The Urban Politics of Settler-Colonialism: Articulations of the Colonial Relation in Postwar Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1945-1975 (AND BEYOND)

dc.contributor.advisorWood, Patricia Katharine
dc.creatorHugill, David Warren
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-16T19:14:39Z
dc.date.available2015-12-16T19:14:39Z
dc.date.copyright2015-06-10
dc.date.issued2015-12-16
dc.date.updated2015-12-16T19:14:39Z
dc.degree.disciplineGeography
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation documents some of the ways that colonial practices and mentalities have shaped relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the historical and material conjuncture of Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a focus on the period 1945 to 1975. Building on political and geographical literature concerned with the enduring effects of settler-colonization in North American urban environments, my inquiry starts from the premise that the “colonial relation” retains a persistent structural trace in Minneapolis, manifesting through a series of practices and dynamics that operate to enforce particular forms of social, economic, and territorial domination. I begin by demonstrating that Indigenous peoples in the area were territorially and economically displaced in the construction of the newcomer settlement that became Minneapolis, which I describe by looking critically at the life of one of the city’s early “city builders,” Thomas Barlow Walker. I then expand this discussion by developing a series of arguments that demonstrate how the “colonial relation” has articulated in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis, which, for a variety of reasons, emerged as a site of significant Indigenous residential concentration and congregation in the aftermath of the Second World War. In particular, I consider how colonial practices and mentalities hastened Indigenous migration to the inner-city, constrained the knowledge practices of non-Indigenous advocacy organizations interested in alleviating urban forms of Indigenous marginalization, and shaped a culture of inner-city “racialized policing.” I then conclude with a brief and speculative look at the colonial relation in present-day Minneapolis, examining some of the ways that both Indigenous marginality and economic prosperity are bound up with broader deployments of state violence, particularly through the activities of local weapons manufacturers. Throughout, I argue that to make sense of the distinct patterns of group differentiated insecurity that disproportionately plagued Indigenous migrants to Minneapolis in the postwar period and the decades that followed, we need to think beyond the immediacy of the present and pay close heed to the ways in which colonially-inflected legacies, material distributions, and knowledge practices continue to have distinct effects.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/30638
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectGeography
dc.subjectNative American studies
dc.subjectAmerican studies
dc.subject.keywordscolonialism
dc.subject.keywordssettler-colonialism
dc.subject.keywordscolonial legacies
dc.subject.keywordscolonial relationships
dc.subject.keywordscolonial relation
dc.subject.keywordsempire
dc.subject.keywordsimperialism
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican empire
dc.subject.keywordsprimitive accumulation
dc.subject.keywordsaccumulation by dispossession
dc.subject.keywordsurban geography
dc.subject.keywordsurban political economy
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous urbanization
dc.subject.keywordsurban Indigenous people
dc.subject.keywordsurban crisis
dc.subject.keywordsurban politics
dc.subject.keywordsurban change
dc.subject.keywordsmetropolitan change
dc.subject.keywordsurban renewal
dc.subject.keywordssuburbanization
dc.subject.keywordsinterstate construction
dc.subject.keywordsracism
dc.subject.keywordsracialization
dc.subject.keywordsurban racism
dc.subject.keywordsinner-city stigmatization
dc.subject.keywordspoverty
dc.subject.keywordsPhillips neighborhood
dc.subject.keywordsEast Franklin Avenue
dc.subject.keywordsMinneapolis
dc.subject.keywordsTwin Cities
dc.subject.keywordsSt. Paul
dc.subject.keywordsMinnesota
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States
dc.subject.keywordsurban social movements
dc.subject.keywordspolice brutality
dc.subject.keywordsracialized policing
dc.subject.keywordshousing discrimination
dc.subject.keywordsdevalorization cycle
dc.subject.keywordshistory of the Dakota people
dc.subject.keywordshistory of the Anishinaabeg people
dc.subject.keywordsthe Honeywell corporation
dc.subject.keywordsland mine manufacturing
dc.subject.keywordsTwin Cities weapons manufacturing
dc.subject.keywordsLeague of Women Voters of Minnesota
dc.subject.keywordsElizabeth Ebbott
dc.subject.keywordsPhillips Works
dc.subject.keywordsTraining Center for Community Programs
dc.subject.keywordsUniversity of Minnesota
dc.subject.keywordsUrban Indian Relocation Program
dc.subject.keywordsThomas Barlow Walker
dc.subject.keywordsWalker Art Gallery
dc.subject.keywordsHmong diaspora in the United States
dc.subject.keywordsSomali diaspora in the United States
dc.subject.keywordsliberal anti-racism
dc.subject.keywordsNew Deal Order
dc.subject.keywordsDemocratic-Farmer-Labor party
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican Indian Movement
dc.subject.keywordsBlack Panther Party
dc.subject.keywordsWar on Poverty
dc.subject.keywordsMinnesota politics.
dc.titleThe Urban Politics of Settler-Colonialism: Articulations of the Colonial Relation in Postwar Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1945-1975 (AND BEYOND)
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Hugill_David_W_2015_PhD.pdf
Size:
8.14 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.83 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.38 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:

Collections