Morales, Celeste Fraser Delgado, Sandy
Grande, Elizabeth West Hutchinson, Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, Myra
Mendible, Iris Morales, Matthew Sandler, Franklin Sirmans, and Neferti
Xina M. Tadiar for their generous and sharp comments on my chapters.
Moreover, I am grateful for the indispensable and critical support of editor
Michael Koch, fact-checker Kim Leiken, and indexer Leonard S. Rosenbaum
during the writing and preparation of the manuscript.
In closing, there are no words to express my gratitude to editorial, de-
sign, and production manager Amanda Krause for her generosity of spirit,
intelligence, and professionalism. We would not have made it without her. I
also thank Kristen Buckles, the best editor anyone could ever wish for. I am
deeply appreciative for her smart editorial suggestions, saintly patience, and
great faith in both the volume and me. It has been a long journey. Mil gracias
to all.
