Introduction: Where Extraction Takes Place

This introduction elaborates the prologue’s interpretation of George Morrison’s Collage IX: Landscape by linking to a reading of an even larger collage displayed on the exterior wall of the Minneapolis American Indian Center. Using this piece as a focal point, the introduction outlines the theoretical and methodological concepts that anchor the analyses that unfold in each subsequent chapter. In addition, the introduction establishes the book’s interdisciplinary approach to questions about sovereignty, the city, critique, and aesthetics that span Native American and Indigenous studies, the environmental humanities, modernist studies, American studies, Black studies, and legal history. The introduction ends with a self-reflective engagement with the author’s historical, political, and racial positionality and a chapter overview.