Good Intentions are Not Good Relations : Grounding the Terms of Debt and Redress at Land Grab Universities

As part of a violent project US imperial expansion into Indigenous lands, the 1862 Morrill Act endowed and continues to accrue lasting benefits for Land Grant/Grab Universities (LGUs). The last three years have seen a surge in nationwide attention and mobilization for redress and calculations of debts owed to Indigenous Peoples for the land dealings of the 52 original LGUs. This article intervenes in the LGU question in two parts. First, I demonstrate culpability of LGUs by illustrating how the Morrill Act was part of a set of US imperial policies that expanded jurisdiction into Indigenous territories through violent and imperial acts of dispossession which are maintained today. Second, I argue that any terms of debt and redress for this dispossession must be framed within Indigenous and Indigenous feminist analytics of land and territory. Restitution cannot occur on the same terms as dispossession and instead must be built through repairing and maintaining good relations within specific Indigenous protocols. These interventions inform my concluding analysis of university administrations’ responses to growing advocacy around LGUs, with a focus on Cornell University where I am situated as a researcher

Ethnobiology Phase VI: Decolonizing Institutions, Projects, and Scholarship

Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people and lands around the world and extract natural resources. Those legacies and practices persist today and continue to influence the institutions ethnobiologists are a part of, how they carry out research, and their personal beliefs and actions. Various authors have previously outlined five overlapping "phases" of ethnobiology. Here, we argue that ethnobiology should move toward a sixth phase in which scholars and practitioners must actively challenge colonialism, racism, and oppressive structures embedded within their institutions, projects, and themselves. As an international group of ethnobiologists and scholars from allied fields, we identified key topics and priorities at three levels: at the institutional scale, we argue for repatriation/rematriation of biocultural heritage, accessibility of published work, and realignment of priorities to support community-driven research. At the level of projects, we emphasize the need for mutual dialogue, reciprocity, community research self-sufficiency, and research questions that support sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities over lands and waters. Finally, for individual scholars, we support self-reflection on language use, co-authorship, and implicit bias. We advocate for concrete actions at each of these levels to move the field further toward social justice, antiracism, and decolonization.La etnobiología, como muchos otros campos, ha sido moldeada por los esfuerzos imperialistas occidentales para colonizar gente y tierras alrededor del mundo y extraer sus recursos naturales. Estos legados y prácticas aún persisten hoy en día y continúan influyendo en las instituciones donde los etnobiólogos son parte, las formas en cómo desarrollan la investigación, sus creencias personales y acciones. Varios autores han resaltado anteriormente cinco fases superpuestas de la etnobiología. En este documento, nosotros argumentamos que la etnobiología debe moverse hacia una sexta fase en la que los académicos y practicantes deben activamente confrontar el colonialismo, el racismo y las estructuras opresivas que están embebidas dentro de sus instituciones, proyectos y de ellos mismos. Como un grupo internacional de etnobiólogos y académicos de campos aliados, identificamos temas centrales y prioridades en 3 niveles: a nivel institucional, nosotros abogamos por la repatriación/rematriación del patrimonio biocultural, la accesibilidad a los trabajos publicados, y la realineación de prioridades para apoyar la investigación liderada por las comunidades. A nivel de proyectos, nosotros enfatizamos la necesidad de un diálogo mutuo, de reciprocidad, que las comunidades sean autosuficientes en cuanto a investigación. Además, que las preguntas de investigación apoyen la soberanía de los Pueblos Indígenas y las Comunidades Locales sobre sus tierras y aguas. Finalmente, en el caso de los académicos, apoyamos los procesos de reflexión interna acerca del uso del lenguaje, las coautorías y los sesgos implícitos. Nosotros abogamos por acciones concretas en cada uno de estos niveles para movilizar a la etnobiología para que sea socialmente justa, anti-racista y descolonizada