Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances
Product Description In Native Americans and the Christian Right, Andrea Smith advances social movement theory beyond simplistic understandings of social-justice activism as either right-wing or left-wing and urges a more open-minded approach to the role of religion in social movements. In examining the interplay of biblical scripture, gender, and nationalism in Christian Right and Native American activism, Smith rethinks the nature of political strategy and alliance-building for progressive purposes, highlighting the potential of unlikely alliances, termed “cowboys and Indians coalitions” by one of her Native activist interviewees. She also complicates ideas about identity, resistance, accommodation, and acquiescence in relation to social-justice activism.Smith draws on archival research, interviews, and her own participation in Native struggles and Christian Right conferences and events. She considers American Indian activism within the Promise Keepers and new Charismatic movements. She also explores specific opportunities for building unlikely alliances. For instance, while evangelicals’ understanding of the relationship between the Bible and the state may lead to reactionary positions on issues including homosexuality, civil rights, and abortion, it also supports a relatively progressive position on prison reform. In terms of evangelical and Native American feminisms, she reveals antiviolence organizing to be a galvanizing force within both communities, discusses theories of coalition politics among both evangelical and indigenous women, and considers Native women’s visions of sovereignty and nationhood. Smith concludes with a reflection on the implications of her research for the field of Native American studies. Review “Smith contributes a shrewdly innovative and theoretically ambitious analysis that transforms scholarship about progressive organizing and politics with her new insights on Native women organizing and theory, Christian Right arguments, and the intersections of ideas and interests that often are overlooked in western history.” - Myla Vicenti Carpio, Western Historical Quarterly“Native Americans and the Christian Right is an exciting and important project, one that can be improved by further research and the collection of more stories and accounts of effective change. It is written to encourage that very enterprise.” - Laurel C. Schneider, Contemporary Sociology“Native Americans and the Christian Right is an indispensible treatise on the radical relevance of indigenous criticism to interdisciplinary theory and all social movements. . . . Smith notably advances indigenous feminism not simply by reading ‘gender’ in indigenous politics but by engaging both indigenous and settler politics with indigenous feminist methodologies of alliance work for social change.” - Scott Lauria Morgensen, Signs“Smith has produced a brilliant, complex, and deeply original work that will stand as an important contribution to fields as wide-ranging as Native American studies, social movement theory, political science, religious studies, and gender theory.” - Tisa Wenger, Journal of Church and State“[A] fascinating and complex argument. . . . Native Americans and the Christian Right is a brave, provocative book. . . . Together with—as well as apart from—the political agenda of the book, Smith’s work presents a powerful analysis of social formation and identity articulation. She persuasively illustrates the ways contemporary Christian and Native groups alike are constituted by parties withvarying and variable interests that may align with those of unlikely allies in surprising and telling ways.” - Greg Johnson, Journal of the American Academy of Religion“In refusing to accept the typical explanations for the motivations of both groups, Smith enriches and challenges the reader to probe deeper into these “unlikely alliances” and offers up ideas for political activism, as well as new ways to understand the deeper issues of