Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies Luhui Whitebear writes about her experience navigating a land-grant institution and how Indigenous feminism has been at the forefront of tribal sovereignty
Luhui Whitebear
By Colin Bowyer, Communications Manager - September 5, 2025
In two new articles, Luhui Whitebear, ‘03, ‘13, M.A. ‘16, Ph.D. ‘20, draws from her lived experiences as an Indigenous scholar and activist to illustrate how institutional spaces, oftentimes colonial structures, marginalize Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
In “A Story of Parallel Worlds: Decolonial Possibilities Navigating Institutional Spaces,” written in 2022, but published in July 2025’s issue of Decolonial Possibilities: Indigenously Rooted Practices in Rhetoric and Writing, Whitebear describes these institutions as “parallel worlds” — places where Indigenous people must constantly navigate between their cultural identities and the dominant norms of academia.
“As I think of decolonial possibilities while navigating institutional spaces,” Whitebear writes, “I think of the ways in which they are created: who creates them, the parameters around them, and the institutional limitations. However, I also think of the ways in which institutional practices are connected to land—whose land we are on and the larger implications this has in working from a decolonial lens.”
Through her experience at Oregon State, Whitebear outlines how working at the kaku-ixt mana ina haws cultural center, as well as helping craft the university’s land acknowledgment, has centered the impact of settler colonialism, alongside the necessity of protecting and honoring Tribal sovereignty.
In Whitebear’s chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminist Rhetoric, titled “As Long As the River Runs: Rhetorics of Indigenous Feminist Activism,” they center on the enduring resistance of Indigenous women against settler colonialism, particularly through feminist activism rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems.
“I wanted to write about treaties and how Indigenous women have always been political through their experiences navigating with settlers,” explained Whitebear.
Women in Indigenous communities have continuously resisted settler colonial efforts aimed at genocide, natural resource extraction, and assimilation. This community-centered resistance is framed not only as survival but as a form of rhetorical and activist power. Whitebear also introduces the importance of rhetorical sovereignty, whereby Indigenous peoples reclaim their narratives and rhetorical spaces by challenging dominant discourses in academia, media, and policy.
The title metaphor, “as long as the river runs,” reflects how Indigenous feminist activism is embodied, ongoing, and tied to land, water, and cultural survival.
“Ultimately,” explained Whitebear, “the chapter is a call to action for institutions to recognize and support Indigenous epistemologies, and for Indigenous scholars to continue carving out spaces of possibility and resistance within academia.”