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STOLEN SPACES, STOLEN GENERATIONS: SPACE-TIME

RECLAMATION BY TWIN-SPIRIT KUMEYAAY ACTIVIST, (LAHUNT)

KAREN VIGNEAULT

Espacios robados, generaciones robadas: recuperación del espacio-tiempo

por la activista Kumeyaay de dos espíritus, (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault

Monica Bradley Harvey

ABSTRACT

This paper explores Indigenous understandings of space and time, as represented through Kumeyaay

spirituality/cosmology, which contradict the philosophical and ideological meanings in Western ontologies. It

offers a non-modern telling of (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s life (1958-2019), a Kumeyaay Two-Spirit historian and

activist, through Indigenous philosophy, feminist, queer and decolonial theory, historical documents, interviews,

and online resources. It tells different “stories” stemming from Vigneault’s life scaling the space of her lived body

to the sacredness of the Kuuchamaa mountain and Kumeyaay lands (stolen spaces), her activism for spiritual and

cultural reclamation, such as Two-Spirit identity, and the reunification of forcibly separated Indigenous families

internationally (stolen generations). This paper analyzes how settler colonization in the United States has affected

space-time realties and disrespected the localities, environment, sacred lands, spirits, and bodies of the Kumeyaay

people who have inhabited the San Diego region of Southern California for over 10,000 years. It explores how

individuals like Vigneault have dedicated their lives to healing the fissures and spirits of local people and lands

reuniting space and time through the reclamation of places, histories, languages, traditions, identities, and separated

peoples.

Key words: Indigenous philosophy, decolonial theory, two-spirit, Kumeyaay, space and time.

RESUMEN

Este artículo explora las comprensiones indígenas del espacio y el tiempo, representados a través de la

espiritualidad/cosmología Kumeyaay, que contradicen los significados filosóficos e ideológicos de las ontologías

occidentales. Ofrece un relato no moderno de la vida de (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault (1958-2019), historiadora y

activista de los Dos Espíritus Kumeyaay, a través de la filosofía indígena, la teoría feminista, queer y decolonial,

documentos históricos, entrevistas y recursos en línea. Cuenta diferentes «historias» que se derivan de la vida de

Vigneault escalando el espacio de su cuerpo vivido hasta la sacralidad de la montaña Kuuchamaa y las tierras

Kumeyaay (espacios robados), su activismo por la recuperación espiritual y cultural, como la identidad de los Dos

Espíritus, y la reunificación de familias indígenas separadas por la fuerza a nivel internacional (generaciones

robadas). Este artículo analiza cómo la colonización de los colonos en los Estados Unidos ha afectado las realidades

del espacio-tiempo y ha faltado el respeto a las localidades, el medio ambiente, las tierras sagradas, los espíritus y

los cuerpos del pueblo Kumeyaay que ha habitado la región de San Diego en el sur de California durante más de

10 000 años. Explora cómo individuos como Vigneault han dedicado sus vidas a sanar las fisuras y los espíritus de

las personas y tierras locales, reuniendo el espacio y el tiempo a través de la recuperación de lugares, historias,

idiomas, tradiciones, identidades y pueblos separados.

Palabras clave: filosofía indígena, teoría decolonial, dos espíritus, Kumeyaay, espacio y tiempo.

Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica. M.Ed Educación Inglesa, Universidad Latinoamericana de

Ciencia y Tecnología (ULACIT), M.A. Estudios de la Mujer, Universidad de Costa Rica. Correo electrónico:

MONICA.BRADLEY@ucr.ac.cr ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0755-6389

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15517/rk.v49i1.64510

Recepción: 25/2/2024 Aceptación: 8/8/2024

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1. Introduction

An imagining of radical, decolonial Indigenous

GLBTQ2 critiques demands centering Indigenous

frameworks and experiences as sites inspiring theory

and practice (Driskill, 2011, p. 19).

Indigenous worldviews of cyclical space and time allow for the reconstitution of new and old

patterns of possibilities and a contestation of colonial authority over knowledge systems that have damaged

Indigenous peoples globally. This paper specifically considers the activism and knowledge formation of

Kumeyaay peoples of San Diego and Baja California and their intersections in one story and life: (LaHunt)

Karen Vigneault (1958-2019). Decolonial theorist Mignolo (2013) suggests a breakage with linear

conceptualizations of Western knowledge by eliminating the imperialistic term “pre-modern” and replacing

it with “non-modern” “which implies delinking and border thinking …[to] build just and equitable futures

beyond the logic of coloniality that is constitutive of the rhetoric of modernity” (p. 144). This paper

excavates, extrapolates, and re-members a non-modern telling of (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s life (1958-

2019), a Kumeyaay Twin-Spirit

historian and activist, through Indigenous philosophy, feminist, queer, and

decolonial theory, historical documents, interviews, and online resources to explore how her life and work

healed sacred parts of her tribal heritage and space/time fissures. In Kumeyaay spiritual beliefs, when a

person forgets or chooses not to live their life righteously, their soul, when their body dies, releases into a

space of nothingness in the center of the Earth: it no longer exists and does not transcend from the Earthly

plane of existence (Miskwish, 2016). Vigneault’s work resists the emptiness created through destructive

actions of settler-colonialism and reunifies social spaces and traditions for Kumeyaay people and reclaims

the respected role of Two-Spirit people.

LaHunt is a word in the Kumeyaay language to be used before a person’s name that has crossed over as to not call

them back to this world.

Vigneault preferred the term “Twin-Spirit” to the term “Two-Spirit” to signify her membership in the LGBTQ2S+

indigenous community as the word “twin” carries a special connection to sacred unity. This paper uses both terms.

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While our world teeters on the brink of ecological collapse, little is done to atone for the deeply

rooted problems caused by settler-colonialism. This paper demonstrates how Kumeyaay concepts of space-

time can provide valuable ways to think about symbiotic and harmonious relationships between humans,

the Earth, and the cosmos. Even though settler-colonialism destroyed much knowledge of the Kumeyaay

spiritual traditions, many Kumeyaay peoples, like Vigneault, protected this sacred knowledge within their

communities so they could reclaim these traditions within their hearts and spirits. This paper tells different

“stories” stemming from Vigneault’s life flowing in and out of time. It scales diverse spaces that originate

from her lived experience: i.e., the sacredness of Kumeyaay lands, such as the Kuuchamaa mountain, the

(neo)colonial policies of a government and a university, spiritual/cultural reclamation of Kumeyaay

practices and histories, and the reunification of Two-Spirit identity and forcibly separated Indigenous

families internationally. The local/global/cosmic in this space-time compression represent collective

“memories” united through geopolitical realities within a single life. For most Indigenous peoples, space-

time has always functioned simultaneously “on the basis of its manifestation of energy and personality,

which can be explained as spiritual activity,” yet processes of settler-colonialism have suppressed and

destroyed this knowledge “as primitive and superstitious” (Deloria, 2012, p. 49). This project follows the

ripples from Vigneault’s life that demonstrate how queer Indigenous futurity can reveal “visions of what

decolonial relationships and futures might look like when they are formed through a radical Indigenous

politics of refusal in the face of U.S. empire” (Mo’E’Hahne, 2021, p. 254).

2. Justification

As a young graduate student, I had the privilege of working with (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault in her

induction into the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame in 2008. While not Indigenous myself, I developed a

strong kinship with Vigneault as a lesbian and a feminist and with similar spiritual beliefs. Since she crossed

over in 2019, I have wanted to write a tribute to this Kumeyaay, Twin-Spirit historian and activist. As her

work so potently demonstrated, too many stories of Indigenous people are erased, never recorded,

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sometimes never known. Yet Vigneault’s work offers a path towards healing by remembering and mourning

an unfair past, a past I benefit from as a white settler. Starting with Vigneault’s life and connecting it to

complex realities that conflate space-time for Indigenous peoples in Baja California/San Diego provides a

unique position to investigate the reclamation of lands, people, the environment, and spiritual practices to

begin healing the realities of colonization, borders, “boarding schools” where children were stolen from

their families, violence and addiction, and the attempted destruction of a people. Thus, I offer these words

with honor to all Kumeyaay, First Nation, and Indigenous peoples and the many untold stories that may

resonate with them, including the untold stories here in Costa Rica and Central America.

3. Objective

By starting with the space of (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s life and moving into other space-

times where activism, history, humanity, local and global realities conflate, this paper analyzes how settler-

colonization in the United States has disrespected the localities, the environment, spirits, and bodies of the

Kumeyaay people. It explores how this destruction affected space-time realities for Kumeyaay peoples and

how individuals like Vigneault dedicated their lives to healing the spirit of the people and the lands, from

the stolen and polluted Kumeyaay lands to the stolen generations of Indigenous children placed in “boarding

schools” and/or adopted into non-Indigenous families. It presents Kumeyaay worldviews of time-space that

can help heal these cultural ruptures. As Vigneault dedicated her life to reclaiming space-time histories of

the Kumeyaay, Indigenous, and Two-Spirit people, this paper honors her memory by sharing one

assemblage of her life and activism.

4. Methodology

This text uses qualitative research methods employing intersectional, queer Indigenous, feminist,

and decolonial methodologies. It begins with the social space of (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s body/life,

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extending into other social spaces. Feminist geographer McDowell (1999) posits that bodies are material

sites with “more or less impermeable boundaries” that occupy space, but these bodies carry “a history and

a geography” affecting how they are perceived (pp. 34-36). While bodies certainly have a geography and a

history, in many Indigenous understandings, the body itself does not have “impermeable” boundaries as

losing a limb does not end our life but losing the air, the sun, or water does and, hence, are equally part of

our “body”: As Whitehead (2023) (Oji-Cree) explains: “My elders tell me that when we set foot on a piece

of land—again a body—we simultaneously experience the past, present and future… the land is an archive,

is a library, is a genealogy—a body of land is a body of literature” (p. 89). By extending the location of the

body outwardly into a web of social, historical, and geographical bodies, this paper begins with Vigneault

as a site of origin and orientation. Borrowing from the queer decolonial phenomenologist Amhed (2007),

“Orientation involves aligning body and space: we only know which way to turn once we know which way

we are facing” (original emphasis, p. 7). Likewise, Mignolo (2013) expounds, “Points of origination and

routes of dispersion are key concepts to trace geo-politics of knowing/sensing/believing as well as body-

politics of knowing/sensing/ understanding” (p. 141). Hence some of the paths that Vigneault has trodden

have led me to explore other spaces in this paper. The stories originating from Vigneault’s experience use

decolonial methodologies that decenter the dehumanizing aspects of Western knowledge production, the

same systems responsible for the destruction and violence discussed in this project. As such, this project

asks certain ethnographical questions:

What is the relationship between our theories and those we are theorizing about? Do the subjects

of our theorizing see themselves in the same way as we describe them in books, journal articles,

classroom lectures, and so on? How do we bring their self-representations into our theorizing?

(Acoose et al., 2008, p. 369)

Considering these questions, as a white settler-researcher, this research aspires to produce

something worthy of the approval of Vigneault, Two-Spirit and Kumeyaay peoples: I first corresponded

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with Vigneault’s sister, Joyce, and her friend Trace Henz to ask for their feedback/permission before

publishing this paper. Likewise, it centers Vigneault’s research and activism presenting Indigenous

knowledges that arrive from the border spaces between spaces/identities that Vigneault occupied, delinking

with colonial power/knowledge structures. Gaudry & Lorenz (2018) define the term “decolonial

indigenization” as a complete renovation of the academy “to fundamentally reorient knowledge production

based on balancing power relations…transforming the academy into something dynamic and new” (p. 219).

They write that decolonial practices lead to “indigenous resurgence” to dismantle oppressive aspects of

settler-colonialism and rebuild by centering Indigenous peoples and supporting “a resurgence in Indigenous

culture, politics, knowledge, and on-the-land skills” (p. 221). Thus, the life of Vigneault serves as a

constellation or map rather than a comprehensive biography: it explores of the extension of a body into

other spaces in the past, present, and future as “decolonial indigenization” to guide us towards new more

equitable world-makings.

5. Conceptual framework

The following conceptual framework first explores the concepts of Indigeneity, queer Indigeneity,

settler-colonialism, and decolonial Indigenization; it then compares post-modern as well as non-modern

conceptions of space and time as utilized within this paper.

5.1. Indigeneity and Settler-Colonialism

5.1.1. Indigeneity. This paper utilizes Justice’s conceptualization (2018) of Indigeneity to refer to a

complex identity that links kinship, ancestral, spiritual, and land-based relationships within people with

Native and/or tribal heritage. It “affirms the spiritual, political, territorial, linguistic, and cultural

distinctions of those peoples whose connections to this hemisphere predate the arrival of intentional

colonizing settlers and conscripted and enslaved populations from Europe, Africa, the Pacific, and other

regions” (Justice, 2018, p. 5). Vigneault, as an Indigenous person, “remain[s] in relation to the land, the

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ancestors, and the kinship networks, lifeways, and languages that originated in this hemisphere and continue

in often besieged but always resilient forms” (p. 6). Indigenous is capitalized as a proper noun to assert

agency and a “political status of peoplehood, rather than describing an exploitable commodity, like an

“indigenous plant” or a “native mammal.” (p. 5.) Yet, Indigenous identity in practical and theoretical usages

remains complicated, and, thus, this paper relies heavily on consensus within Indigenous Nations and

communities to remain vigilant against “national projects of mestizaje” where people with mixed

Indigenous ancestry can “replace specific Indigenous identifications or land claims” as we will see in the

discussion of San Diego State University (Morgensen, 2011, p. 11). Indigeneity, ethnicity/race, and the

settler-colonial project cannot be separated easily:

The teleological binary Native/settler is perpetually complicated by the nonbinary relations of

diverse non-Natives and Native peoples across commonalities and differences. Nevertheless, no degree of

complication in either comparison removes the meaningful difference indigeneity continues to make in a

settler society, as in Native sovereignty struggles and national and transnational Native alliances

(Morgensen, 2011, p. 22)

Yet despite the complexity, those who falsely claim Indigeneity practice a form of settler-

colonialism that forces those who struggle with questions of authenticity due to skin color, birthplace, or

loss of cultural connection, such as the adoptees, to have to justify their inclusion as Indigenous peoples.

5.1.2. Queer Indigeneity. Two-Spirit identity was being defined and constructed around the same time as

queer identity gained popularity in the 1990s: both denote a breakage from compulsive heterosexuality and

cisnormativity within settler-colonial societies (Bradley, 2023). Queer Indigeneity and Two-Spirit identities

serve umbrella terms for the ever-expanding Indigenous expressions of gender and sexual diversity,

including the tribal-specific queer Indigenous identities/being recovered through decolonial practices. They

reaffirm sexual and gender diversity within Indigenous communities against the normative understanding

of the settler-state which often viewed them as undesirable, sad, and diseased. Thus, the construction of

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gender, as understood in Western ontologies, is modern invention: queer decolonial Indigeneity works to

deconstruct and reclaim non-modern identities like Two-Spirit.

5.1.3. Setter-Colonialism. The term settler presents an equally complex concept juxtaposing Indigeneity

within settler-colonial power relations. Justice defines settler-colonialism as the “creation of a new social

order that depends in part on the ongoing oppression and displacement of Indigenous peoples” (2018, p. 9).

Morgensen (2011) argues that, in simple terms, settlers replace, and Indigenous peoples disappear within

the social order of settler-colonialism: thus, she claims that being non-Native/settler is a location within

settler-colonialism rather than a set racial/ethnic identity. Glenn (2015) also characterizes settler-

colonialism as a continual structural organization rather than a past historical event. This paper uses the

term “settler” to refer to a wide range of non-Indigenous people who "settled” in North America for several

reasons, some by force or necessity and others to colonize the land, resources, and people. The latter defines

settler-colonists, while “settler” refers to a broader heterogeneous group of people who had different

histories of arrival within the continent (Justice, 2018; Morgensen, 2011). This paper understands the

settler-colonial project as a hetero-patriarchal project as argued by Morgensen’s (2011); she contends that

settler-colonialism marks all relationships between Native and non-Native peoples within the power

relations of settler homonationalism, positing Native and non-Native people of color as queer racialized

others to be eliminated. Smith (2010) also argues that we must queer settler-colonialism and decolonization

to fight against current genocidal tendencies that reinforce the structures of settler-colonial heteropatriarchy

which Two-Spirit identity denaturalizes.

5.1.4. Indigenous Decolonization. Theories of decolonization, indebted to post-colonial thought such as

Fanon and Cesaire, began in Latin America by theorists, such as Quijano and Mignolo, to “delink” from

Eurocentric thought and un-do aspects of colonial power relations such as capitalism, modernity, racism,

sexism, Western imperialism, and beyond. Expanding upon and sometimes critiquing these theories,

Indigenous decolonization specifically fights for the restoration of Indigenous languages, literatures,

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9 
 
knowledges, lands, resources, practices, and identities (such as Two-Spirit). It uncovers and deconstructs 
past and current histories of settler-colonial oppression and works to create realities and futures that recover 
and recenter Indigenous thought, peoples, identities, and practices. Smith (1999) writes that “decolonization 
is about centering our [Indigenous] concerns and worldviews and then coming to know and understand 
theory  from  our  own  perspectives  and  for  our  own  purposes”  (p.  39).  It  is  the  un-settling  of  settler-
colonization. Indigenization, similarly, takes this un-settling to reaffirm and re-insert Indigenous presence. 
Thus, queer indigenization is part of the decolonial process.  
5.2. Space and Time: Post-Modern Ontologies 
Post-modern analysis of  spacing  or  “the  active  construction  of  space  and  time” have  more in 
common with Indigenous philosophies than earlier theorizations that viewed these as absolute and separate 
entities (Peters & Kessl, 2009, p. 27). For instance, Einstein’s theories of relativity changed understandings 
of space-time (time being relative to place rather than simultaneous in the universe) and has since continued 
to influence theorizations of spatialization from mathematics to topology to linguistics (Peters & Kessl, 
2009).  This  section  explores  Western  post-modern  conceptions  of  space-time  and  analyzes  them  in 
conjunction  with  Kumeyaay  philosophies  to  support  Indigenous  spatial  justice  in  this  assemblage  of 
Vigneault’s life. In queer Indigenous traditions, environmental, racial, and feminist justice link with spatial 
justice as the foundations of their praxis. All human and planetary life exists as a web of interconnected 
energies that must be treated holistically with humility to “lead to minimal exploitation of other living 
creatures but also preclude the arrogance of aggressive missionary activity and secular imperialism, as well 
as the arrogance of patriarchy” (Forbes, 2001). This section briefly critiques Marxist-influenced theories of 
space-time including Lefebvre (1974), Harvey (1990), and Castells (1996) through decolonial theory. Then, 
it  analyzes  feminist  geographies  of  space-time  in  Massey’s  (1994)  and  McDowell's  (1999) 
conceptualizations from Indigenous/Kumeyaay understandings. 

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5.2.1. Lefebvre. Lefebvre (1974) argues political and social processes (inseparable from time) construct

perceptions of space, yet proposes a linear space-time narrative beginning with space as place (topos),

which exists before the projection of space through Western thought (logos), associated with Aristotle:

In the beginning was the Topos. Before – long before – the advent of the Logos, in the chiaroscuro

realm of primitive life, lived experience already possessed its internal rationality; this experience

was producing long before thought space, and spatial thought, began reproducing the projection,

explosion, image and orientation of the body (p. 174).

While he mostly theorizes about the contradictions of global capitalism through a Marxist analysis,

Lefebvre offers a useful postulation to reflect upon Indigenous communities located within an economic

struggle for dominance: the survival of societies depends on the creation and existence of spaces. This is

vital to the continued cultural existence of Kumeyaay peoples. American Indian communities have

continually risked their lives for spatial justice and the survival of their societies, knowledge, and traditions

within a capitalist system that wants to destroy and/or homogenize them into abstract-space as globalized

New Age commodities like the ‘wise Indian shaman’ or an ‘unoffensive’ University “Moniker” (changed

from mascot) like the San Diego Sate “Aztecs.” This again erases Kumeyaay existence, and Vigneault’s

existence, on stolen lands to keep University stake-holders content in their nostalgic passive racism of the

stereotypical Aztec Warrior, Monty Montezuma.

5.2.2. Harvey and Castells. Greatly influenced by Lefebvre, Harvey (1990) and Castells (1996) develop

conceptions of space, time, and sociality after World War II with the development of new economic and

international relationships in late capitalism. Harvey’s book The Condition of Post-modernity (1990)

develops the concept of space-time compression, a condition of late capitalism, while Castells (1996) in

The Rise of the Network Society develops the concepts of “the space of flows” (technological space and

infrastructure that allow for simultaneous social practices within heterogenous territories) and “timeless

time” (“the time of the dominant functions and powerful social actors in the network society” (p. xiii).

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While in late capitalism, time-space has clearly compressed and intensified bringing humanity to the edge

of collapse, the authors move from the global to the local, while this paper posits that moving from the local

to global allows for time-space compressions to be contextualized within their relative localities. Moreover,

this paper explores time-space as neither rooted in capitalism nor socialism but emerging from non-modern

understandings outside of these frameworks. As Mignolo (2013) asserts, “thinking decolonially is

concerned with global equality and economic justice, but it also asserts that Western democracy and

socialism are not the only two models to orient our thinking and our doing.” (p. 31). He then posts

communality as an option outside of capitalism and communism. Indigenous practices also exist outside or

on the borders of these economic systems often employing communality as an economic modality as shown

through Vigneault’s life.

5.2.3. Massy and McDowell. Massey and McDowell have developed more contextualized analyses of

space-time within geographies situated in local and gendered experiences. Massey (1994) critiques

Harvey’s theory of space-time compression for the erasure of local histories. She argues his theory reifies

homogenization practices of capitalism. Likewise, McDowell (1999) explains, “Space is not inert, not

merely a container for social action, but is a significant element in the constitution of identity” (p. 68). She

characterizes space as a creative force exploring how bodies, environments, and localities construct, not

just fragment, identities within gendered time-space:

The correct place for embodied women are drawn on to justify and to challenge systems of

patriarchal domination in which women are excluded from particular spatial arenas and restricted

to others. In this sense to 'know their place' has a literal as well as a metaphorical meaning for

women, and sexed embodiment is deeply intertwined with geographical location. (McDowell,

1999, p. 56)

As Massey and McDowell both assert, women have complex relations to place, yet women have

fought back against “knowing their place” just like (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault has fought to open spaces

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usually closed to queer Indigenous women. Massey (1994) provides a valid critique of Harvey, but her

arguments verge on the same homogenization when she claims that the desire to hold place essentializes

identity:

All attempts to institute horizons, to establish boundaries, to secure the identity of places, can in

this sense therefore be seen to be attempts to stabilize the meaning of particular envelopes of space-

time. They are attempts to get to grips with the unutterable mobility and contingency of space-time.

(p. 5)

Massey (1994) criticizes the fetishization of space yet reifies the same essentialism she critiques

through her tokenistic use of women of color to support her arguments. She asks:

Who is it who is so troubled by time-space compression and a newly experienced fracturing of

identity? Who is it really that is hankering after a notion of place as settled, a resting place? Who

is it that is worrying about the breakdown of barriers supposedly containing an identity? (p. 12)

She later asks a similar question but assumes that the reader also will take the leap that only

white/First World people feel nostalgia for place:

For who is it in these times who feels dislocated/placeless/invaded? To what extent, for instance,

is this a predominantly white/First World take on things? … if one accepts that the identification

of a current feeling of disorientation and placelessness has to be restricted primarily to the First

World and even then differentially, and in different ways, to different strata of the population, there

is still another curious anomaly. (p. 165-6)

To demonstrate this, she mostly uses the writing of African American writers such as Toni

Morrison and bell hooks (no capitalization), both of whom fit her analysis, as descendants of settlers

(though not voluntary nor white colonial settlers), yet ignores other perhaps contradictory examples of other

BIPOC women including those affected by the gentrification of neighborhoods, enforced political and

climate migration, displacement through destruction of ancestral lands, deforestation, and oil pipelines, or,

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as in Vigneault’s life, striving for recognition of her Indigenous culture on lands forcibly taken like Old

Town, Balboa Park, Torrey Pines Natural Reserve, and SDSU. McDowell, on the other hand, admits an

absence in her work “is skin colour but to date there is little explicit work by geographers” (p. 70). This

reveals how little the foundational theories in post-modern time-space considered the realities of Indigenous

lives. The Western post-modern, Marxist, and feminist theories of time-space outlined do not always align

with Kumeyaay philosophies. While space and time are clearly dynamic and fluid, reducing the

disorientation and mourning of space as white/First World preoccupations ignores space-time narratives

that have left so many Indigenous people placeless, grieving the loss of their ancestral lands. To dismiss

placing cultural significance on place as essentialist reveals the need for better understandings of the non-

modern.

5.3. Space and Time: Kumeyaay Ontologies/Cosmologies

While cosmology in Western conceptions of linear time, separated from space, has an extensive

history from the Aristotelian geocentric model to the division between cosmology/religion (Maguire, 2016),

Kumeyaay philosophies posit humans living in communion with a sacred space-time narrative:

The spiritual connection with the environment rests in the tribe’s conscious use of the gifts of the

Creator, or Amayaha. This is illustrated through the Kumeyaay’s many allegorical bird songs,

which serve as an alternative from written language to enforce collective teachings within the tribe

such as morals, geography, food, and history. (Goodman, 2010)

This understanding of a living cosmos, and living stories, goes in direct opposition of a Eurocentric

colonial worldview where humans were made in God’s image and carry a privileged position within an

exploitable natural world, which often included Indigenous peoples (Bradley, 2021). Kumeyaay

understandings of space and time are not antagonistic endeavors but integral: one can be rooted in space-

time and recognize and celebrate the diversity of that space-time, social relations, and identity. Furthermore,

for Kumeyaay peoples, space and time are united through experiential realities. For instance, in Kumeyaay

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ontologies, two gods, Tuchaipa and Yokomati, help create a spatial and temporal helix based on the position

of the sun and river and the relationship between life and death:

Tuchaipa’s east-west line symbolizes the cyclical, repetitive, or oscillating daily appearance,

disappearance, and reappearance of the sun, suggesting an image of eternal return, whereas

Yokomatis’ north-south line represents the unidirectional, if not always linear, journey of the river

to the sea, symbolizing the meandering albeit inexorably one-way course of a person’s life and

eventual death. Taken together, the images represent an eloquent model for the structure of time,

combining both cyclical and linear aspects in what we can envision as a helix, for the pendulum of

time goes back and forth, day following day is an endless cycle, yet time also moves ever forward,

never in reverse, as surely as the river flows into the sea. (Levi, 2017, p. 93)

Likewise, the bird songs of the Kumeyaay peoples are also inspired from what Kumeyaay peoples

sensed in their sacred places such as the trees, the air, and the mountains for which they created songs of

creation in which they told their stories for thousands of years: “The metaphorical reference to animals

substantiates the concept of being united with the natural environment. Today, these ancestral bird songs

are used as a unifying element for commemorative ceremonies and rituals” (Goodman, 2010). As Deloria

Jr. (2003) claims about the limitations of time: “It must begin and end at some real points, or it must be

conceived as cyclical in nature, endlessly allowing the repetition of patterns of possibilities… religions that

are spatially determined can create a sense of sacred time that originates in the specific location (Deloria,

2003, p. 70). Nevertheless, in the quickening time-space of late capitalism, “We can no longer derive

concepts that will explain the world to us, for the world moves too fast” (Deloria, 2012, p. 150). We must

“perceive situations in total experience” and shift our knowledge collection processes where “information

gathering becomes our chief focus, relying upon individuals to absorb the world through perceptions…

accumulating the type of wisdom that tribal societies have tended to produce” (pp. 149-150). Kumeyaay

leaders have shared some traditions, despite their privacy, to save spiritual spaces such as Kuuchamaa, a

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sacred mountain where, until recently when visiting the sacred mountain was opened to other individuals

to celebrate the Solstice, only initiated shamans visited to receive messages from Maayhaay, the Spirit

creator, about the correct way to live in peace and harmony with God, humans, and nature (Shipek, 1985).

The interconnection understood by Kumeyaay peoples and their willingness to adapt to preserve their

sacred places in the face of oppressive realities demonstrates an experiential space-time compression within

lived realities to create a viable Indigenous futurity. Dillon (2003) defines Indigenous futurism as a process

that involves “discovering how personally one is affected by colonization, discarding the emotional and

psychological baggage carried from its impact, and recovering ancestral traditions in order to adapt in our

post–Native Apocalypse world” (p. 11). Vigneault’s work uses this ancestral wisdom to reclaim sacred

lands, traditions, Two-Spirit roles and rejoin Indigenous families uniting other existences within time and

space continuums that cure the fissures of settler-colonialism for better futures.

6. (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault: A Builder of Cultural Bridges

This section begins interconnecting stories emerging from (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s life that

conflate space and time in provocative ways. It commences with a brief history of the waves of Kumeyaay

genocide to contextualize and highlight the importance of Vigneault’s work. It then provides a short

biography of Vigneault, connecting her life with future generations of Kumeyaay activists: for instance, the

youth protesting the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. It continues presenting Vigneault’s

academic achievements in library and information sciences in which she documented and preserved

Kumeyaay history and heritage. In addition, it discusses how she fought for her great-uncle’s Purple Heart

and other medals for military service. It then celebrates her work uniting Indigenous families separated

through oppressive Indigenous adoption policies uniting new kinship relations in space and time. Finally,

it acknowledges her spiritual traditions as well as her work as a Two-Spirit activist and founder of the

Nations of the Four Directions to reclaim Two-Spirit people as sacred within Indigenous tribal life. These

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stories represent one assemblage of Vigneault’s work to pay tribute to her life which extended in so many

directions to heal the attempted cultural genocide of Kumeyaay peoples.

6.1. Waves of Kumeyaay Genocide

Kumeyaay peoples have inhabited the San Diego region of Southern California for over 10,000

years, confirmed through the remains of two Kumeyaay people and the subsequent battle for Kumeyaay

sovereignty over these remains (Dang, 2019). Kumeyaay people have experienced multiple processes of

genocide justified by an ideology of Christian/European superiority and Manifest Destiny: the first wave

of genocide was the Spanish Catholic mission period from 1769 to 1820, where the missionaries acted upon

their belief of moral and racial superiority (Reed, 2020). They took Kumeyaay lands, spread diseases, forced

conversions to Catholicism and enslaved the Native peoples; many Kumeyaay peoples continued to secretly

practice their spiritual traditions, and in 1775 some Kumeyaay peoples revolted against the Mission San

Diego de Alcala, burning it to the ground, but the Mission was rebuilt, and the conversions and enslavement

continued (Carrico, 1997). The second period of genocide from 1821-1845 happened during the Mexican-

American War where more Kumeyaay territory was stolen, disease was spread, and many Kumeyaay

people were enslaved on the growing Ranchos; during this period, settler-state made it a priority to eliminate

the “Indian Problem,” which continued into the third wave and most devastating wave of genocide during

Gold Rush where more massacres, slavery, and environmental destruction ensued (Reed, 2020). The

passing of “An Act for the Government Protection of Indians” in 1850 removed more people from their

Native lands, separated children from their families, indentured many Indigenous peoples to white settlers,

and implemented more campaigns to completely eradicate California Indians. During this period, treaties

were rejected, and the Native peoples in lands now called California were left on small reservations of the

least fertile lands with no access to water. Thus, almost all of San Diego resides on stolen Kumeyaay

territory such as Balboa Park (named after a man who delighted in murdering Two-Spirit people in Panama)

(de Bry, 1594), Old Town (or Kosa’aay) (where Vigneault’s father tells of jumping from Presidio Park into

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the San Diego River), as well as San Diego State University (where Vigneault and I studied). In addition,

throughout these periods, laws and policies promoted the cultural annihilation through the implementation

of “boarding schools” (which Vigneault’s aunt and mother were forced to attend). This oppressive history

highlights the importance of Vigneault’s activism and the need to rebuild cultural ties.

6.2. Protection/Recognition of Ancestral Lands/Borderlands

Vigneault, an enrolled tribal member/citizen of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, worked as an

Iipay/Tipay/Kumeyaay historian, librarian, genealogist and Two-Spirit activist for over 40 years and has

inspired me to research Kumeyaay and Two-Spirit history, a task every LGBT community member, San

Diego resident, and student/graduate of San Diego State University should undertake as much of San Diego

is situated on lands unceded by the Kumeyaay Nation. The Kumeyaay Nation underwent centuries of

violence and abuse at the hands the Spanish missionaries, lived through and participated in wars and

uprisings between the United States and Mexico, suffered discrimination, land removal, and the creation of

“boarding schools” and cultural and economic isolation on reservations. As Alvarado (2020), SDSU

professor and tribal liaison officer entreats:

Please put yourself in our shoes, and right now imagine a foreign nation coming to your lands and

taking everything by force, and forcibly trying to destroy your identity, culture, and traditions by

converting your way of life through assimilation and the use of religious acts. Hundreds of years

have passed, and we are still affected by the historical and intergenerational trauma of this tragic

forced assimilation. We were stripped of almost everything, but no matter what we endure as

people, the spirit of the Kumeyaay Nation is stronger than any tool of colonization. We continue to

live the legacy of our ancestors (para. 9).

All these events produced intergenerational trauma affecting the current reality of Kumeyaay

people and the land: the border wall, global warming and environmental damage, poverty, violence, stolen

children through oppressive “adoption” policies and “boarding schools”, substance abuse, to mention a few.

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San Diego State University, from which Vigneault and I are both Alumni, finally acknowledged in 2019

that the land SDSU currently occupies Kumeyaay territory and now flies a Kumeyaay Nation flag along

with that of the United States (Alvarado, 2020). Nevertheless, it continues to use a contested Aztec moniker

as a form of contemporary colonization with little other acknowledgement of the Kumeyaay people.

Without the activism of Vigneault, I would not know that my education was made possible through the

continuous cultural genocide of the Kumeyaay people. Martha Rodriguez, a SDSU student, insists:

The great Kumeyaay Nation has faced four waves of genocide. We are still here strong as always

on both sides of that imaginary border to us. Our roots are deep in; no wall will separate our

families. We are not illegal in our homeland. The Kumeyaay are the original people of this land

since time immemorial…These are our homelands where our ancestors are. They deserve respect

and protection. No more desecrations to our ancestors to Mother Earth. We’re not a conquered

people, museum relic, or someone’s mascot. (in Alvarado, 2020, para. 7)

As a beneficiary of this system, I must honor the enforced sacrificed that made my education

possible by paying tribute to the Kumeyaay Nation, so we may grieve the past and create a more equitable

future.

Like many Kumeyaay peoples, Vigneault and her family can trace their family lineage to

generations of basket weaving women from the San Diego region. The Kumeyaay people have lived in the

San Diego/Baja California region for over 10,000 years before the colonial concept of borders was imposed

upon the continent. As Alvarado (2020) states about the creation of a border wall between Southern

California and Mexico:

The border has divided our people; it cut a line right through our land and separated us. The

Kumeyaay Nation extends from North County down into Baja California, where our brothers and

sisters live. We do not ask for much, we are peaceful people, but a united people and will stand up

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for our rights and protect our sites because that is who we are. We are like a hornet’s nest, you

disrespect our lands, our home, and you get the entire Kumeyaay Nation (para. 9).

Colonial settlers removed Kumeyaay peoples in Southern California from their homelands first during the

Spanish Mission period, later during the Mexican Rancho period, and finally by the U.S. government which

forced them onto small reservations, most with infertile soil and little water (Hoffman & Gamble, 2006).

In the Mexican Cession originating from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican American

War, the Kumeyaay lands were separated by new US/Mexican border dividing people within the Kumeyaay

Nation who had historically migrated between the two countries (Hoffman & Gamble, 2006). Of the

eighteen federally recognized Kumeyaay tribes (other tribal groups also live in the area), thirteen exist in

San Diego country and another five across settled across the border in Northern Baja California, Mexico

(Alvarado, 2020). In fact, the border itself crosses an ancient burial site on the graves of Kumeyaay

ancestors which is being further threatened by the border wall. This wall, protested by the Kumeyaay

Nation, threatens to continually tear apart cultures and communities and to desecrate a sacred Kumeyaay

heritage site. Kumeyaay activism is border thinking and activism. One Kumeyaay protester, Jamie LaBrake,

claims: “Our ancestors left their teachings behind. It’s up to us to find a home in our hearts for them, and

today that home was built” (Alvarado, 2020). While Vigneault had crossed over by the time of this protest,

she would be honored by the Kumeyaay youth’s commitment to protest the wall and the unity of Kumeyaay

people on both sides of the border. In an interview I conducted in 2008 she stated: “What gives me hope is

that more and more women are standing up for whatever, whatever their belief is, whatever their struggle

is, more and more women are standing up… especially the young ones, now are not afraid to stand up”

(San Diego Hall of Fame, 2012). She would be proud that Kumeyaay youth are continuing in her legacy

of activism.

Vigneault’s work volunteering for the Peace and Dignity project exemplifies her conviction against

border restrictions for Kumeyaay people. For instance, a short article on Two-Spirit people comments upon

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one of her visits to an Indigenous children's shelter in Tecate, Mexico, noting her work "cultivating

Kumeyaay traditions, language, and culture while protecting children from the hardships of orphanages"

(North East, 2006). It mentions her visit to the Kumeyaay children’s shelter to bring shoes and pizza to

children forced to leave abusive and unsafe homes, consequences of histories of colonial violence and

oppression. This may seem like a small act, but it is a reminder of the importance of living a life of service.

If we all shared the gifts we had in small, communal ways, we could truly make a difference in the world

around us and towards the healing of Indigenous peoples. It further exemplifies the problem with the border

wall and difficulties it imposes on Kumeyaay people who have families living on the other side or who

want to travel to visit Kumeyaay people on either side of the border. It heals the historical violence against

Kumeyaay peoples that continue to separate children from their communities further separated by an

oppressive border dividing a Nation between nations.

As Anzaldúa asserted in 1987, Indigenous and queer women must straddle space and harness their

fire to burn a in clearing in the wood to create firm ground upon which to stand in stolen lands that were

once homelands. In Vigneault’s own life, she was often disoriented as a body “out of line”: not the right

color, neither white nor black with no school system that would accept her in the Jim Crow era Louisiana,

not “straight” and hence sometimes rejected as the role of Two-Spirit people was no longer visible in her

communities, the “wrong” sex, the “wrong” religion, etc.…, yet she continued to orient herself, revive

histories, and reconnect lines creating a sense of place: “The temporality of orientation reminds us that

orientation are effects of what we tend towards, where the “'toward' marks a space and time that is almost,

but not quite, available in the present” (Ahmed, 2007, p. 20). Her “tending towards” has opened new paths

that this paper trails. Ahmed (2007) continues, “When people stop treading, the path may disappear. So,

when we see the line of the path before us, we tend to walk upon it, as a path that 'clears' the way” (p 16).

Thus, Vigneault’s own life has cleared the way for other women, queer and/or Indigenous peoples where

the paths to follow are disappearing.

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6.3. Reclamation of Knowledge, History, and Traditions

Like her volunteer work and activism, Vigneault dedicated her professional career to reclaiming

and documenting Kumeyaay history, knowledge, and traditions to honor her ancestors and preserve their

legacy for future generations. Vigneault was one of the first to graduate from university in her family where

she received her Associates of Arts degree from Grossmont College in 1997, her bachelor's from San Diego

State University in 2001, and her master’s in library and information sciences from Drexel University in

2008. During her studies she was involved in activism inside and outside her academic institutions. For

instance, at Grossmont college during the 1990’s, she implored them to offer Kumeyaay language classes

(which was at first denied), and, at San Diego State University, she worked for the institution to recognize

Kumeyaay students and land recognition and spoke against the use of a colonialist Aztec mascot. She also

founded the non-profit Kumeyaay Historical Society where she researched and assembled articles,

photographs, and artifacts on Kumeyaay peoples and traditions to generate and promote awareness

(Goodman, 2010). With her research, she collaborated with the San Diego Women’s History Museum to

preserve and facilitate the knowledge within San Diego and beyond. Vigneault explains, “The past is what

we learn from. Our past is our future. The Creator gave our elders these gifts that have become our

traditions. They kept these traditions alive because they are a part of who we are” (Goodman, 2010). Thus,

time-space remains cyclical, and our ancestors are also our future.

Likewise, she has worked as a librarian in both Santa Ysabel Tribal Library and at Kaplan college.

She championed Indigenous literature and advocated for libraries to include more Indigenous texts as a

member of the American Indian Library Association. She has received various honors and awards for her

work: she was awarded the Soroptimists Women Making a Difference Award in 2007, she was inducted in

the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame as a Builder of Cultural Bridge in 2008, and she was awarded the

DURGA award in 2010 for her ability to merge history and cultural heritage. As Alvarado questions (2020):

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How can we be a country if we do not acknowledge the wrongdoings we have done? Do you wonder

why we’re upset? It’s called historical trauma and intergenerational trauma, a wound that has been

passed down from one generation to the next. How can we move forward when our voices haven’t

been heard, and we haven’t healed from past wounds?

Coming from an environment where she was once denied education for being American Indian, where her

mother and aunt were forced into oppressive “boarding schools,” she overcame these traumas, achieved her

own educational goals, and used her education as a tool to benefit and reclaim knowledge and traditions

once denied and suppressed. Through her research, she helps people acknowledge the wrongdoings of the

past to allow silenced voices to be heard as an act of resistance and healing for the present and future

generations, as an act of survivance (Vizenor, 1999).

Vigneault also fought to restore lost customs including Kumeyaay language, basket weaving and

pottery to strengthen future generations and their cultural connections (Goodman, 2010). She also decided

to reclaim traditions by getting a traditional tattoo, writing about this process:

Our rite of passage ceremonies were wiped out due to the oppressors and religion. I was inspired

by Anna Sandoval, who was the first female Kumeyaay leader of our local reservation. She is the

only other person from our tribe that I knew who had it. When I was younger, I was always in awe

about how she preserved one of the old ways of women. I always wanted to do the same but thought

deeply about when and how. So on my 50th birthday I had the ceremony. I invited many women

from my reservation that are close to me. We did it the traditional way, using an agave needle.

(Goodman, 2010, para. 8)

Through this tattoo and her other work, she fought to preserve Kumeyaay customs, identity, and

spirituality: “They are the essence of us as Kumeyaay people…It is through our language, songs, dances,

and ceremonies that the Creator hears our prayers” (Goodman, 2010, para. 15). She also advocated in

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support of women’s rights including opening the blessing/prayer at the San Diego Women’ March

(Meschen, 2018).

6.4. Indigenous Military Acknowledgement

Despite the violence against Indigenous people by the U.S. government, American Indian peoples

in the United States have fought in high numbers in every major armed conflict in the United States since

the American Revolution. Many hold their service with pride and honor, but it is not always reciprocal.

Despite their service, Native Americans/American Indians were not considered citizens until 1924,

although some gained citizenship earlier through their military service (Native, 2024). Vigneault, like many

Native Americans, was born in 1958 into a military family who dedicated and sacrificed their lives to

protect a nation which has not historically protected their own. She tried to continue in this tradition of

military service in the Air Force but was discharged as she had contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis

while living in Louisiana, the same place she had been denied admission to the public school system for

being “Indian” despite having a father who served in the U.S. military with a Top-Secret Security clearance.

This disease affected her ability to get a driver’s license, caused seizures and, later, was a contributing factor

to Vigneault experiencing homelessness and addiction in San Diego, California. Nevertheless, Vigneault

respected her family’s military tradition and served in another way: she remembered her family telling

stories of the service and legacy of her great-uncle, Augustine Quevas, a Prisoner of War (POW) and

Santa Ysabel tribal member, who died during his service in World War II (Soto, 2018). Yet until

Vigneault started her research, her family had not known precisely what had happened to her great uncle.

Quevas, known colloquially by his fellow soldiers as "chief,” fought in the Army Air Forces’ 30th Bomb

Squadron during World War II where he survived the Bataan Death March, a brutal, 60-mile march that

killed 7,000 to 10,000 prisoners. He was then accidentally killed by a torpedo from a U.S. submarine

while being transferred on a Japanese ship after time spent in horrid conditions as a POW (Soto, 2018).

Vigneault fought to have her great-uncle, who never had children of his own, recognized with a Purple

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Heart: in total, he was owed five medals and a lapel button. Yet, to her disappointment, after a

congresswoman had told her the medals were on their way, she later was told she would not receive the

medals as she was not next of kin. She had wanted to donate the medals to an exhibit on the military

service of American Indians at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park to honor her

great-uncle and the service of all American Indians who had not been recognized (Soto, 2018). Finally,

through her dedication and a network of POW’s, she was contacted by the son of Robert Blakeslee, who

had survived the bombing that had killed her great-uncle and was awarded the same medals he would

have been given. The late POW survivor had claimed his medals, and his wife had received extra medals

that the family now gifted to Quevas’ family (Soto, 2018). Through Vigneault’s persistence, she honored

the service of her great-uncle. These small acts of reclamation create a legacy of honor for American

Indian peoples and their military service: it holds her great-uncle and all who fought in different wars

and conflicts as warriors.

6.5. Unification of Native Families

In addition to her other reclamation work, Vigneault’s dedicated her skills as a Native genealogist

to reunite adopted American Indian and First Nation children, often referred to as the Stolen Generation or

“lost birds” (Henz, 2019). While the exact numbers of people she helped reunite is not available, she did

this work for many Indigenous people who had been adopted over the years, never charging for her services.

One such adoptee was our mutual friend, a nurse from San Diego, Patrick Quinton Yeakly, who later passed

away in a tragic car accident related to substance use. Vigneault helped him find his birth mother and enroll

as a member in his tribal Nation from Alaska (Henz, 2019). His case posed a challenge as his mother had

also been adopted and was deceased, but she was able to open both Quinton’s and his mother’s cases to

find the grandmother’s name, spelled incorrectly. By speaking to people from the village, she was able to

find his enrollment information (Hentz, 2019). Connecting with his roots and being an enrolled tribal

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member/citizen of his tribe impacted Quinton’s life and gave him great comfort. Before his passing, he

regularly visited Vigneault and maintained contact with her sister, Joyce, after she passed.

Another adoptee, an Elder Nenana Athabascan woman, Donna Kayser, shared her experience with

Vigneault as her advocate along this difficult path:

Karen has always been ready with just the right thing to say, or the exact small push I’ve needed to

take me to the next step. She has been my voice and my advocate and has understood the issues

that I suffer as a result of the adoption process and loss of culture. I currently have an application

pending for tribal membership, and I don’t believe this would have been possible without Karen’s

help and support. Native children who are in the foster care system or going through the adoption

process desperately need someone like Karen, who is caring, knowledgeable, and passionate about

keeping these children connected to their culture. (Vigneault, n.d.)

Furthermore, Vigneault’s work transcended national borders as she also helped a woman from

Iceland, Gudrun Emilsdottir, reunite with her sister and become an Otoe-Missouria tribal member (Hilleary,

2018b). Her father, an American Indian soldier from Red Rock, had been in Iceland where he helped

conceive Emilsdottir with her birth mother, who later gave her up for adoption. Since the reunification, she

has visited her sister and her tribe various times (Hilleary, 2018b). Vigneault writes about this cultural

recovery process for adoptees: “There is so much that goes on in the minds, hearts and souls of adoptees,

so much pain over the decades…I feel like some kind of a train conductor, working to round up all these

souls and bring them back home” (Hilleary, 2018a). This healing and reunification work continues as part

of Vigneault’s legacy.

6.6. Creating Sacred Social Space: Twin-Spirit Communities

(LaHunt) Karen Vigneault has played a significant role in queer Indigenous activism in San Diego.

From her own experiences of homophobia from her Catholic education, racism within LGBT+ communities

as well as homophobia within Indigenous spaces (due to the imposed Christianity and homophobic

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education many Indigenous people received through the missions and the “boarding school” system), she

has worked to reclaim the sacred role of Two or Twin Spirit people, both within the LGBT+ and Indigenous

communities. In 1989, after a San Diego Pride parade, she co-founded the Nations of the four Directions

along with Tom Lidot, Travis Anderson, and Bobby Rubio. She stated that “the spirit told all of us at the

same time, this is it” (Wiegand, 2020). They founded this group, which represented local Kumeyaay,

Luiseno, and Cupeno tribes as well as other non-local tribes, to promote queer Native pride, re-educate

people on the historical role of Two-Spirited people, unite Native Americans from reservations and urban

areas, and create visibility (Wiegand, 2020). The Four Directions referred to in the group name held spiritual

significance: “The North (white) represented the tribes’ elders, the East (gold) represented rebirth, the West

(red or black) for spiritual discipline, and the South (green) represented physical discipline” (Wiegand,

2020). The meetings incorporated prayers, smudging, and songs/drums to help the members reconnect with

spiritual traditions and included other forms of activism like as fighting against as the AIDS epidemic and

LGBT violence that existed on reservations (Wiegand, 2020). The group also marched at the front of the

San Diego pride parade as the first gender and sexually diverse inhabitants in the region, a tradition that

continues passed Vigneault’s passing. As Meschen (2018) writes, Vigneault’s Two-Spirit activism

“emphasizes that Native American traditions are living, breathing cultures, and the traditions and the

identities of the past are just as relevant today as they were generations ago.” In addition, Vigneault

participated in other queer activism such as participating in LGBT+ news programs like Our World News

and as an activist in Anti-Aids group Act Up. She also contributed the chapter “LGBTIQ History starts

here: Indigenous/Native Terminology” in the book LGBTIQ Library and Archives Users: Essays on

Outreach, Service, Collections and Access (Greenblatt, 2011). Thus, she is held as an example of a

respected Two-Spirit Elder for her role in building community.

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7. Conclusion

Figure 1.

Journey to the Spirit. Oil on Canvas

Source: own picture.

This paper reveals historical traumas of settler-colonialism for Kumeyaay and Two-Spirit peoples

and how Vigneault worked to restore balance in both. It defined major concepts in Indigenous studies such

as Indigeneity, settler-colonialism, and decolonial Indigenization as well as comparing Western and

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Indigenous conceptions of space-time. It represented Vigneault’s life and activism through her work as a

genealogist and activist who reclaimed Two-Spirit identity and reunited adoptees with their Indigenous

families. The representation of (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s work unites space-time configurations

extending beyond her life. Her story, as a postindian warrior of survivance now “arise[s] from the silence

of heard stories...not the absence of the real in simulated realities; the critical distinction is that postindian

warriors create a new tribal presence in stories” (Vizenor, 1999, p. 12).

This paper does not share private moments, so I want to end writing myself, a non-Indigenous

lesbian into this telling. As the ancient Chinese proverb expresses, which resonates with Vignaelts

philosophy of life: “An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place,

and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break” (Schroff & Tresniowski, 2011).

During my own struggle with alcohol use, Vigneault visited me in a dream, and I decided to write to her

only to find she had recently transcended this world. Vigneault had also survived her own journey from

substance use. Anzaldúa (1987) writes that addiction “is a ritual to help one through a trying time; its

repetition safeguards the passage, it becomes one's talisman, one's touchstone. If it sticks around after

having outlived its usefulness, we become 'stuck' in it and it takes possession of us” (p. 46). Since I could

no longer speak to her, I began painting a portrait of Vigneault, and she accompanied me in spirit through

my own process of recovery and dispossession (Figure 1.) In this painting, Vigneault is at Kuuchamaa

mountain during sunset with the presence of both the sun (masculine) and the moon (feminine) to honor

her Two-Spirit identity and the passing of time through space. It represents Kumeyaay cosmology with

constellations and the Milky Way, her path to transcend to the Spirit world; the painting is now in San

Diego with her sister Joyce. The stories I included in this paper are from public sources and conversations

with her sister, but in every private life exists the stories of trauma, fear, loss, grief as well as courage,

which the reader will have to imagine. Vigneault’s accomplishments were impelled by her own personal

struggles. By overcoming these challenges, she became the strong Twin-Spirit activist outlined here: she

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earned the privilege of wearing her face tattoo and traditional hat to honor herself, her ancestors, and future

generations with her authenticity. Sometimes we must pass through trials and pain to develop the deep

empathy Vigneault cultivated. She was not the only one in her family who made that journey within to

recover the self, the self settler-colonialism worked tirelessly to destroy: thus, self-healing, for Indigenous

peoples, is decolonial practice. After centuries of erasure, she is her ancestor’s prayers answered:

Our ancestors sacrificed everything for us to be here today. We are our ancestor’s prayers answered.

I want to paint a picture for you: imagine all the atrocities that were committed against the

Kumeyaay Nation recorded live and seeing what we went through. How would you look at them?

How would you feel? (Alvarado, 2020).

Thus, the sacred knowledge and traditions she reclaimed provide hope for the future. Vigneault

lived a life of service, scaling space-time dimensions to heal herself and her communities.

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Esta obra está disponible bajo una licencia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/