Conational Networks: Reconstituting Indigenous Solidarity through the Works of Gertrude and Raymond Bonnin

Abstract

The early twentieth-century writings and community organizing of Gertrude and Raymond Bonnin (Yankton Sioux) reveal how their cocommitment to Dakota nationhood and to all Indigenous nations informs current discussions and practices of Indigenous intellectualism, modernism, nationalism, and global relations. The still-unanalyzed 1926 constitution and bylaws of the National Council of American Indians is brought into conversation with the Bonnins' personally annotated copy of the 1932 constitution of the Yankton Sioux Tribe to analyze their efforts to organize a conational network of Indigenous solidarity. Building upon the conceptual frameworks of Indigenous trans/nationalism, intertribalism, and trans-Indigeneity, conationalism offers a conceptual framework that acknowledges the long-standing reality and ongoing necessity of fostering networks of Indigenous solidarity that remain rooted in the self-determination of individual Indigenous nations. Often sidelined from discussions of early twentieth-century Indigenous nationalism, the Bonnins' constitutional writings evidence an expansive understanding of Indigenous nationhood and nation building. Their writing and activism connected urban and reservation-based community members, facilitated collaborative relations between Indigenous nations, resisted federal impositions, and promoted collectivism over individualism in an ongoing effort to preserve, protect, and prosper Indigenous lands, waters, and peoples.