Indigenous inhumanities : California Indian studies after the apocalypse / Mark Minch-de Leon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minch-de Leon, Mark, 1976- author.

Series:

Indigenous Americas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--California.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--Study and teaching--California.

Nativistic movements--California.

Nativistic movements.

Settler colonialism--California.

Settler colonialism.

Resistance (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

xxxviii, 308 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2025]

Summary:

Reclaiming power and prophecy through California Indian intellectual resurgence and anticolonial resistance. Mark Minch-de Leon explores the anticolonial dimensions of California Indian intellectual and cultural resurgence in the aftermath of apocalypse in this compelling reexamination of Indigenous art, literature, and theory. Centering on a reinterpretation of the Ghost Dance, a ceremony first practiced in the nineteenth century, as a collective demonstration of prophecy and resilience, Indigenous Inhumanities envisions an expanded poetics of resistance through a reconfigured relationship to death and the dead. By dismantling the colonial frameworks of inclusion, recognition, and representation that reinforce settler-state power, Minch-de Leon shows how storytelling can be reclaimed as both research and as a tool for decolonization. Taking up critical issues that the state has used to discipline California Indian relations to ancestors, such as the politics of human remains repatriation and the discourse around California Indian genocide, Minch-de Leon centers Indigenous knowledge and social systems while challenging legal and political definitions of violence, power, and the human. Rich case studies showcase the evocative art of Frank Day, the poetry of Tommy Pico, and the writings of Deborah Miranda, highlighting how these creators advance Indigenous theory and disrupt settler categories. By refusing reconciliation and embracing Indigenous frameworks of radical relationality and the “inhuman” (what lies outside of human control), Minch-de Leon presents a bold vision of Indigenous antihumanist survival and resurgence. Indigenous Inhumanities illuminates the path toward decolonial futures by following the radical turn the ancestors made toward the powers of the dead to bring an end to the colonial world. -- Provided by publisher.

"A bold vision of Indigenous antihumanist survival and resurgence, Indigenous Inhumanities dismantles the colonial frameworks of inclusion, recognition, and representation that reinforce settler-state power. Envisioning an expanded poetics of resistance, Mark Minch-de Leon illuminates a path forward by following the radical turn the ancestors made toward the powers of the dead to bring an end to the colonial world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue : (Re)Turning

Introduction : Researching

Part I : Ancestor

1 : The California Indian Bone Game

2 : The Postapocalyptic Imaginary

3 : Refusing Genocide

Interlude : How Death Came into This World

Part II : The Destruction

4 : Bad Indians and the Destruction of Writing

5 : Atlas for a Destroyed World

Conclusion : Bad Writing, Bad Art.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Minch-de Leon, Mark, 1976- Indigenous inhumanities

ISBN:

9781517918309

1517918308

9781517918293

1517918294

OCLC:

1515159607