Mii o gwayak inaajimotaagooyaan [this is how it was told to me]: narrative identity and community-building in northern Minnesota

• Main Author: Cragoe, Nicholas G
• Other Authors: Liao, Tim, Dill, Brian, McDermott, Monica, Byrd, Jodi, Davis, Jenny
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Sociology; Native American studies; Indigenous studies; Narrative; Colonialism; Anishinaabe; Ojibwe; Minnesota; Collective identity; Peoplehood; Politics; Nationhood; anishina*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98112

The research discussed in this dissertation employs a mixed-methods, qualitative approach to understanding the role of specific narratives, and of storytelling practice in general, in shaping perceptions of Anishinaabe indigenous identity, history, and politics in northern Minnesota, as well as the social and political climate of the region, including relations between the indigenous and settler populations. In order to glean an understanding of the complex influences of narratives on these social and cultural phenomena, three specific narrative case studies were examined in comparison with one another, and against the backdrop of the general narrative life of the region. Each narrative case represents a different narrative type, and each case also carries significant weight within the local environment in which it circulates, communicating particular messages concerning the content and meaning of Anishinaabe history and identity. The study is grounded in the consideration of (A) the relative importance of different types of narratives, (B) the means by which narratives move within and across various social and political spaces, and (C) the ways in which these movements across social and political borders help to determine the shape, meaning, and membership of the communities on either side. In addition to the examination of these central questions, the findings are also used to theorize more broadly on definitions of nationhood and nationalism, transnationalism, and on the kinds of epistemological critiques that indigenous political structures and movements pose to dominant assumptions in both academic studies of macro-level political, cultural, and economic relationships, and in the colonial and imperial politics of the settler state.