Terrorism in Native America: Interrogating the Past, Examining the Present, and Constructing a Liberatory Future

Abstract

Drawing on Critical Race Theory, I examine the concept and practice of terrorism as it has been imposed on Native Americans by the United States government and its agents, and provide two concrete examples of terrorism. For anthropologists, this article amplifies the “voice” of the historical Other, describing terrorism from an emic perspective. For educators and educational anthropologists, I argue that we must critically examine issues of power and media portrayals of terrorism and terrorists in order to engage students in liberatory education.

Osama Bin Laden and the man-eating sorcerers: Encountering the 'war on terror' in Papua New Guinea

“…Far from what I naïvely anticipated before entering the field, media reports of 'the crisis' had deeply engaged local imaginaries, which had given meaning and responded to them through a combination of elements ranging from Biblical prophecy, local experiences of colonialism and dispossession (cf. Writer 2002), and indigenous realms of discourse and agency such as witchcraft and sorcery.…”

Shooting for neutrality? Analysing bias in terrorism reports in Dutch newspapers

“…Other more comparative studies seem to discuss ‘the media’ without acknowledging all its varieties (e.g. Corbin, 2017; Writer, 2002).…”

Critical Race Media Projects

“…Furthermore, he admonished parents to take a critical race theoretical approach when viewing these films because it allows critique of such discourses, fosters children's own agency to respond, and helps children value their own cultural capital (2000). Writer (2002) contested contemporary understandings of "terrorists" and "terrorism" in the post-9/11 media landscape using the critical race notion of counter-storytelling. Writer described the cruel dehumanization endured by the indigenous people of North America as a form of terrorism-a tale cleansed from majoritarian tales of western progress.…”

“…A secondary set of interdisciplinary scholarship not only engages a critical race theoretical critique of dominant discourses in mediated texts but also advocates a critical race theory–fueled resistive reading (Akom, Cammarota, & Ginwright, 2008; Durham, 2001; G. Gutiérrez, 2000; Solórzano & Yosso, 2001a; Writer, 2002; Yosso, 2002). For example, Solórzano and Yosso (2001b) located stereotypes in film that perpetuate deficit notions about students of color, and examined how they inform teacher expectations and maintain the subordination of students of color.…”