Cree Dueker

Professor Cornel Pewewardy

NAS 399 Tribal Critical Race Theory
December 4, 2014

Critical Essay Two

In Andrea Smiths essay Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy she
examines how the lack of attention to settler colonialism hinders the analysis of race and white
supremacy developed by scholars who focus on race and racial formation. She then explores
how this lack of attention to race and white supremacy within Native studies and Native
struggles hinders the development of a decolonial framework. Decolonization is meant to be
unsettling; when the foundations to our lives and laws are based within white supremacy and
housed within a settler state changes must be made through acknowledging these roots and then
subverting them. By examining these roots we are able to look at societys structure which was
designed with white racial superiority in mind. White supremacy was kept alive through racist
language and laws as well as the three primary pillars Smith discusses in her essay.
Decolonization then must begin through the process of interrogating our societies values as well
as rethinking liberation outside of the boundaries and values set by a settler state focused on
white supremacy.
According to Smith the three primary logics of white supremacy within the United States
include, slaveability/anti-black racism, which anchors capitalism; genocide, which anchors
colonialism; and orientalism, which anchors war (Smith ). These three pillars have evolved
alongside society but their values and anchors remain the same; we contribute to keeping these
pillars upright and by doing so support a white supremacist settler state either knowingly or

unknowingly. The first pillar which supports capitalism is embodied within slavery and the idea
of black people as sub-human property. This logic was historically built into the United States
economic and political systems and can be seen today in the white vs black racial binary. This
binary teaches us that whiteness and success is at the top of the racial hierarchy and blackness is
at the bottom. This hierarchy informs people that if they are not black they have the chance to
accumulate wealth and find upward mobility in a capitalist system. Regardless of its validity this
pillar motivates people to buy into this anti-black racism out of self-interest and hope to acquire
the American Dream. The second pillar is Orientalism which supports war it is deeply seated
within the Euro-centric view of making them into enemies or threats to security. It assigns
groups of people to being a danger to the American way and democracy and thus propels the
United States to be in a constant state of war in order to stay strong and allows the justification of
genocide and slavery in order to protect our personal freedoms. The final pillar is genocide
which supports colonialism and mandates that Native peoples be eliminated or fade into the past
because it justifies the possession of land if those who inhabited the land no longer exist. Forcing
Native peoples to give up their land or relocate them was also a way to exploit their natural
resources as well as taking land for the colonizers. This can be seen today with issues such as
pipelines which seek to extract resources without looking at the people who would be affected by
the pollutants and without regards to whose land they will be taken.
Decolonization can also be linked to the ways in which it is assumed that Indigenous
peoples wish to be treated as minorities within a settler state when in reality we request to be
treated as sovereign nations outside of a white supremacist system. When a society is set up with
a racial hierarchy in place to keep white as racially dominant it is important to consider how the
colonizers classified people as human or non-human, savage or civilized, and how this was then

used as a basis to conquer both the land as well as the people through enslavement, genocide,
and war which goes back to the three pillars of white supremacy. To escape from these pillars
and their modern day continuations we must replace the dominant ideals and values with the
marginalized ones, or as Fanon states we must make it so, the last shall be first and the first last
(Fanon 37). Many times we get caught within the trap of wanting to be recognized within a
society which mistreats us instead of fighting to reconstruct this system in order to be a sovereign
state. Instead of looking at how we should be operating within this unjust society and thus
supporting the pillars of white supremacy we should look back to our traditional ways of
knowing and reconstruct a society which values community over capitalism. In a work done by
Sium Desai and Ritskes they note that is must be recognized that, despite our certainty that
decolonization centers Indigenous methods, peoples, and lands, the future is a tangible
unknown, a constant (re)negotiation of power, place, identity and sovereignty. In these
contestations, decolonization and Indigeneity are not merely reactionary nor in a binary
relationship with colonial power. Decolonization is indeed oppositional to colonial ways of
thinking and acting (Sium, Desai, and Ritskes 1). This tangible unknown is the unknown
future of decolonization and what that future separate from a settler state would look like.
Decolonization cannot exist without a framework that would center and privilege Indigenous
lives, communities, and ways of knowing.
Within decolonization narratives it is important to explore the intersecting identities and
oppressions that people face through this white supremacist hierarchy. Looking at the
interconnecting systems of power which are used to keep us disadvantaged as well as making it
so we are fighting among one another and shouldering pillars when we should be looking to new
architecture. Capitalism, genocide, and war are integral to the support of our settler system and

yet we must also seek out and analyze how, settler colonialism is enabled through the
intersecting logics of white supremacy, imperialism, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism (Smith 6).
Through these intersecting logics we can infer the values of this society and the way in which it
devalues and dehumanizes traditional knowledge and indigenous peoples. Any project for
decolonization must begin through understanding the political and legal conditions we currently
live under and then strategically going forward with this knowledge while making sure we know
of the logics we may be supporting in doing so.
According to Veracini in their essay Settler Colonialism and Decolonization there can
be three general experiences of settler decolonization, settler evacuation, the promotion of
various processes of Indigenous reconciliation, and denial associated with an explicit rejection of
the possibility of reforming the settler body politics . In my opinion it would be near impossible
to expect an evacuation of settlers from the United States but we can use activism to promote
Indigenous reconciliation and awareness of Indigenous issues within the United States such as
our fight for recognition of sovereignty, environmental activism and engagement, as well as
protecting our peoples from various forms of physical violence. We can also reject any
reformation of settler politics, this can be engaged through traditional ways as well as rejecting
the pillars of white supremacy. Through what Andrea Smith refers to as politics of liberation
we will be able to decolonize ourselves and our communities without relying on constructing our
identities within white-centric viewpoints and values. Instead of being complacent and accepting
ourselves as living within and contributing to a settler state founded on genocide,slavery, and war
we must acknowledge that these foundations exist and survive today while working to
disempower them.

Works Cited
Sium, Aman, Chandni Desai, and Eric Ritskes. "Towards the tangible Unknown:
Decolonization and the Indigenous Future." Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education &
Society 1.1 (2012): 1-13. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <file:///Users/MyMac/Downloads/1863843297-1-PB%20(1).pdf>.
Smith, Andrea. "Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy." - Centre for World
Dialogue. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.

Veracini, Lorenzo. "Settler Colonialism and Decolonisation." B O R D E R L a N D S E-journal.

N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.