Situating Native American Studies and Red Feminisms

Abstract

This essay aims to show that serious and robust engagement with Native American Studies and Red feminist research, methods, and theories contribute to the epistemological core of Ethnic Studies and produce new and important understandings of phenomenology, resistance, coloniality, and structures. Native American Studies and Red feminism are situated in relationship to Ethnic Studies and Feminist Studies to question the ongoing necessity of Native American scholars to occupy academic spaces. Ultimately, this paper illustrates how Native American Studies and Red feminism offer inroads to understanding the matrix of coloniality and the systematic efforts of Native American scholars, including Red feminists, to arrive at an Ethnic Studies that works for the people and serves in efforts to achieve social justice and Native American sovereignty simultaneously.