Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
25. Are Indigenous people who adapt or alter their rituals and traditions (either by choice or historical necessity) less authentic than their ancestors?
Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
Kelsey Dayle John [+]
University of Arizona
Kelsey Dayle John (Diné) is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in Gender and Women’s Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. Her work is centered on animal relationalities, particularly horse/human relationships as ways of knowing, healing, and decolonizing education. Alongside her work in Indigenous animal studies, Kelsey’s research interests also include: Indigenous feminisms, decolonizing methodologies, and Tribal College and Universities. She finds her theoretical locations within transnational feminism, Indigenous studies, settler colonial studies, Diné Studies, and foundations of education.
Description
This chapter describes how the perception of an "authentic" Indian is incomplete, limiting, and bias. Furthermore, the author argues that this notion perpetuates the idea that Indigenous persons fall on linear timelines from authentic to assimilated.