TY - JOUR
T1 - Denaturalizing Dispossession in the Political Ecology of the American West
T2 - Reassessing the History of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and Its Implications for Indigenous Land and Water Rights
AU - Borgias, Sophia L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by American Association of Geographers.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Indigenous dispossession has been left out or relegated to the historical background of much of the political ecology of the American West, naturalized as a precursor to natural resource policy rather than as a direct and ongoing consequence of it. This article offers a framework for denaturalizing dispossession, drawing on Indigenous and settler colonial studies to examine the specific legal, political, and territorial processes by which dispossession is produced and contested over time. This framework is used to examine the long-overlooked history of Indigenous dispossession wrought by the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the early twentieth century. In-depth archival, legal, and ethnographic research reveals how, in the 1930s, this history became obscured by naturalizing discourses that continue to be invoked in disputes over tribal land and water rights today. The study underscores the complex intersections of law, history, and justice in struggles over dispossession and highlights the need for more engagement on these issues from political ecologists of the American West.
AB - Indigenous dispossession has been left out or relegated to the historical background of much of the political ecology of the American West, naturalized as a precursor to natural resource policy rather than as a direct and ongoing consequence of it. This article offers a framework for denaturalizing dispossession, drawing on Indigenous and settler colonial studies to examine the specific legal, political, and territorial processes by which dispossession is produced and contested over time. This framework is used to examine the long-overlooked history of Indigenous dispossession wrought by the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the early twentieth century. In-depth archival, legal, and ethnographic research reveals how, in the 1930s, this history became obscured by naturalizing discourses that continue to be invoked in disputes over tribal land and water rights today. The study underscores the complex intersections of law, history, and justice in struggles over dispossession and highlights the need for more engagement on these issues from political ecologists of the American West.
KW - American West
KW - Indigenous rights
KW - dispossession
KW - political ecology
KW - water
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192268216&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/24694452.2024.2332649
DO - 10.1080/24694452.2024.2332649
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85192268216
SN - 2469-4452
VL - 114
SP - 1232
EP - 1250
JO - Annals of the American Association of Geographers
JF - Annals of the American Association of Geographers
IS - 6
ER -