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

Additional Resources 200

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