Indigeneity
Given the complex, and overlapping, histories of indigeneity and coloniality in the Americas, as well as the multiple ways indigeneity is deployed in Latina/o studies, the discussion that follows is as much about the parameters of indigeneity in the field as what it has been mistaken for. Indigeneity has best been described as a field of power by Aida Hernández Castillo (2010) to name how Indigenous peoples negotiate an array of power relationships (within nation-states or with social scientists, for example) in a struggle over meaning that delegitimizes their forms of knowledge and ways of being. As the original inhabitants of the Americas, most identify first as tribal nations or pueblos (peoples, communities, towns, following Lynn Stephen [2007]), as well as embracing the broader constructions of First Nations, American Indian, Native American, or Indigenous peoples to articulate a diplomatic and legal framework for their survivance, self-determination, and territorial integrity in relation to colonial powers and settler states. The political, spiritual, social, and discursive practices of original (aboriginal) peoples are embedded in cultural continuity within the living, transforming (and intervened upon) cultures of their ancestors. Many government officials and policymakers have tied this definition of continuity to a territorial framework, which...