Recognition as Resilience

Abstract Resilience has been conceptualized within international development as the ability to “return to a state of equilibrium” after exogenous shocks. For many Indigenous communities, however, there is no equilibrium to which to return. This article explores how the federally unrecognized Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe (NCRNT) has developed a creative strategy of resilience beyond a return to “equilibrium” in the face of their almost complete erasure by genocide and the illegal termination of their sovereign rights by US state and federal government agencies. The NCRNT’s experience reveals how activities underlying Indigenous resilience include a need for historical redress and reconciliation, thereby creating a “new normal” that is reflective of Native history as well as the ongoing social, political, and economic realities of existing within a settler state. This article bridges history and development studies, revealing how both disciplines must learn from Indigenous groups seeking restorative justice. It further employs oral histories, artwork, and documentation from the newly created NCRN Tribal archive, and so is presented as an interactive digital article.