Abstract
Theobald explores the intersection of colonial and reproductive politics in the United States and contends that for Native American women, the politics of abortion cannot be disentangled from the (ongoing) history of settler colonialism. The chapter provides an overview of two different historical “moments.” At the turn of the twentieth century, as policymakers and social reformers promoted the assimilation of Native peoples, Euro-American observers stigmatized Indigenous reproductive practices and shifted the blame for reservation conditions from colonial policies to Indigenous women’s bodies and behaviors. In the decades following World War II, the relative inaccessibility of abortion for Native women, both before and after Roe, served to delineate the parameters of “choice,” as Native women’s maternal rights came under attack in various forms.
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Notes
- 1.
Quotes are taken from a documentary that aired on PBS’s Independent Lens. Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, Young Lakota (Lincoln, NE: Independent Lens, 2013).
- 2.
See W. Q. T. Tucker to William Jones, Dec 31, 1903, Press Copies of Letters Sent to Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1901–1905, Crow, RG75, Box 6, Volume 1903, National Archives and Records Administration [Hereafter NARA], Broomfield, Colorado.
- 3.
Inspection Report, Flathead, Dec 30, 1919, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs: Central Classified Files 1907–1938, FILM 9730, Reel 4, Labriola American Indian Center, Arizona State University.
- 4.
Samuel Reynolds to Francis Leupp, July 11, 1905, Press Copies of Letters Sent to Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1901–1905, RG75, Box 7, Volume Jan. 9 1905–Oct. 2 1905, NARA, Broomfield, CO.
- 5.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs [Hereafter CIA], Annual Report, 1916, 5.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Cheyenne and Arapaho, Annual Report, 1918 and 1919, Superintendents’ Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports from Field Jurisdictions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1907–1938, RG75, FILM 3748, Labriola, ASU.
- 8.
I address this earlier history in an article-in-progress entitled “Managing Mothers: Government Social Workers on the Reservation, 1931–1945.”
- 9.
See Dick Palmer, “Cold Weather Poses Severe Problem for North Dakota Indian Tribes,” Jan 18, 1962, Newspaper Clipping, General Records of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Records of the Office of General Council, Publications Division, RG235, Box 2, Folder PHS—INDIAN #5 1961, NARA, Baltimore, Maryland.
- 10.
Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General, Report to Senator James Abourezk: Investigation of Allegations Concerning Indian Health Service (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976).
- 11.
“W.A.R.N. Report II,” 1979, Liberty Hill Foundation Records, 20th Century Organizational Files, Box 10, Folder Women of All Red Nations ’79/’80, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, California.
- 12.
See Lakota People’s Law Project, “Reviewing the Facts: An Assessment of the Accuracy of NPR’s Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families,” Report to Congress (Jan 22, 2013).
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Theobald, B. (2017). Settler Colonialism, Native American Motherhood, and the Politics of Terminating Pregnancies. In: Stettner, S., Ackerman, K., Burnett, K., Hay, T. (eds) Transcending Borders. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48399-3_14
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