The Native Uncanny and Sustainable Survivance: The Land as a Spirited Site of Historical Trauma, Indian Ghosts, and Indigenous Resilience in Brandon Hobson’s The Removed

Vol 1 No 1, 2025                                                                                                 Research Article

Mamta Mehrania1    Dinesh Babu P., PhD2  
1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Central University of Punjab, India.
2Assistant Professor, Department of English, Central University of Punjab, India.

DOI: To be assigned

[Article History: Received: 30 Apr 2025. Accepted: 07 June 2025. Published: 23 June 2025]

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Abstract
In Indigenous epistemologies, places are imbued with identity, meaning, and even agency, acting as a dynamic force in the lives of both humans and non-humans. This concept is integral to the spiritual and cultural framework of many Native American communities. The novel, The Removed (2021) by Brandon Hobson, who has won the Pushcart Prize and the Western Heritage Award, addresses the theme of how physical location holds a kind of memory, encapsulating the history of those who lived, thrived, and suffered there. This resonates with characters like Tsala in The Removed, who transcend mere haunting to become agents of historical remembrance and cultural survivance. These spirits do not linger as remnants of loss but actively guide the living, ensuring that Indigenous histories, marked by resilience and trauma, are acknowledged, preserved, and sustained. Through the critical analysis using the concept of the uncanny and Gerald Vizenor’s theory of survivance, which delineates how Indigenous peoples have resisted colonisation and maintained their culture, this study explores how Native uncanny aligns with some of the Sustainable Development Goals, like reduced inequalities and the sense of justice and peace, by resisting the dominant narrative of systemic exclusion as positive discrimination. The study finds that the spirit in The Removed functions as an active agent of cultural memory and indigenous resilience rather than a passive symbol of the loss. The research highlights the potential of Native American literature to foster healing, cultural reclamation, and social justice in a contemporary context by showing how indigenous characters, rather than being passive subjects of trauma, assert cultural continuity and transform haunting experiences into empowerment, thereby reinforcing indigenous identity as an enduring force of preservation.

Keywords: Native Uncanny, Resilience, Identity Crisis, Native American Trauma, Survivance.