Bad Stories: A Theory of Indigenous Dispossession

The stereotypes that emerge from ideological literature, what Justice would call bad stories, are a part of the structure of settier colonialism and are an active method of unseating Indigenous peoples from these lands. Maracie and hooks are identifying the same hierarchies of colonialism, and hooks expresses it in almost identical fashion, "As far back as slavery, white people established a social hierarchy based on race and sex that ranked white men first, white women second, though sometimes equal to black men, who are ranked third, and black women last" (52-53). For Indigenous women, such as Lee Maracie and Leanne Simpson, it is an integral part of their critique of the settler colonial state. Simpson, in her book As We Have Always Done (2017) writes: A great deal of the colonizer's energy has gone into breaking the intimate connection of Nishnaabeg bodies (and minds and spirits) to each other and to the practices and associated knowledges that connect us to land, because this is the base of our power.