The University of Arizona Press
July 3, 2024
We are thrilled to share the news that Sarah Hernandez’s We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition has been selected for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association’s (NAISA) 2024 Best First Book Award!
Hernandez’s book recovers the literary record of Oceti Sakowin (historically known to some as the Sioux Nation) women, who served as their tribes’ traditional culture keepers and culture bearers. In so doing, it furthers discussions about settler colonialism, literature, nationalism, and gender.
Read an excerpt from the book where Hernandez makes the case, invoking Native feminist scholars Maile Arvine, Eve Tuck, and Angie Morrill, that “the United States is founded on the theory and practice of settler colonialism: a continuous and ongoing process of Indigenous erasure…”
This is the latest achievement for a book that has already received significant national recognition: In 2023, Hernandez represented South Dakota at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.
We Are the Stars is part of the University of Arizona Press’ Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies Series, which anchors intellectual work within an Indigenous framework that reflects Native-centered concerns and objectives.
Congratulations to Sarah on this incredible achievement!
