This is Indian land: a call to museums in addressing mass incarceration of American Indians

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay seeks to explore why inclusion of Indian people is fundamental in the difficult histories and dialogues regarding mass incarceration and to challenge the role of museums in ensuring that Indian people are centrally located in the discussion. I argue that the inherent roots of mass incarceration are historically situated in Indian dispossession and the obtainment of Indian land, and to omit this from any narrative is irresponsible. I employ the use of three stories – a piece of street-art by Native artist Jaque Fragua, the occupation of Alcatraz Island, and the current resistance in the Standing Rock Sioux Nation to the Dakota Access Pipeline – to discuss the inherent ties between sovereignty, land, settler colonialism and how they connect to mass incarceration in the United States.