Communicating Felt Knowledge to Decolonize #MeToo: A Native Feminist Approach to the Sherman Alexie Allegations

Abstract:In February 2018, several women leveled allegations of sexual misconduct against Sherman Alexie, an author known for championing Native causes, challenging racism, and serving as a mentor for Native writers. Through a textual analysis, this article examines how two essayists, Deborah A. Miranda and Tracy Rector, embrace a Native feminist approach in responding to the allegations. I argue that these texts complicate the dominant narrative of the #MeToo movement and Western ideas of justice through a rhetoric of felt knowledge, or the sharing of personal narratives in which the emotional content is shaped by the settler colonialist experience, that explores other ways of knowing.