ABSTRACT
The lens of settler colonial genocide, and its destructive cultural impact for Indigenous communities, refocuses some of the inquiry on societal culpability and the beneficiaries of a process of capitalist expansion. The emerging discourse, situated at the intersection of critical genocide and settler colonialism studies, employs a longitudinal analytical process that sits at the periphery of mainstream inquiry. The use of “cultural” as a qualifier is also condemned by some observers since, “Insisting on the centrality of physical destruction to the concept of genocide dismisses the very real destructive potential of cultural violence.” Raphael Lemkin drew a distinction between cultural change and cultural genocide, with the former involving a slow process of assimilation, while the latter reflects the “premeditated goal of those committing cultural genocide.” The genocide of Native Americans and Native cultures was ultimately incomplete, not owing to a lack of effort, but due to the perseverance and resilience of Native communities.
