Place as a storied event-in-process in Braiding sweetgrass and There there

Abstract

The notion that place may be conceptualized as a storied event-in-process is the crucial premise of this literary exploration. The essay critically analyzes the storied memoir Braiding Sweetgrass by Potawatomi scholar and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, and the novel There There by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange, in order to understand the ways that place is socialized and localized through habit, representation, narrative, and action in the texts of these Native American activists. This comparative examination will demonstrate that interpreting place as a storied, processual event enables possibilities for new representations of identity and new imaginings of locality; the inquiry will also challenge the reader to actively and intentionally participate in the storied event of place within the decolonizing frameworks enunciated throughout the investigation.