Histories of the Canoe Journey: Border Studies, Critical Indigenous Studies, and the Decolonization and Unsettling of Coast Salish Territory

ABSTRACT

The fields of Border Studies and Critical Indigenous Studies offer much to social scientists seeking to understand the operation of power in the lives of borderlands communities. This article illustrates why critical Indigenous scholarship should be a necessary framework in exploring issues of state and nation-building by examining four possible origin stories for what is now an annual event on the Northwest Coast of North America: The Canoe Journey. I implore border studies scholars to look beyond national boundaries and consider Indigenous epistemologies and historiographies in understanding the impacts that international borders have on shaping how all peoples make meaning of our world. I argue that doing so will allow border studies to contribute toward an analysis of settler colonialism and highlight the role state borders play in upholding it.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical indigenous studies
• ethnography
• epistemology
• historiography
• Canada/US border

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Blue Heron Canoe Family, The Nooksack Tribe, and the Stó:lo Nation for working with me. I would also like to thank Drs. Jennifer Rich, Yuhui Li, and Seran Schug; Sharon McCann; Philippa Chun; an anonymous reviewer; and the late Grant Shoffstall for their comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This quote and the ethnographic components of this article stem from fieldwork conducted in the Pacific Northwest over a multi-year period (2012–2016).

2 This event is also termed “Tribal Journeys.” I primarily use Canoe Journey for consistency throughout the article.

3 Though see Dennis Horwood (2014, 68) who reported on the 1908 canoe carved by Alfred and Robert Davidson (Haida).

4 Canada changed its reporting requirements for entering by boat (or canoe) to mandate advance declarations via mobile phone app and COVID protocols https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/pb-pp-eng.html.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation [grant number 8838].