Settler colonialism as eco-social structure and the production of colonial ecological violence

Abstract

Settler colonialism is a significant force shaping eco-social relations within what is called the United States. This paper demonstrates some of the ways that settler colonialism structures environmental practices and epistemologies by looking closely at some of the institutional practices of state actors, and at the cultural practices of mainstream environmentalism. By considering a range of settler projects aimed at Indigenous erasure and highlighting linkages between these projects and eco-social disruption, I also advance the term colonial ecological violence as a framework for considering the outcomes of this structuring in terms of the impacts on Indigenous peoples and communities.