Sourcebook
Unsettling Ourselves: Reflections and Resources for Deconstructing Colonial Mentality
A Sourcebook compiled by Unsettling Minnesota
foreword by Derrick Jensen; texts and guides from Andrea Smith, Waziyatawin, Dee Brown, Ward Churchill, Elizabeth Martinez, Denise Breton, UM… Collective Members, and others
With this book we offer you, as a seed, a collection of readings about this land and the people who live upon it. We offer you this sourcebook in the hopes that it will serve as a guide in your own process of decolonization. We hope it will motivate and inspire you toward the necessary action for justice.
The sourcebook contains over two dozen essays about decolonization and the related themes of white supremacy, sexual violence, classism, heteropatriarchy, appropriation, restorative justice and more, spanning more than 200 pages
You can purchase hard copies of the sourcebook for a $5-$15 donation by emailing us. All funds raised will go directly towards a Dakota-organized land project for a traditional maple sugar bush and wild rice camp.
Or download it as a PDF here (but watch out – this is a BIG file at 48mb).
(Second edit, January 2010)
Table of Contents:
Introduction by Unsettling Minnesota 5
Introduction by Wicanhpi Iyotan Win and Scott DeMuth 6
Foreword by Derrick Jensen 8
Part 1 | FOUNDATIONS
Unsettling Minnesota Points of Unity 11
How Minnesotans Wrested the Land From Dakota People 12
from What Does Justice Look Like? by Waziyatawin
Working Definitions 42
Unsettling Minnesota
“Their Manners Are Decorous and Praiseworthy” 47
from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Desire to Belong: Reflections As a Settler Searching For Sense of Place 54
Claire
Little Crow’s War 57
from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
What is White Supremacy? 71
Elizabeth Martinez
Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide 75
from Conquest by Andrea Smith
Part 2 | ALLYSHIP
This Is How It Seems To Me: 90
Flo
Mirroring Colonial Power Structures in Radical Organizing: Rape Culture 93
as Colonization and Community Accountability
Claire
Shut the Fuck Up 99
Dan Spalding
Unlearning: Thoughts on Allyship 104
Lindsey
From a Male-bodied Settler Moving Towards Allyship… 107
rivers
Anti-Classism 112
(Author Unknown)
What You Can Do About Classism 113
Class Action
Cultural Appropriation: Beginning Reflections from a Settler Standpoint 116
Courtney
Spiritual Appropriation as Sexual Violence 118
from Conquest by Andrea Smith
Indians Are Us? Reflections on the “Men’s Movement” 127
from Indians ‘R’ Us: Culture and Genocide by Ward Churchill
Understanding Colonizer Status 151
Waziyatawin
Part 3 | ORGANIZING
Un-Settling Settler Desires 156
Scott Morgensen
Indigenous Feminism Without Apology 158
Andrea Smith
White Supremacy Culture 161
Tema Okun
Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy:
Rethinking Women of Color Organizing 169
Andrea Smith, from The Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology
Talking to Settlers About Unsettling 173
Rita
Brainstorm: the Beginnings of Unsettling Minnesota 174
Decolonizing Restorative Justice 176
Denise C. Breton
Colonialism on the Ground 191
Waziyatawin
APPENDIX
Dakota Decolonization: Solidarity Education for Allies (syllabus) 202
Letter to the New Ulm Journal: Cherusci, Dakota Both Resisted Colonization 204
Watershed 207
Nick
Decolonizing Ourselves: The True Face Behind Minnesota’s History 208
Ly
I have heard of decolonizing by my professor Chris Mato-Nunpa while attending SMSU in Marshall, Mn. I received a minor degree in Indigenous Nations and Dakota Studies. As someone of mixed race (Jewish, Apache, German, Russian, Mexican) I can say that decolonizing is not limited to Indigenous people. The mind-set of Anglo, or “whites” needs decolonizing. They (we) all have been brainwashed with lies and misconceptions about “American” History. Whose story,those white males in power’s history.