Poster #115 - Haunting the Colonial Imagination: American Indian Ghost Stories through the Lens of Ghost Criminology

• In Event: ASC Poster Session I

Abstract

This paper explores American Indian ghost stories through the framework of ghost criminology, focusing on how these narratives reflect and reproduce the historical violence of settler colonialism. We examine popular and localized ghost stories tied to sites such as Plymouth, Massachusetts; the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose; the Trail of Tears; and Wounded Knee, as well as cultural tropes like the “Indian burial ground” seen in Pet Sematary and similar media. These stories often portray Indigenous spirits as vengeful or cursed, reinforcing stereotypes of American Indians as threats rather than victims of colonial violence. Ghost criminology allows us to understand how silences, absences, and unresolved traumas haunt the cultural imagination. Rather than serving as memorials, many of these stories erase Indigenous suffering and shift blame onto the supernatural. We argue that these narratives function ideologically to justify or obscure past injustices while sustaining harmful myths. By interrogating the ghost stories that circulate around American Indian histories and identities, this paper calls for a critical reexamination of how we remember—or fail to remember—colonial violence. In doing so, we aim to disrupt the spectral logic that haunts American folklore and cultural memory.

Authors

• Liam Collins Preyer, Arcadia University

• Jacob Richard Spina, Arcadia University

• Keisha M. Robinson, Arcadia University