Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2022 Program
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Keely Toledo ’22<br />
ANTHROPOLOGY<br />
Certificate in Environmental Studies<br />
ENVIRONMENTAL<br />
POLICY AND SOCIETY<br />
THESIS TITLE<br />
Tó éi iiná: Water Is Life,<br />
Navajo Nation Water<br />
Sovereignty, and Making<br />
Kin With Pipelines<br />
ADVISER<br />
Serguei Oushakine,<br />
Professor of<br />
<strong>An</strong>thropology and<br />
Slavic Languages and<br />
Literatures<br />
My research focused on understanding how<br />
Native and Indigenous people react and interact<br />
with pipeline infrastructure. From the fierce<br />
protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline at<br />
Standing Rock in 2016, to the construction of the<br />
Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project implemented<br />
by the Navajo Nation, I traced what Native<br />
interaction with pipelines looks like and how<br />
each case reflects a unique set of circumstances.<br />
Yet, to speak of pipelines is also to speak of water<br />
and our relations. If water is life, our life is water;<br />
if one of us dies, we all die, such is the nature<br />
of intertwined existences. With such life and<br />
death stakes, it is easy to understand why one<br />
might risk or dedicate their life to protecting and<br />
ensuring access to water. Either way, when we<br />
live in a precarious changing world, decisions<br />
must be made to bring about or ensure a future<br />
we desire, even if it is not what we expect.<br />
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