Thread by @KimTallBear

Replies to this tweeted CNN article build on the #IndigenousErasure of Warren's pretendianism. They demonstrate widespread & deep US American ignorance of Indigenous people, our histories, & issues. Across political & race backgrounds the lack of basic understanding is profound.

https://twitter.com/mj_lee/status/1163087739211911168

True though, grasping our peoplehoods that are co-constitutive with place can't be grasped well if one can't see beyond the settler state & US exceptionalism in any political tone. It's a horizon most Americans are incapable of seeing beyond. The US narrative is all encompassing.

The US US prez election only highlights the general state of affairs for us. We need to be present enough to mascot, to help lay claim to this place, but we also need to be sufficiently vanished, dead in the past, only living in family mythologies so as not to threaten claims.

I imagine it's discomforting for non Natives to walk the line between disavowing our aliveness when they e.g. forget to notice our absence in US statistics, pop culture, etc., but then have to grasp us as living constituencies in the rare moments we're visible in the mainstream.

I know it's discomforting for us to be the ever "vanishing race," an inconvenient or surprising presence for so many Americans. This is the level of engagement against which we must advocate for our needs as actually living, growing communities.

As for centuries there are today Indigenous people who spend their energy deeply engaging the settler state, attempting to tweak it, who believe it might not be inherently anti- Indigenous. And those who don't believe, who engage other narratives & movements.

I'm an Indigenous person who no longer believes the settler state can be redeemed. I also point out your analytical inconsistencies if you think it can. B/c that's necessary to write a story beyond settler colonialism of how we can be accountable to one another & the planet.

Which brings me to a final for now point. I'm not analytically interested in the minutiae of your settler party politics. you carry on though. We each have our own journey. I'm interested in another world making narrative. Keeping my focus on that.