Session Abstract

The global “war on terror” began long before 9/11/01. Throughout the Americas, the discourses and practices of national security have generated severe and long-standing tensions between the projects of order and liberty, sovereignty and democracy. Indigenous peoples have been among those populations most severely affected by the policies of national security states. This proposed session examines the experiences of indigenous peoples in Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru as they confront the terror of state violence that is often justified with the language of national security. These papers also offer critical explorations of the convergence of colonial, Cold War, and post 9/11 logics which continue to produce military targets in “Indian country.” This panel seeks to foster decolonizing dialogues and accordingly includes a diverse groups of Native and non-Indigenous scholars from North, Central, and South America.