The Role of Living Traditions in Decolonizing Indigenous Gender in an Urban Environment1

Abstract

This article elucidates the role of living traditions in decolonizing indigenous gender in an urban environment. “Living traditions” are perspectives and practices that emerge organically over time to account for the shifting needs of indigenous communities impacted by enduring structures of settler colonialism. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted over 2 ½ years, I explore gendered power dynamics in two urban pan‐Indian communities—one comprised of people who relocated from reservations and maintain ties to tribal nations (relocators) and another comprised of people reclaiming indigenous identities despite dislocations from tribal nations (reclaimers). By interrogating the mutual construction of indigeneity and gender across communities, I illustrate how relocators’ and reclaimers’ different relationships with tribal nations influence strategies for decolonizing gender. Reclaimers’ weak ties to tribal nations result in dogmatic efforts to reject their (socialization into) whiteness and enact what they perceive as indigenous complementarian gender—gender roles that are horizontally but not hierarchically distinct. Reclaimers’ strategic though misbegotten gender behaviors inadvertently reify settler‐constructed gender norms affirming men’s dominance over women. In contrast, relocators’ ongoing relations with tribal nations facilitate the emergence of “living traditions” that support fluid and adaptable gender strategies necessary to resist colonization and challenge hegemonic gender norms.