Native americans and colonialism in the longue durée: Dancing with incorporation

Abstract

The chapter describes a genealogy of Marxist approaches to continental colonialism in North America. Colonialism is understood in political-economic terms as long-term, ongoing process of the incorporation of indigenous societies into the capitalist market. Such incorporation happened not only through the enforcement of colonial economic structures from the outside but also through the internal conscious adoption of a capitalist model of economic development by indigenous elites. This ʼneo-tribal-capitalist’ strategy is sustained by a traditionalist discourse that builds upon the politicization of culture and identity. As recent resistance against major extractivist projects has shown, however, colonial exploitation is no longer accepted uncontested by a contemporary generation of indigenous activists increasingly aware of the colonialism-capitalism nexus.