Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist by Joanne Barker (review)

Reviewed by: Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist by Joanne Barker Pablo Millalen Lepin (bio) Red Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist by Joanne Barker University of California Press, 2021 red scare: the state's indigenous terrorist by Joanne Barker (Lenape, a citizen of the Delaware Tribe of Indians) opens with a prologue that highlights two scenarios linked to the struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the United States: on the one hand, Indigenous opposition to the violations of the rights of the treaties and to the oppression of Indigenous women, and on the other hand, Indigenous resistance to oil extraction in Standing Rock (North Dakota) and the demand for a legal instrument that addresses violence against Indigenous women in the United States. In both cases, sexual violence generated and perpetuated the traumas and subordination of Indigenous women. These processes illustrate the tensions between Indigenous Peoples and what the author characterizes as "imperialist States," states characterized by the use of "invasion, occupation, land theft, extraction, exploitation and sexual violence for centuries" (ix). Barker argues that Indigenous Peoples and their members are identified as "terrorists" (5). In other words, "Indigenous peoples who maintain governance and territorial-based lifeways are perceived as threats to the state's security and social stability" (21). Given the colonial stigma of "terrorists," states have granted themselves the authority to act with impunity, attack human dignity, and even kill. Barker's book is developed over four chapters. The first focuses on the threat that some ideologies (such as communism, socialism, anarchism, atheism, and the combination thereof) constitute to the security and social stability of the states. The second and third chapters focus on two ways in which Indigenous People have been framed as terrorists by Canada and the United States of America to protect their imperialist agendas. First, The Murderable Indian, a terrorist figure against whom the state uses all available tools: repression, discipline, and imprisonment. This figure is particularly relevant with regard to the opposition of industrial projects (e.g., oil and gas) resulting from collusion between states and corporate governments. The second, The Kinless Indian, is a figure "without any linear or community-based relationship to Indigenous People" (25). The Kinless [End Page 109] Indian encourages Indigenous identity fraud, which is prevalent in the Cherokee and Métis contexts and absolves the state of their responsibilities for the violence, impacting Indigenous governance and self-determination. In the fourth chapter, Barker reflects on reciprocity, a value embodied in Indigenous governance, as viable alternative to state imperialism. Barker illustrates her argument with an interdisciplinary and activist approach, drawing on reflections and contributions from activists and researchers in the fields of critical Indigenous and race studies, Indigenous feminism, and anti-imperialist studies. Through these intersections, Barker demonstrates that in the eyes of the state, racialized Indigenous bodies are indistinguishable from terrorists. The author makes a significant contribution to the field of critical Indigenous studies. Her analysis of colonial state discourse includes Indigenous methodology, drawing on stories that interpret the world from Indigenous Peoples' point of view. For example, Sky woman, a Lenape story about earth formation, adds a feminist methodology with an Indigenous and anti-imperialist approach, by proposing the concepts of "rematriation" and "rootedness." Rematriation is "the return of the land to Indigenous governance" (116). Rootedness is characterized by interdependence and reciprocity, where Indigenous Peoples "do not compete for space" (123), as the state and corporate governments do but instead share, respect, and promote reciprocity. Red Scare resonates in Abiayala (Latin America). For example, in Wallmapu, the ancestral lands of the Mapuche people, the Mapuche movement opposed the large-scale forestry companies and settlers. As a consequence, the outgoing government of Sebastián Piñera in Chile subjected the Mapuche to a militarization plan that installed Chilean soldiers in "conflict zones." The government narrative continually invoked the figure of the "terrorist" to justify the "state of exception" over Mapuche territory. Given the significance of the topic it would have been helpful to include some images for added impact on the academic audience, activists, and those outside of Turtle Island's geographies. Red Scare shows the colonial and imperialist responses that states deploy to Indigenous claims...

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