Speculative Fiction in Native American Indian Literature: Active Resistance to Female American Indian Stereotypes

Native American authors who are actively seeking to disrupt patriarchy and colonial narratives tend not to write in the literary genre of speculative fiction, which is a literary form that often serves to subvert Indigenous identities through colonial pedagogy of racial, sexual, and gendered clichés. I argue that the Native American voice, both male and female, is a form of active resistance to the master narrative, and those voices are changing how Native American Indian communities view their histories and identities through contemporary speculative fiction. I also assert that Native American authors are examining the multiplicities and conflicts of their identities through the genre of speculative fiction, which cultivates new critical theories for Native American literatures. Through an extensive literary review of Blake Hausman’s novel, Riding the Trail of Tears, and a textual reading of the female protagonist, Tallulah Wilson, I suggest that commonly held stereotypes of Native American Indian women are undergoing a radical and empowering movement through speculative fiction narratives