Untangling Colonialism — Decolonizing Advocacy

Resources page

**We are always adding to this page, so keeping coming back. There are so many resources available once you start looking, this page is simply a starter. There are so many books, videos, podcasts, and more that we would like to add to this page.**

Land Acknowledgment

(this is the language we use for the two territories our organizing spaces are located in. You are welcome to use it or create your own. Check out some of the website resources below for more on creating your own land acknowledgments.)

We acknowledge that our offices are located on the ancestral and unceded traditional territories of the lower Tanana Dene Peoples and the Dena'ina Peoples. The Indigenous peoples of this land never surrendered lands or resources to Russia or the United States.

We acknowledge this as both gratitude to the Indigenous communities who have held and continue to hold relationship with this land for generations AND also in recognition of the historical and ongoing legacy of colonialism. Additionally, we acknowledge this as a point of reflection for us all as we work towards actively dismantling colonial practices.

For more information on Land Acknowledgements we highly recommend:

  • Melissa Shaginoff’s Land Acknowledgement Workshop (link currently unavailable)

  • Beyond Land Acknowledgements, video panel of Alaska Native leadership (Feb. 2022) from the national Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center.

Native Movement Unicorn Reflection Charts

Podcasts

  • All My Relations: hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation), this podcast explores our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native peoples today.

  • This Land: hosted by Rebecca Nagle, an Oklahoma journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this podcast provides an in depth look at how a cut and dry murder case opened an investigation into half the land in Oklahoma and the treaty rights of five tribes. Follow along to find out what’s at stake, the Trump administration’s involvement, the larger right wing attack on tribal sovereignty and how one unique case could result in the largest restoration of tribal land in US history.

  • On The Land: this podcast brings you the voices of Indigenous People in this time of political and climate insecurity. They tackle difficult discussions on who has access to land, water, and air and offers a contemporary understanding of what it means to be Indigenous and live in relation to what is often known as the “outdoors” or “the wild. (Alaska Native host)

  • Coffee & Quaq: a podcast to celebrate and explore contemporary Native life in urban Alaska. (Alaska Native host)

  • Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo. Where is Cleo? Taken by child welfare workers in the 1970's and adopted in the U.S., the young Cree girl's family says she was stolen, raped, and murdered while trying to hitchhike back home to Saskatchewan. Host Connie Walker joins their search.

Books

Alaska specific Indigenous Non-Fiction books

Indigenous Non-Fiction

  • An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States For Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese

  • As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance, edited by Leanne Betasamosake Simson

  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

  • Custer Died for Your Sins, by Vine Deloria Jr.

  • Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva

  • I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism by Lee Maracle (canadian First Nations centered)

  • Indigenous Men and Masculinities: Legacies, Identities, Regeneration edited by Robert Alexander Innues and Kim Anderson

  • Indigenous Peoples in International Law, by James Anaya

  • Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips, & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality by Bob Joseph with Cynthia F. Joseph (Canadian First Nations centered)

  • In the Courts of the Conquerer: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided Paperback, by Walter R Echo-Hawk

  • Native Science, by Gregory Cajete

  • Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire

  • Recovering the Sacred, by Winona LaDuke

  • Reconciliation in Practice: A Cross-Cultural Perspective edited by Ranjan Datta

  • Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought, by Sandy Grande

  • The Rights of Indians and Tribes 4th Edition, by Stephen L. Pevar

  • The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings, from Winona Laduke (2002)

  • The World We Used to Live In, by Vine Deloria Jr.

  • The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon

  • Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations by Vine Deloria Jr. and David E. Wilkins

  • We Talk, You Listen, by Vine Deloria Jr.

  • Whose Land Is It Anyway? edited by Peter McFarlane and Nicole Schabus

  • 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann (not an Indigenous author)

Memoirs

  • Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes

  • Heart Berries by Terese Marie

  • Howard Luke: My Own Trail by Howard Luke and Jan Jackson

  • Neerihiinjìk: We Traveled From Place to Place, the Gwich’in Stories of Johnny & Sarah Frank

  • The Tao of Raven by Ernestine Hayes

Fiction/Historical Fiction

  • Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun, by Velma Wallis

  • The Man Who Became a Caribou: Gwich’in Stories and Conversations from Alaska and the Yukon by Craig Mishler and Kenneth Frank

  • The Round House, by Louise Erdrich

  • There There, by Tommy Orange

  • Two Old Women, by Velma Wallis

Organizing for Justice: non-fiction (not necessarily Indigenous focused)

  • Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

  • How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire

  • Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown

  • Sister Outsider, essays and speeches by Audre Lorde

  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo

  • Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis

    ** Also check out our Dismantling White Supremacy Resources page

Videos/Films

 Articles

Websites


Teaching Curriculum


Federal Acts & Court Cases

We strive to carry out our work based in a commitment to

the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing and the Defend the Sacred AK Principles

We recognize that we work throughout the unceded territories of the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska. Our offices are located on the traditional territories of the lower Tanana Dene Peoples and the Dena'ina Peoples. We acknowledge and honor the ancestral & present land stewardship and place-based knowledge of the peoples of these territories.