The Safety Zone and Zones of Sovereignty Theories: To Know Thyself is the Beginning

• In Event: “To Remain an Indian” Revisited: Discussions on the Significance and Theory of Indigenous Educational Sovereignty in the 21st Century

Abstract

I present a reflexive study on how I have utilized “To Remain an Indian” and the safety zone (SZT)and zones of sovereignty (ZoS) theories. I began using the theories while researching and writing my dissertation on why educators in urban areas did not adhere to laws that mandated Native American content instruction in all public schools. Specifically, I focus on how I have interrogated settler pedagogy to understand what and how white settlers hear and learn. In this paper, I present the methodology, based on the SZT and ZoS, I used in my research on the metaphor “living in two worlds” as used in education publications. The question I asked was how has the metaphor been used in education since 1900 to the present? For this reflexive paper, I use the Navajo concept of ádaa’ ákohwiinidzin, (the knowledge of self in relation to others). This perspective allows me to study myself in relation to settler colonialism and the needs and wants of Native students. How do they converge (ZoS) and diverge (SZT)?

In this reflexive paper, I leaned on ideas that Charles Mills (1997) presented in the Racial Contract to explicate white supremacy. I use the racial contract to hypothesize the creation and maintenance of the settler safety zone. Mills writes whites create labels for the non-white/sub-persons. I argue settlers establish the concept of two worlds by identifying who is human or non-human. For whites to maintain their superiority and power, Mills argued, they agree to an epistemology of ignorance. In settler/Native contexts, I argue the settler (un)knowing is created and maintained through mythologies. For the two worlds research, I conducted a literature review of how the two worlds metaphor was used.

For the reflexive study, I utilized journals, emails, conversations, and observations. For the two worlds research, I used peer reviewed journals from the 1900s.

I identified four themes: 1.) the two-world metaphor as assimilation, 2.) two-world metaphors as the balancing of cultures, 3.) two-world metaphor as bridging cultures, and 4.) rejection of the notion of two worlds. The two-world metaphor as assimilation is from settler perspectives, a strategy to maintain the safety zone. The other themes, the two-world metaphor as balancing cultures, bridging cultures, and the rejection of the two-worlds concept, are from Native perspectives

The self-reflexivity carried out in this paper reflects my journey from settler hegemony to indigeneity. The scholarship is significant for educators (Native and non-Native) to understand to work with Native students and Nations.

Author

• Cynthia Benally, University of Utah