At the Crossroads: Intersections at Colonization

Abstract

Intersectionality arose as a strategy to understand how oppression operates simultaneously on multiple aspects of a person’s identity. As such, it provides a useful framework to recognize how gendered performances, racialized identities, and religious adherence shaped relationships between Europeans and Indigenous communities along with the enduring ramifications arising from initial contacts through today. Interrogating how Indigenous leaders, particularly of Caddo communities, interacted with Roman Catholic missionaries of New Spain offers an opportunity to understand broader relationships to power situated in intercultural negotiations of intersectional identities. These relationships are integral to archeological interpretations of the use and meaning of cultural materials.