Indigenous people of what is now known as the United States faced the torturous realities of colonization which Dr. Qwo- Li Driskill argues separated them from their rights to land and body. The separation of indigenous people from their land and bodies carries harsh effects to this day. Decolonization is the only chance at justice for stripping indigenous communities of land and body.

Indigenous people were separated from their land and bodies as a direct result of the Western colonizer’s use of violence and cultural imperialism. Native communities endured the calculated genocide of their people at the hands of Spanish and American settlers. Despite the gross violence, Native communities never surrendered their land, but violence was not the only tactic western colonizers used to torture native people. Dunbar- Ortiz asserts, colonizers subjected Native people to abuse under written law, this law permitted colonizers to remove indigenous individuals from their own land, and remove all will and autonomy. It was made legal to keep an Indigenous child as a slave if one were to “obtain” one. In addition to force and law, violent colonization came in the form of cultural imperialism. Western colonizers introduced dangerous and degrading ideas of patriarchy and Christian sexual shame, which ultimately separated Indigenous women and two spirit people from their bodies. Before Christian settlers came to Native land, Patriarchy did not exist. Women were equal to men, and the identity of two spirit people existed without scrutiny, but Western cultural imperialism constructed “the other,” which ostracized two spirit individuals. This directly correlates to Driskill’s argument that colonization worked to colonize sexuality through the creation of the other. Cultural imperialism bound indigenous people to foreign binaries of gender and sexuality which uprooted indigenous women and two spirit people's lives.

The claws of cultural imperialism have not been shaken from indigenous communities in the present. The ideals of Christian gender, sexuality, and gendered social hierarchy disproportionately affect indigenous women and two spirit people. Currently, one third of Native American women have been raped, and 90% of aggressors are not Native American. The impact of the patriarchy and colonization tortures Native American women to this day. In the case of two spirit people, Professor Quo-Li Driskill asserts that two spirit individuals are murdered at an unfounded rate. These murders directly stem western gender binaries, homophobia, and transphobia. Professor Driskill brings to light the fact that no specific data analysis study has been conducted on the death rate of two spirit people. This is because two spirit individuals are lumped into westernized LGBT and transgender identities. This is an issue because two spirit people do not necessarily identify with the gender binaries that LGBT identities are bound to. There is room for colossal change for the liberation and recognition of indegenousw women and two spirit people.

Activist movements by Indigenous communities is prevalent in the modern day. For example, Beyond Recognition profiles Corrina Gould, who makes it her life’s work to educate the public on the Olone, and impact how the public sees cities. Cities across the United States such as San Francisco and Oakland, where Gould focuses her work, literally built on top of the bones and sacred sites of indigenous peoples. Activists like Gould are diligently working to educate the public on this fact, and prevent standing sacred sites from frivolous demolition.

It is undeniable that Native people were separated from both their land and body, and it is essential that every American individual with colonizer ancestors reflects upon their place in that. Decolonization begins with questioning one’s self: How am I complicit in the past and present injustice of Indigenous people? How can I listen and be an effective ally for Indigenous communities? How can I change my actions? The answers to these questions could lead any reader to the road of decolonization and justice.