Contingent Property: Sterlin Harjo's Road Stories

Abstract: This essay argues that the Native claim to territory in the United States can bolster its appeal to the Native original inhabitation of land by also invoking a current, temporary usage of it. It does this by examining works by the recently celebrated Muscogee Creek / Seminole filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. I contend that Harjo's work helps us think about what I call "contingent property," a form of ownership that arises in the moment and challenges private property claims that depend on legal deeds and contracts, instead casting the act of claiming land as part of a continuous—and broadly communal—system of exchange. The essay looks at Harjo's 2009 film Barking Water along with two episodes of the acclaimed FX series Reservation Dogs , which Harjo co-created. These works are all road narratives, and I argue that this generic through line allows Harjo to revise classic Hollywood tropes but, more important, to use those tropes to advance Native ideas about property. As the road is a place where sentimental and meaningful attachments arise out of chance encounters, it serves as an excellent arena for conceiving of a relational ownership right now , without reference to historical precedence or future expectation.