Place as a storied event-in-process in Braiding sweetgrass and There there

Abstract

The notion that place may be conceptualized as a storied event-in-process is the crucial

premise of this literary exploration. The essay critically analyzes the storied memoir Braiding

Sweetgrass by Potawatomi scholar and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, and the novel There

There by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange, in order to understand the ways that

place is socialized and localized through habit, representation, narrative, and action in the texts

of these Native American activists. This comparative examination will demonstrate that

interpreting place as a storied, processual event enables possibilities for new representations of

identity and new imaginings of locality; the inquiry will also challenge the reader to actively and

intentionally participate in the storied event of place within the decolonizing frameworks

enunciated throughout the investigation.