Community, (Settler) Colonial Collecting, & Commercialization: Patkáša Kšúpi Wòtawe as a Case Study for Interpreting (Dis)Possessed Indigenous Belongings

Abstract

This research examines how the meaning and function of dispossessed Indigenous belongings has been and continues to be produced within the broader context of settler colonialism. Centering two Dakȟóta patkáša kšúpi wòtawe, or turtle umbilical amulets, in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as the work of the living maker Holly Young (Thizáptaŋna/Wičhíyena Dakȟóta), this thesis proposes a three-part analytical framework to analyze how the function and meaning of these belongings has been altered due to settler colonialism. In the first phase of the analytical framework, how Indigenous belongings function within community, I highlight how patkáša kšúpi wòtawe function as a microcosm for land-based epistemologies, specifically kinship and cyclical conceptions of time. Phase two, which focuses on colonial or settler colonially dispossessed Indigenous belongings, highlights how the structures of settler colonialism relegate patkáša kšúpi wòtawe as an ethnographic specimen, negating the individuality and sovereignty of their maker. The final phase, commercialization, gives a brief overview of the history of Native artists explicitly engaging with the art market and how living makers, such as Holly Young, can be seen as facilitators of tribal resilience and resist ongoing settler colonialism. Ultimately, this thesis aims to destabilize and challenge the steadfast settler colonial epistemological and semiotic structures of knowledge production regarding removed Indigenous belongings. Theoretically framing my analysis within post-structuralist semiotics, I employ a combination of anticolonial methodologies, such as centering oral histories and scholars, and the voice of living makers with Western art historical methods like close visual analysis and archival research.