In Quo-Li Driskill essay “Stolen From Our Bodies,” there is a definite statement that European colonizers separated indigenous women and/or Two-Spirit people from their “homes” and “bodies.” Having read through the material in class Ouo-Li Driskill statement is most accurate in that Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people have been persecuted and as a result of colonization we see the negative impact that its had on the world today. Thus there is a quandary that has left many generations of Indigenous people questioning where they come from. Colonization has proven to be destructive in every sense of economic, societal, and environmental relations to Indigenous peoples.

In an example of this a quote taken from Miranda explains ”We are valuable human beings, she tells other Native women: our bodies are sacred and we have a right to speak out against violence and violation” (Miranda 28-29). Indigenous women have proven to be resilient even with the actuality that white-men have tried to desecrate them for centuries. Another example of how European colonizers stole Indigenous women where through civilizing missions, padres tried to get indigenous people to live in them. Consequently Spanish soldiers would victimize those captured. Indigenous people once in the mission would be held captive against their will in these prison confinements behind adobe walls. “Conversion required stripping them of their religion, language, and culture” (Miranda 16). Miranda specifies the humiliation that Indigenous people faced by the cruelty of genocide led by Spanish soldiers. The Spanish had also introduced a foreign principal of patriarchy, a system of hierarchy where women who once held high leadership roles would submit to the will of men; they introduced the ideology that women should be passive to men, and serve under them. Sexual violence was also rampant during the Spanish colonization of indigenous peoples. Hence their bodies were being stolen from them among their ideologies and roles that dated pre-colonialism. There were also those considered “two-spirit” or third genders who too where humiliated and forced to act against all homophobia and transphobia. “Coutesi, Liuizucat, Yautaya as indigenous names for people”(Miranda 32) are some of which who where known as healers and death doulas. These third gender people Miranda refers to are how the Spanish called “joyas” that were treated horrible within the walls of the missions.

Decolonization is a term where Indigenous leaders and community outreach programs are trying to reverse engineer the way people think about the history of colonization in the Americas. We need to assert the facts that genocide was the real cause of the decline in Indigenous peoples population. According to the lecture of Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy there “are waves of destruction such as the reduction of the population due to Spanish Missions (1769), Rancho Systems, American War (1845) ranching and trading and lastly the Gold Rush (1849). In the Spanish mission system, we see the establishing the expansion of Spain and enslaving the indigenous people”(Risling). The Gold Rush too had resulted in an influx of more colonizers. Decimating the land, killing the environment and destroying the livelihood of Indigenous people. There for we have knowledge of US government establishing laws that legitimize their reasoning behind the genocide they want to commit against Indigenous people. “Charging extermination resulting in loss of 80% of the Indigenous population.

Forced to forget everything to a shadow existence that the foreign conquerors brought upon them”(Risling). There was an assimilation of border schools brought on the youth of Indigenous clans to Christianized and allow the dismantlement for futures to come. To combat the trauma that has been made through colonization is through resistance and resurgence programs to mend relationships to land, histories, language and cultures. Through programs like two feathers pushing for the A.C.O.R.N Youth Wellness Program it has allowed a degree of certainty and hope for future generations to understand the history of their peoples. Understanding whose land we inhabit now, therefore this is one of the first steps to decolonization. We need to rethink how we see US government systems and how this is not of Indigenous practices. Colonizers tried to strip away the positive impact that women have had on society especially for the male adolescent. Another example that Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy gives in reversing the effects of colonization; “is rejecting the ideology of two separate stratospheres that we are all one within the community”(Risling). In conclusion, Decolonization means putting emphasis on the resiliency, the revitalization and the re-indigenization happening in these communities.