Against Extraction: Indigenous Modernism in the Twin Cities

Matt Hooley's Against Extraction explores how Ojibwe invention in Minneapolis and St. Paul challenges colonialism's fantasies and offers alternatives through literature and art. It examines historical narratives of Indigenous dispossession and occupation, enslavement and Black life, and environmental harm and care, highlighting the importance of Indigenous claims to life and land in rethinking and unmaking the colonial world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 26 April 2024
Publisher: Duke University Press

Matt Hooley explores a contemporary tradition of Ojibwe invention in Minneapolis and St. Paul from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, responding to the cultural legacies of US colonialism. He highlights how Indigenous literary and visual art modernisms challenge everyday life and question the ecological, political, and cultural fantasies that perpetuate US colonialism. Hooley examines the works of Louise Erdrich, William Whipple Warren, David Treuer, George Morrison, and Gerald Vizenor, connecting them to histories of Indigenous dispossession and occupation, enslavement and Black life, and environmental harm and care. He demonstrates that historical narratives of these cities are intertwined with the violence of colonial extraction systems and that concepts like Indigeneity and sovereignty extend beyond treaty-granted promises of political control. These works, created in opposition and proximity to the extraction of cultural, political, and territorial resources, underscore the importance of Indigenous claims to life and land in rethinking and unmaking the social and ecological devastations of the colonial world.

Weight: 344g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478030362