We Are the Stars Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition

• Main Author: Hernandez, Sarah
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Tucson University of Arizona Press 2023; The University of Arizona Press
• Edition: 1
• Series: Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies
• Subjects: Assiniboine women; Assiniboine women-Social life and customs; Collective memory; Dakota women; Dakota women-Social life and customs; Gender Studies; Lakota women; Lakota women-Social life and customs; LITERARY CRITICISM; Native American; Oral tradition; Oral tradition-United States; Siouan Indians; SOCIAL SCIENCE
• ISBN: 0816545634; 9780816545629; 9780816545643; 0816545642; 9780816545636; 0816545626

After centuries of colonization, this important new work recovers the literary record of Oceti Sakowin (historically known to some as the Sioux Nation) women, who served as their tribes’ traditional culture keepers and culture bearers. In so doing, it furthers discussions about settler colonialism, literature, nationalism, and gender. Women and land form the core themes of the book, which brings tribal and settler colonial narratives into comparative analysis. Divided into two parts, the first section of the work explores how settler colonizers used the printing press and boarding schools to displace Oceti Sakowin women as traditional culture keepers and culture bearers with the goal of internally and externally colonizing the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota nations. The second section focuses on decolonization and explores how contemporary Oceti Sakowin writers and scholars have started to reclaim Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota literatures to decolonize and heal their families, communities, and nations.