Abstract:
Land remains the most fundamental of issues in Native North America, followed by those
of tribal sovereignty and representation. Johnny Depp offered to buy the iconic land at
Wounded Knee and gift it to the Lakota Nation. This article reflects not only upon the limitations, but more importantly upon the political implications of this approach, particularly
when it is deployed as a resource for normative and material claims of Indigenous peoples
in a settler-colonial society. Looking at the Wounded Knee ownership case through the
lenses of postcolonial and affect theories, this article examines how the issues of Indigenous land, sovereignty and representation become linked when Oglala Lakota, as recipients of a philanthropic gift and of a happiness that is not their own, acquire a “happiness
duty,”as defined by Sara Ahmed. Depp’s declaration of intention can be read as another
text within the colonial archive, given how it justifies intervention with the perceived unhappiness of Native culture. What, then, would it mean politically to recognize unhappiness?
