Native people face different forms of oppression based on identities that intersect. Some of these identities include but are not limited to gender, sex, being a colonized people, race, age, nationality, religious beliefs, citizenship status, literacy, class, ability, and sexuality. Decolonization is a major focus in Native intersectionality research. Queer studies should include more Native voices and Native studies needs to include more Queer Native voices. 

See also Chicana Feminism and LGBTQ Communties

Intersectionality and Native Identities 

Native people, because of their intersecting identities, face some of the most complex forms of oppression. Queer and Feminist Studies have been used in an interdisciplinary way with Native Studies to identify and theorize the complex and multifaceted identities of Natives and their intersecting identities in regards to race, class, gender, sexuality, federal recognition, languages, literacy, religion, and colonialism. Many Natives get erased in a wash of multiple oppressions, both in social spheres and in institutional representation. Racism towards Native populations is very complex as it is rooted in colonialism and has had several hundred years to take root at every level of our society. Native populations were targeted systematically through disease, wars, and schools to abolish Native identities through a destruction of languages, religions, and cultures. At the heart of Native intersectionality research is the focus of recognizing the differences and similarities Native populations experience as a result of being colonized peoples and to use this knowledge of oppressions Natives face as a political framework and tool to work toward the continuous decolonization and recognition of Tribes and Native populations, rights, and needs from governments and other institutions. The erasure of Native identities in Feminist discourse and the erasure of Queer identities in Native studies and the historical attitudes and actions against Native populations and the outcomes of these attitudes and actions leads us to Native intersectionality research.

Qwo-Li Driskill is a Cherokee Two-Spirit who writes in “Doubleweaving: Two-Spirit Critiques” about the different ways Native people can decolonize through the use of metaphors using Native art. S/he does not use the term “intersectionality” but rather uses a metaphor of the Cherokee Double weave basket. This is a basket woven one way and another inside of that basket woven another way, both using the same rim. S/he looks at Native studies and Queer studies as being able to have the same double woven purpose. People have more than one identity and they can have different reasons behind their oppression but all oppressions share the same weight. S/he critiques the ways in which Native sexualities are formed by umbrella terms much like the rest of Native identities, “the term Two-Spirit was chosen as an intertribal term to be used in English as a way to communicate numerous tribal traditions and social categories of gender outside dominant European binaries.” (Driskill) The construction of terms that umbrella many different identities into one erases the many cultures and practices that create individuals and tribes identities. This is seen at the institutional level and in much of academia.

Gloria Anzaldúa writes from the perspective of a Native Chicana Lesbian Woman living in Texas in her book, “Borderlands/La Frontera”. This perspective of facing oppressions from both the Mexican side and the American side of the border in every aspect of her life, from her citizenship and language, to her race and sexual orientation, is an important perspective in Native intersectionality research. She talks about the erasure of Native peoples, the relocations of Native peoples, the attempted destruction of languages. Gloria Anzaldúa presents the idea of a language defining a people and that languages legitimacy defining that people’s legitimacy or illegitimacy. The colonization of America left people displaced and clinging to their cultures as a way of keeping their sense of identity. She critiques her culture for being heteronormative and for how it uses patriarchal violence against women.

Reyna Ramirez discusses in “Learning Across Differences: Native and Ethnic Studies Feminisms” the ways feminism is lacking Native voices. She argues that most of the writing on women of color has been written mostly by Black women. She see’s the ways Black women are writing from their own experiences to critique and build upon or dismantle white mainstream feminism and sees her own way for doing something similar from her intersecting experiences as a Native woman. She points out that “whether one utilizes "a tribal name," "indigenous," "Native," "First Nations," or another term, highlighting our heterogeneity is essential for appreciating our varied experiences as indigenous women.” (Ramirez 304) She recognizes the work of other intersectional feminists and points out the ways Native feminists have failed to do so. “Native scholars' prioritizing of race and tribal nation over gender is a mistake, since sexism and racism oppress indigenous women at the same time.” (Ramirez 305) She is presenting us with her ideas of intersecting identities. In "Race, Tribal Nation, And Gender: A Native Feminist Approach To Belonging.” Reyna Ramirez focuses on several Native feminists that have put tribal sovereignty issues above issues regarding race and particularly sexism. She argues that these issues all intersect and are related to the act of colonization and the continuation of white feminism that is still imperialist. Ramirez argues that a rethinking of tribal sovereignty to include feminist approaches will help restructure the tribal structures in relation to the national governments to reduce the massive amounts of violence Native women experience as a result of the intersectionality of oppressions.

In Andrea Smith’s article, "Not An Indian Tradition: The Sexual Colonization Of Native Peoples" she discusses the ways in which colonization and sexual violence are intertwined and the effects they have on Native women. She argues that colonization is not the cause of sexual violence but rather the other way around, colonialism is a product of sexual violence and men’s socialization of violent domination. She argues that Native identity as a colonized population and the violence Native women experience are intersecting, “when a Native woman suffers abuse, this abuse is not just an attack on her identity as a woman, but on her identity as Native.” (Smith 71). Native women face many forms of violence, both in their private lives and in actions taken by the state in the forms of access to resources and healthcare. This is directly related to their race as Native in a colonized nation, and as women living in a patriarchal society.

Bonita Lawrence’s “Gender, Race, and the Regulation of Native Identity in Canada and the United States: an Overview” talks about the ways in which Native Americans and First Nation people have had their “Indianness” created for them by racist, colonialist, genocidal governments. “For Native people, individual identity is always being negotiated in relation to collective identity, and in the face of an external, colonizing society. Bodies of law defining and controlling Indianness have for years distorted and disrupted older Indigenous ways of identifying the self in relation not only to collective identity but also to the land.” (Lawrence 4) Her piece discusses the ways in which certain legislation has historically been used to oppress Natives from their cultures and land and the lasting effects of a strategy of divide and conquer against Native people. She argues that gender biases existed in this legislation creating the idea of “status” and “non-status” Indians through the marriage of a Native woman to a white man. In this instance the Native woman loses her status as Indian, thus not receiving the limited rights and resources available to her and becoming invisible via the institution of heterosexual marriage to a white man. This article looks at the intersectionality of being a colonized people, a marginalized race, and how this identity relates to gender. She claims that Native identities are constantly measured by racist and sexist ideals.

Many institutions, rooted in colonialism, stand in the way of Native identities being recognized. The academic fields of Native studies and white mainstream Feminism are slowly coming around to researching the effects of intersecting identities on Native people and the impacts of colonization. The many blanketed umbrella terms used to talk about Native people often misrepresents many Native people and their experiences. Colonialism, race, gender, sexuality, citizenship, federal recognition, and religion are all identities that Native people are oppressed by. The recognition that these identities intersect can help Native people decolonize their lives and critique the institutions that seek to help all people but often fall short, particularly with the needs of Natives. Feminism needs to allow space for Native people to be heard. The different experiences of people intersecting should be studied in interdisciplinary critiques of oppressions.

Bibliography: Selected Sources on Intersectionality and Native Identities 

Adams, Heather L., and Layli Phillips. "Ethnic Related Variations From The Cass Model Of Homosexual Identity Formation: The Experiences Of Two-Spirit, Lesbian And Gay Native Americans." Journal Of Homosexuality (2009) Web. 2 May 2016.

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.

Denis, Verna St. "ABORIGINAL EDUCATION AND ANTI-RACIST EDUCATION: BUILDING ALLIANCES ACROSS CULTURAL AND RACIAL IDENTITY." Canadian Journal of Education (2007) 1068-92. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2016.

Driskill, Qwo-Li. "Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques." GLQ: A Journal Of Lesbian & Gay Studies 16.1/2 (2010): 69-92.LGBT Life with Full Text. Web. 2 May 2016.

Gilley, Brian. "Joyous Discipline: Native Autonomy and Culturally Conservative Two-Spirit People." American Indian Culture and Research Journal (2014) 17-40. Web. 2 May 2016.

Goeman, Mishuana R., and Jennifer Nez Denetdale. “Guest Editors' Introduction: Native Feminisms: Legacies, Interventions, and Indigenous Sovereignties”. Wicazo Sa Review (2009) 9–13. Web. 2 May 2016.

Hall, Lisa Kahaleole. “Navigating Our Own "Sea of Islands": Remapping a Theoretical Space for Hawaiian Women and Indigenous Feminism”. Wicazo Sa Review (2009) 15–38. Web. 2 May 2016.

Kauanui, J. K. "Native Hawaiian Decolonization and the Politics of Gender." American Quarterly (2008) ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2016.

Kauanui, J. K. "Precarious Positions: Native Hawaiians and US Federal Recognition."Contemporary Pacific 17.1 (2005): 1-27. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2016.

Lajimodiere, Denise K. "American Indian Females And Stereotypes: Warriors, Leaders, Healers, Feminists; Not Drudges, Princesses, Prostitutes. "Multicultural Perspectives (2013) 104-109. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 May 2016.

Lawrence, Bonita. "Gender, Race, and the Regulation Of Native Identity In Canada And The United States: An Overview." Hypatia. (2003) Web. 2 May 2016.

Poblete-Cross, JoAnna. "Bridging Indigenous and Immigrant Struggles: A Case Study of American Samoa." American Quarterly (2010). ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2016.

Ramirez, Renya. “Learning Across Differences: Native and Ethnic Studies Feminisms”. American Quarterly (2008) 303–307. Web. 2 May 2016.

Ramirez, Renya. "Race, Tribal Nation, And Gender: A Native Feminist Approach To Belonging." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism (2007) 22-40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2016.

Smith, Andrea. "Not An Indian Tradition:The Sexual Colonization Of Native Peoples." Hypatia (2003) 70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 May 2016.