A review by lathramb
Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation by David Correia

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

A necessary addition to the published work of Native liberation and resistance to settler colonialism. The authors unsettle the concept of a bordertown, which they define as “white-dominated towns and cities that operate according to the same political and spatial logics as all other American towns and cities,” but these towns become known for their proximity to reservations. By focusing on bordertowns, the authors unveil the ways that all of the land settled and currently occupied in the United States is actually a bordertown, bordertowns are just the spatial locations where settler colonialism (violence) is most obvious. This shows up in various ways: MMIWG2S, cops killing Native people, exploitation of land and man camps that follow, alcohol sales, global pandemic. I appreciated this book for its rigorous analysis of historic and ongoing settler colonialism, its continual connections to global anti-colonial and decolonial movements through lateral solidarity, its challenge of peace and justice as liberally constructed, its complication of reconciliation – just to name a few. 

As our nation is currently constructed, Native life, land, and lifeways are a constant threat – because existence is resistance. Liberals, left, and conservative settlers alike turn away from this reality, and violence continues to ensue. A settler is not just a person occupying land, it is an orientation towards all land and life – extracting, exploiting, privatizing, commodifying. Read this book and you’re forced to look. 

A few favorite sections in no particular order: Law (chp. 4), Solidarity/Alliance (chp. 8), Off the Reservation (chp. 2), Property (chp. 6), Class (chp. 4), Tradition (chp. 6), Vigilante (chp. 3)