Thesis
Legal and cultural convergences of indigenous peoples and Asian Americans in the Pacific Northwest, 1879-1925
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103171
Abstract
Despite several topical and thematic links between Asian American Studies and Indigenous Studies, the two fields have had little conversation with one another. This thesis attempts to link these two fields via the history and cultural framing of these populations in the Pacific Northwest (including Canada). The Pacific Northwest is unique in that the histories of Americans/Canadians racially framing and discriminating against Asian North Americans and Indigenous Peoples occur roughly at the same historical moment. Both are subject to forms of racial proximity defined by their mutual and differing relationships to power and their geographic closeness to one another in the Pacific Northwest. I highlight the connections in the Northwest to the larger history of carcerality and settler colonialism in the United States and Canada. Done so via legal and juridical decisions and practices at the Federal, state/provincial, and municipal levels. I also study the cultural framing of Asian North Americans and Indigenous Peoples at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, an event highlighting the global position and power of Seattle in the early 20th Century. I turn to the novels Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai and Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson to consider alternative epistemologies available in grounding decolonization efforts in Indigenous knowledge and actions. I close this thesis by highlighting the activism of Idle No More and Standing Rock activists in building potential activist coalitions with other movements such as Black Lives Matter and then how might Asian Americans fit into this recent wave of activism. Through these steps, I demonstrate the potential connections between Asian American Studies and Indigenous Studies, how these particular histories share an important piece in the history of carcerality in the United States and Canada, and how alternative epistemologies offer potential tools to current activists and scholars working in these confluences.
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Details
- Title
- Legal and cultural convergences of indigenous peoples and Asian Americans in the Pacific Northwest, 1879-1925
- Creators
- Niamh C. Timmons
- Contributors
- Jenifer L. Barclay (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Languages, Cultures, and Race, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525133401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis