“…to the Grave”—Autopsy, settler structures, and indigenous counter-conduct

Abstract

In February 2015, two Anishinaabe tribal members, Mushkoob Aubid and Autumn Martineau, passed away after car accidents in Northeastern Minnesota. Their bodies were slated to undergo autopsy, sparking opposition from their families on religious grounds. This sparked a struggle that pitted the families and tribal allies against state structures, in what led to the recovery of the bodies and changes in Minnesota state laws surrounding autopsy. The role of 'quotidian' settler violence in the events that transpired, through a theoretical framework of settler colonialism, biopolitics and the importance of autopsy, is placed in opposition to the role of ‘quotidian’ indigenous resistance, informed by a theoretical framework of counter-conduct and indigenous modes of knowledge and being. It is argued that although settler colonial society and its associated structures are able to reconfigure themselves at will in a variety of articulations in order to subjugate indigenous peoples, indigenous people are able to resist this subjugation with resourceful and multifaceted resistance of their own. This can be seen in the ability of the Aubid and Martineau families to recover the bodies of their loved ones. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the case study for future Anishinaabe/indigenous resistance against autopsy, and in more general applications.