Article

At the Crossroads of Hualapai History, Memory, and American Colonization: Contesting Space and Place

Authors

Jeffrey Shepherd, University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

January 2008

Journal/Book Title/Conference

The American Indian Quarterly

Volume

32

Issue

1

Abstract

This essay argues that the colonization of the Americas involved not only physical and economic dimensions, but also spatial and historical components. As the Hualapai in Arizona contested colonization, they presented myriad forms of their own history in an effort to remain tied to traditional landscapes. However, as they articulated these histories, they implicitly accepted a metanarrative of their own past that reflected the modernist tropes of nationalism and cultural essentialism. Although they successfully held onto their reservation they simultaneously created an ambiguous legacy rooted in self-determination and contradictory strands of historical memory. Their anti-colonial resistance thwarted the extremes of conquest and exemplified their sense of peoplehood just as much as it demonstrated the multiple and contending layers of story-telling and sense of place.