Kathryn Sears—Mohawk Interruptus—2.
22. 17
Audra
Simpson’s book, Mohawk Interruptus:
Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States, is challenge to the
typical narrative of indigenous nationhood and settlement within the context of
empire.
Simpson’s awareness of her research
questions, her methodology, speaks to a larger tone and theme in her book of a
juxtaposition between familiarity with the issue of membership and nationhood
as well as a distance between her and her subjects so as not to take ownership
of their self-identification and self-definition. She notes that “even saying the word ‘membership’
made some people uncomfortable” and further that she was, at times, referred to
other interviewees as a tactic to avoid this question because of the magnitude
of it.[1]
Her discussion on such topics is made much more compelling through the
seamlessness of her weaving interviews, her personal experience, and public
data together. Simpson’s methodology, as
such, creates an argument about the creation of the political life of the
Mohawks that occupy the United States-Canada border through settler colonialism
that reads more in sync with prose than a sociological and anthropological
study. Her personal reflections through
the book are compelling and important as they illustrate, time and again, her
points about refusal which are most poignantly declared at the beginning of the
first chapter when she writes, “The Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke are nationals of a
precontact Indigenous polity that simply refuse to stop being themselves.”[2] This statement alone acknowledges the
independence—not just from Canada or the United States, but of self and thought—of
the Mohawks.
Discussion Question:
It seems unavoidable to read Simpson’s book and not reflect upon the current
political climate regarding immigration and the borders, which have come to
seem rather like ominous fronts that engage and repel traffic. Simpson’s discussion of the border is
interesting because of her familiarity with it and her reflection of the border
as she encounters it in numerous contexts.
What are some differences in how Simpson deals with the border and how
the United States government has reimagined its borders within the last few
months?
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