Reclaiming Indigenous Narratives in Public and Private Spaces

Book excerpt: United States federal policies created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries devastated Indigenous nations’ traditions, languages, and identities. The federal policies sought to eradicate Indigenous peoples’ cultures to assimilate them into the dominant society. Indigenous nations like the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho nations in Wyoming adapted and incorporated Western forms of knowledge and methodologies to challenge Western ideas, narratives, and policies. Indigenous nations used federal policies and legal documents to reclaim Indigenous history, narratives, museum spaces, and developed government systems to assert their sovereignty in the twentieth century. Since the origins of ethnology and anthropology during the Progressive Era, Euro-Americans controlled Indigenous narratives on history, cultural artifacts, and objects. In the twentieth century, Indigenous nations have adopted Western methodologies when developing tribally owned cultural centers that allowed Native Americans to protect, create, and control their history, objects, and artifacts. Traditionally, Indigenous nations value oral stories because they are essential to Indigenous culture. Indigenous oral stories are private narratives held among kin groups in private spaces. Oral stories sustain communities, ceremonies, languages, and identities. Stories highlight the complexity and value of stories passed from one generation to the next. Oral narratives connect Indigenous peoples to the past, present, and future. While private narratives remain protected, this research highlights how Indigenous nations challenged, adapted, and adopted Western policies and methodologies to reclaim historical narratives, create tribally-owned spaces, and develop a unique government system to achieve Indigenous sovereignty.