American fantasies and imagined histories: ethnic play and settler colonialism in twentieth-century Wyoming

Abstract

American Fantasies and Imagined Histories examines three case studies unified through ethnic play, the interrelated structures of settler colonialism and white supremacy, geographical location, and time period. This project employs an interdisplinary approach that combines original archival historical research, and literary and cultural analysis while drawing on Indigenous and Black frameworks. In twentieth-century Wyoming, redface and blackface filled Native and Black cultural absences maintaining the structures of settler colonialism and white supremacy. At the same time, this dissertation examines settler colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy in relation to the experiences of Black and Native peoples. This study shows how ethnic play both maintains and disrupts the race and gender hierarchies created by the interrelated structures of settler colonialism and white supremacy.