Brittney Alexander

BRITTNEY ALEXANDER, then a graduate student at City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, New York, received funding to aid research on “Kin-Centric Circles: Reimagining Native Land and Language Reclamation as Cycles of Renewal and Relationality,” supervised by Dr. Jillian Cavanaugh. Much scholarship circulates narratives of reclamation as processes to reverse loss and theft due to settler colonialism, reproducing the exceptionalism of colonial events. This research instead drew from Shawnee concepts to reimagine reclamation as perpetual cycles of renewal and relationality. Centering Shawnee perspectives and histories through knowledge-shares with Shawnee citizens from the three tribally recognized Shawnee bands, this multi-sited mixed methods ethnography asked what Shawnee land and language reclamation projects say about place and relating. Findings revealed that, although Shawnee Peoples are immensely diverse, Shawnees share a commitment to renewing obligations with kin, including plants, animals, land, and Peoples. Who is included as kin changes over time, but a dedication to the rituals that renew kinship remain largely in tact since they were first given to Shawnees in the Beginning. Normalized identity categories that the imperial United States uses to determine acceptable kinship were not present in findings; categories such as race, tribal affiliation, nationality, and citizenship did not factor into who could be brought in as Shawnee kin. Renewal — fulfilled ceremonially twice a year and otherwise as appropriate for Shawnee personal, communal, and tribal goals — determines obligation to places, traditions, and Peoples, and supports projects dedicated to upholding such obligations.