Linda Hogan’s uncompromising endeavor at repairing and decolonizing nature and minds: the minor at work!

Abstract

International audienceNative American author Linda Hogan mirrors the exception of the state of Oklahoma where she was born, formerly known as “Indian Territory”, to which dozens of Indian tribes were deported in the 19th century. From her own personal location, rooted in this territory, both a margin and a center for Indian nations, and in her Chickasaw matrilineal culture, Hogan publishes works imbued with ecojustice and ecofeminism, an intersectionality that can be construed as Indian, posing the entanglement of environmental, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic and sovereignty issues.Hogan perpetuates the memory of colonization and re-writes the United States of America national narrative, relentlessly denouncing the upheavals, abuses and traumas inflicted upon Indian nations. Her protagonists, reflecting and reflected in a nature damaged and bordering on apocalypse, recover some direction by partially reconnecting with the Indian way of thinking: holistic and animistic, timeless and inter-dimensional. However, Hogan also questions cultural practices such as whaling in the northwest, arguing that the spirit of this tradition (Makah) has been lost to economic exploitation. Indeed, she grants herself absolute freedom to criticize both Euro-Americans and Natives; she does not idealize the Native American treatment of nature and denounces the lure of gain or power that does not spare Native tribes. Unsurprisingly, her feminist positions and her stance expose her to criticism; as does the fact that she recounts and comments upon the history of other tribes: in Native cultures, legitimacy is no trifle…Examining two of her novels and a work of non-fiction, our study will seek to analyze the functioning and the revolutionary potential (in Gilles Deleuze’s terms) of Hogan’s endeavor, as she proposes new paths combining reaffirmation and questioning of Indian ways. We will explore how her commitment to indigenous sovereignty manifests itself along with a broader position on social justice and environmental activism on a global scale, “questioning tradition as a liberating strategy” as she puts it