Sixteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The interlocking structures of U.S. settler colonialism and capitalism operate to invisiblize and annihilate Native Americans, who, as citizens of tribal nations, challenge the settler state’s supposed authority and stability. These structures directly come to bear on the bodies, freedoms, and futurities of Indigenous people and more-than-humans, what I term “settler colonial choreographies.” From the late 19th century to the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the U.S. government prohibited Native dance and spiritualities. The unstable conditions that colonization has caused is further evidenced in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Native people and nations. Yet, Indigenous people have navigated settler colonial choreographies by enacting practices that (re)establish stability for their wellbeing and survival—what I refer to as “decolonial choreographies.” Although scholars have documented U.S. prohibitions of Native practices and began to articulate how COVID-19 has harmed Native communities, they have often overlooked how close readings of Indigenous movement forms—a primary methodology in Dance studies—reveal vital knowledge. This essay examines videos filmed and posted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which feature Acosia Red Elk teaching a movement fusion style that she created: Powwow Yoga. Red Elk is a citizen of the Umatilla Tribe—whose traditional territory is located in what is often referred to as Pendleton, Oregon—a ten-time champion jingle dress dancer, and co-founder of Pendleton Yoga: Dynamic Movement Studio. I argue that Red Elk’s decolonial choreographies challenge settler colonialism by bringing visibility to contemporary Native people and issues, enacting Native understandings, and orchestrating healing.