Re-Membering the Boise Valley People: Rethinking Sovereignty in Contemporary Cultural Planning

FAIN: FT-264839-19

Kimberly Jenkins Marshall
University of Oklahoma, Norman (Norman, OK 73019-3003)

Research and writing of an article on reconciliation efforts by Boise city officials and Native American groups in order to better understand the meaning and role of sovereignty in such contexts.

Over the past few years, cultural planners from the City of Boise, Idaho and local Native American tribes have developed an innovative working relationship. Built on the principle of interdependent sovereignty, these partners have a plan to remake Boise’s cultural infrastructure. They are commissioning public artwork by Native artists and creating signs to reintroduce traditional place names into Boise’s urban spaces. This collaboration holds the potential for both innovative successes and unexpected challenges. However, the unique attitude toward interdependence guiding this collaboration may allow it to serve as a model for other tribal/settler state partners working toward reconciliation. At the invitation of both parties, I will document this collaboration, contributing a new perspective to our understanding of cultural sovereignty by demonstrating the interdependent way in which sovereignty can be enacted through collaborative cultural partnerships.