Kim Shuck: Of Cherokee History, Identity, and Mathematics (1 of 4 )
Kim Shuck talks about her identity as a Euro-Native woman living in San Francisco, in the context of the history of the Cherokee Nation, the settler colonization of the United States, and her paternal Cherokee side’s proclivity for mathematics.
In the first segment of this four-part interview, Kim Shuck speaks to Kakoli Mitra about her mixed ancestry. Her mother’s side is Polish-Croatian, while her father’s side is Cherokee. Kim describes where her paternal grandparents lived: in a small town just outside Cherokee Territory in Oklahoma, near the state’s border with Kansas. The town was/is a mining town on top of mines (lead, zinc, and cadmium) and supplied lead for the bullets used in World War II. Most of downtown had fallen into the mines below by the time Kim was born. Kim describes the place as an ecological disaster. She recounts a brief the history of the Native American (‘Indian’) reservation system and the horrendous manner in which the Indigenous peoples were treated. Kim heard stories of one of the largest mass hanging of Natives, ordered by President Abraham Lincoln of Sioux people because they had been hunting outside of their reservation(s).
Kim Shuck (she) is the innovator of topological Cherokee basketry, a master bead artist, a poet, an educator, and mentor to Native American youth. She was the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco, California, United States.
Europe, Indigenous North America | Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
United States
