Nichole Marie Shippen

Bordertown violence is a direct consequence of the ongoing settler-colonial genocidal strategy of eliminating Indigenous peoples for territorial acquisition and natural resource extraction. Contemporary acts of anti-Indian violence actively reinforce settler colonialism, resulting in the premature death of Indigenous peoples. The violence against the Native “Park Ranger” in the Wind River Reservation’s bordertown of Riverton, Wyoming, reveals myriad ways the settler citizenry internalizes and enacts anti- Indian logic. The foundational entanglements of American liberalism, racial capitalism, and settler colonialism underscore why a state-based politics of recognition in itself will not decolonize bordertown violence.