Early Indigenous Literatures

Defining "child"

The document rests on a definition of child as one under eighteen, eligible for memerbership, and is biologically related--thereby enforcing at heteronormative relationship upon Native children and their relations. This becomes clear when reading Bonnin's "The Trial Path," where family definitions are restructured according to moments of negotiation around (un)belonging beyond blood ties. In this case, a young man is adopted in after passing a trial. The US settler logics cannot conceive of such a shift nor are they willing to follow Native precedents on what constitutes familial ties. Redefining the concept of the child outside of settler imaginaries, then, is integral to Native sovereignties and an expansion of possible futures.

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