Inventing Traditions in Minority Nationalisms: Political Sovereignty and Historical Trauma in the Iroquois Nationalist Imagination

Abstract

The author analyzes the characteristics of the invention of traditions in modern Iroquois nationalism, a minority nationalist movement in the United States. The study examines the invention of traditions within the methodological frameworks of modern interdisciplinary historiography, particularly focusing on interventionist and imaginative turns, which are integral to analyzing minority nationalism. The author suggests that: 1) most traditions invented in modern Iroquois nationalism are political; 2) the concepts of “statehood” and “sovereignty” are central to the functioning of these political traditions; 3) the invention of traditions underscores the historical trauma of colonization and the institutionalization of the Iroquois’ unequal status as a minority group; 4) reproducing these invented traditions in political discourse is an effort to revitalize Iroquois identity; 5) the invented traditions of Iroquois nationalism serve a compensatory purpose, aiming to overcome the collective historical trauma of losing their political state tradition. Overall, the author suggests that the development of Iroquois nationalism hinges on the invention of traditions, which Native American ethnic and political activists actively use to consolidate Iroquois identity in the United States.