Rethinking political symbols: Indigenous nationhood and settler colonialism in the Canada/United States borderlands

Straddling the Canada/United States border at its western end is a 67-foot monument symbolizing 200 years of peace between the two countries. Today, it is frequently used as a site for protest against the state. This article analyzes an environmental protest against energy transmission projects through the Salish Sea by Coast Salish Indigenous nations. I argue that the Coast Salish are using the landscape as a political symbol, effectively erasing the international border that separates them. Their presentation as a unified nation succeeds because of their strategic manipulation of political symbols. Drawing primarily on ethnographic methods, this article demonstrates that the choice of the international park as a site of protest serves as an entry point for Indigenous activists to expand the scope of their position; the border is implicated in the creation of emergent political identities that draw on and transform political symbols. The argument is that the materiality of these political symbols is being used by Indigenous nations and their allies and contributes to theoretical work on settler colonialism as it pertains to the creation, deployment, and analysis of political symbols. The use of political symbols in the borderlands illustrates the shifts in a struggle over power and identity and how they manifest in daily life. Imagining landscape as a political symbol offers the opportunity to disrupt the centrality of the settler state. Renaming the Salish Sea in 2009/2010 enabled the binational Coast Salish to better present themselves as a unified nation to enhance their claims against the state. The Canada/United States border is "transnational" because it overlaps the territory of numerous nations-Canada, the United States, and numerous sovereign Indigenous nations. A cheval sur l'extremite ouest de la frontiere entre le Canada et les etats-Unis se trouve un monument haut de 67 pieds symbolisant 200 ans de paix entre les deux pays. Aujourd'hui, il est frequemment utilise comme un lieu de manifestation contre l'etat. Cet article analyse une manifestation environnementale par les nations indigenes de la cote des Salish contre les projets de transmission d'energie a travers la mer des Salish. Nous soutenons ici que les nations indigenes de la cote des Salish utilisent le paysage comme symbole politique, effacant ainsi la frontiere internationale qui les separe. Leur presentation en tant que nation unifiee obtient du succes grace a la manipulation strategique des symboles politiques. Utilisant principalement des methodes ethnographiques, cet article demontre que le choix du parc international comme lieu de manifestation sert de point d'entree pour les activistes indigenes afin d'etendre la portee de leur position. La frontiere est alors impliquee dans la creation d'identites politiques emergentes qui s'appuient sur celle-ci tout en transformant les symboles politiques. Selon nous, la materialite de ces symboles politiques est utilisee par les nations indigenes et leurs allies et contribue aux etudes theoriques sur le colonialisme de peuplement en ce qui concerne la creation, le deploiement et l'analyse des symboles politiques. L'usage de la symbolique dans les regions frontalieres illustre les changements dans la lutte pour le pouvoir et l'identite.