Settler cannabis notes

Kaitlin Reed studies the evolution of resource extraction in Indigenous territories

Framework of settler colonialism and Indigenous history

• In settler colonialism, crafting a new narrative of Indigenous lands

  • Manifest destiny

• Land, water, resources

• “Settler colonialism is a structure not an event”

Ecological impact of cannabis cultivation, especially trespass grows

Reed wanted to write about the ecology of the Yurok ancestral territory

Physical elimination (ICE, forced sterilization, land displacement), cultural elimination (boarding schools), political elimination (lack of legal recognition), discursement elimination

Cultural practices aren’t conducive to legal control and management

Drug prohibition is always meant to target and harass a racial/ethnic group

Operation Yurok

Siphoning water from the tribe to grow cannabis, but the tribe didn’t have too much to do about it

Humans are the ones, not the plant cannabis