As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Oct 2017 · U of Minnesota Press

About this ebook

Winner: Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Best Subsequent Book 2017
Honorable Mention: Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award 2017

Across North America, Indigenous acts of resistance have in recent years opposed the removal of federal protections for forests and waterways in Indigenous lands, halted the expansion of tar sands extraction and the pipeline construction at Standing Rock, and demanded justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. In As We Have Always Done, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson locates Indigenous political resurgence as a practice rooted in uniquely Indigenous theorizing, writing, organizing, and thinking.

Indigenous resistance is a radical rejection of contemporary colonialism focused around the refusal of the dispossession of both Indigenous bodies and land. Simpson makes clear that its goal can no longer be cultural resurgence as a mechanism for inclusion in a multicultural mosaic. Instead, she calls for unapologetic, place-based Indigenous alternatives to the destructive logics of the settler colonial state, including heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation.

Ratings and reviews

Natives do require more compensation and aid from the government there is no doubt about that. But I'm afraid your views are considered racist by every fellow academia scholar who writes a book about racism. Hell even I think your plan is a bit far fetched and anti productive. Because in all honesty the government truly owes nothing to anyone. Natives were treated that way due to prior involvements of natives with the British during the Revolutionary war. So in essence it was a body of government declaring war. In an era where wars were more frequent and more easily "justified". This is why there really is no fault in the government. Every nation even native tribes used to be involved in war and territorial expansion, it's not like it was a colonial only thing. Sadly native culture wasn't as advance and prepared for war so horrible things happened.

About the author

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a writer, activist, faculty member at the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University. She is author of several books, including Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, The Gift Is in the Making, Islands of Decolonial Love, and This Accident of Being Lost. She is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba, and is a member of Alderville First Nation.