Theft

Grave robbery, territorial conquest, and irrigation

Bibliographic Data

ID4464836
AuthorsCarey Mott (0000-0002-4446-7097, University of Louisville, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume6
Issue4
Pages2636-2653
Publication date2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/25148486221145410
OpenAlexW4312178767
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited23

This paper explores the process of settler colonialism in Washington State's Yakima Valley in the early twentieth century as an example of a regional power bloc that sought to maximize white access to natural resources while dispossessing Native Americans of their lands and access to water. Through a multiscalar approach, I consider how colonization and white supremacy were normalized through infrastructural projects crucial to agricultural development and economic prosperity in the US West. A discussion of a 1906 Native American grave robbery operates as an anchor for a larger analysis of how irrigation infrastructure and other reclamation projects served the colonizing aims of the US federal government. In the US West, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Reclamation (BoR) were both federal agencies that played critical roles in an era where public lands were being converted to private property and allotted Native American reservation land was significantly diminished after being sold to non-Natives. The grave robbery itself and ensuing trial serve as indications of everyday life in the Yakima Valley in 1906, revealing the interconnections between infrastructural advancements, white supremacist settler colonialism, and grave robbery

Agriculture · Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · CONQUEST · Geography · Land reclamation · Natural resource · Political science · Private property · Prosperity · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Public Administration

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