Abstract

Widespread recognition of the effectiveness of Indigenous land stewardship has largely been met by attempts to instrumentalize Indigenous environmental governance in the service of global conservation goals. Instead, and in response to calls to decolonize conservation and identify alternatives to the neoliberalization of nature, I ask how anti-colonial Indigenous approaches should shape the future of environmental protection. Drawing on in-depth interviews and a Feminist Political Ecology approach, I argue that Indigenous womxn resisting settler colonialism in the U.S. Southwest are theorizing and practicing a distinct environmental paradigm, which I call Indigenous feminist environmental protection. Indigenous feminist environmental protection is defined by commitments to decolonization, nature as kin, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, spirituality and ceremony, womxn's leadership, and a radical approach. My analysis reveals the incommensurability of Indigenous practices and knowledges with colonial, capitalist environmental policies, indicating the need for a shift to decolonial environmental praxis.

Keywords: Indigenous women, decolonial resistance, neoliberal conservation, U.S. Southwest, decolonial conservation

How to Cite:

Lurie, M. R., (2025) “"We have that vision of the future": Indigenous womxn's resistance as environmental protection in the U.S. Southwest”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5225