Browsing by Author "Constantinescu, Shanna"

In 1956 the Indian Relocation Act transformed the makeup of American cities. Initially meant to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream population by providing them with an education that would facilitate their employment and further integration into the city proper, Relocation provided migrating Indians with fertile soil for cultivating a pan- Indian identity. Urban spaces became sites of resistance as Indians from all tribes came together in cities and tribal borders became blurred. Settler colonialism has influenced how American Indians are perceived by the mainstream population and how their histories are studied within academia. This thesis seeks to unravel the stereotype of the passive Native. By reframing contemporary Indian history, this study suggests that twentieth-century Native Americans have been active in producing both urban space as well as a new tribalism in the urban environment. Informed by Henri Lefebvre’s theory regarding the right to the city this thesis analyses the urban space from an Indigenous-oriented perspective while stretching Marxist theories to accommodate the lived realities of Indigenous peoples as well as the corporeality of American Indians under capitalism.