https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.052
A Settler Colonialist Reading of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Crooked Hallelujah
KRISHNA MENON
Research Scholar
Department of English
University College, Trivandrum, Kerala
Email: krishmen07@gmail.com
DR. SRUTI RAMACHANDRAN
Associate Professor and Head
Department of English
Government College, Attingal, Trivandrum, Kerala
Email: 2srutiramachandran@gmail.com
Abstract: In this paper, a settler colonialist reading of Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley and Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford is attempted. Firekeeper’s Daughter is a young adult novel set in the year 2004 in Sault Ste. Marie. It offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of members of the Anishinaabe community in the wake of mounting drug-related deaths. Crooked Hallelujah opens in 1974 and is structured as a collection of vignettes centred on four generations of Cherokee women as they grapple with religious conservatism, violence, and poverty. Distanced from their Indigenous cultural heritage, these women seek solace in community, sisterhood, and family.
The primary aim of this paper is to identify and examine instances of settler colonialism such as oppression, cultural erasure, racism, and white supremacist tendencies. The impact of settler colonialism will also be investigated, particularly how it has manifested in the contemporary world as depicted in the selected works of fiction. The various ways by which Native American communities resist and negotiate their cultural identities will likewise be highlighted.
At its centre, this paper explores what it means to be a Native American individual in a rapidly changing world. The selected works expose settler colonialism as a continuing structure of oppression that disrupts kinship, faith, and cultural continuity, even as Indigenous characters resist through community and survival.
Keywords: Settler Colonialism, Native American, Identity, Trauma, Cultural Identity
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