Space-Time Colonialism: Alaska's Indigenous and Asian Entanglements

Critical Indigeneities

by Juliana Hu Pegues

As the enduring "last frontier," Alaska proves an indispensable context for examining the form and function of American colonialism, particularly in the shift from western continental expansion to global empire. In this richly theorized work, Juliana Hu Pegues evaluates four key historical periods in U.S.-Alaskan the Alaskan purchase, the Gold Rush, the emergence of salmon canneries, and the World War II era. In each, Hu Pegues recognizes colonial and racial entanglements between Alaska Native peoples and Asian immigrants. In the midst of this complex interplay, the American colonial project advanced by differentially racializing and gendering Indigenous and Asian peoples, constructing Asian immigrants as "out of place" and Alaska Natives as "out of time." Counter to this space-time colonialism, Native and Asian peoples created alternate modes of meaning and belonging through their literature, photography, political organizing, and sociality.

Offering an intersectional approach to U.S. empire, Indigenous dispossession, and labor exploitation, Space-Time Colonialism makes clear that Alaska is essential to understanding both U.S. imperial expansion and the machinations of settler colonialism.

Genres: History, Indigenous, Race, Academic, Nonfiction

232 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2020

Reviews

[Juhyundred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly an incredibly thoughtful, well-researched and insightful meditation on the entanglements of Native dispossession and Asian exploitation in the making of settler colonial space/time in Alaska. 4 stars because I love the Asian American lit scholar girls but goddamn please free yourselves from Foucault already. The author also needs to revisit Marx because Glen Coulthard’s critique of primitive accumulation is correct but also based on a misreading of Mr Karl.

[cameron iizuka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orientalism is so shit, man.

[kingsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ok history/critical theory of Alaskan Native and Asian Americans in Alaska.