2024 Oral History Association Annual Meeting

This panel explores oral histories which highlight twenty-first century examples on struggles for procedural justice by examining case studies of Indigenous Bolivian gender and sexual diversity, the Tribe of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation’s forced relocation in Louisiana, and the Native American Churches’ political mobilization against drug policy reform that decriminalizes mescaline, the psychedelic compound in peyote. Each case centers on the perspectives of Indigenous people and their political representation within multiple social landscapes.

Indigenous Sexual Diversities and the Politics of Language and Mobilization in Contemporary La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia
Natalie Kimball, College of Staten Island - CUNY

Drawing on approximately 30 oral interviews I conducted in 2022, this paper explores the ways in which queer individuals and activists in the Bolivian cities of La Paz and El Alto think and talk about, and mobilize for, rights and recognition. In particular, the paper explores the differences between indigenous and Euro-descendant perspectives toward sexual and gender diversity and LGBTQ activism in contemporary Bolivia.

End of the Road: Forced Exodus from Isle de Jean Charles
Heather Stone, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Interviews collected since 2015 share how the ancestors and current Jean Charles Choctaw Nation members have watched their inherited homeland wash away and become less habitable year to year, month to month, and even day to day. With it went a part of their cultural identity, and its loss, in effect, creates an abolishing of their community as environmental changes have forced the Tribe into surrounding areas.
ABSTRACT: Centering approximately 60 oral history interviews collected from three U.S-based scholars conducting independent projects between the years 2016-2024, this session explores the ways in which Indigenous communities think, talk about, and mobilize for, rights and recognition across multiple political landscapes. Voices include queer individuals and activists who criticize the role of western knowledge systems and NGOs on determining priorities in the struggle for queer rights in the Bolivian cities of La Paz and El Alto. Oral histories from this collection demonstrate how organizations and groups formed by individuals of indigenous Bolivian descent typically identify with pre-Colombian notions of sexual diversity and eschew the use of the language they deem western. The second case study in this panel explores engagement with politically active members of the Native American Church from the American southwest and Rocky Mountain region who advocate for Peyote protection/conservation in the wake of 2020s psychedelic drug policy reform. The contentious political background surrounding the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) is considered by tribal members to be a major historical backdrop of contemporary drug policy reform in the U.S. Finally, the oral histories of tribal members from the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation facing the both the effects of climate change and the legacy of forced relocation in the American south are amplified within educational spaces. This project brings attention to Indigenous residents in Louisiana deeply impacted by rising sea levels. Inspired by this year’s conference theme, this session engages with the ways in which the long history of indigenous mobilization coincides with present-day, global struggles for political representation. Despite the historical marginalization of Indigenous populations and knowledge systems in Indigenous communities globally, the session illustrates how indigenous activists are employing organizational forms to mobilize for rights, recognition, and protection of their bodies, language, land, and sacred ceremonies.