Williams, Eleanor Hart2019-11-072019-11-072019https://hdl.handle.net/1794/25069107 pagesThe intersection of environmental and reproductive justice illustrates the inherent connection of physical and ecological health. Approaching reproductive justice primarily as an issue of environmental justice allows for deeper analysis of how targeted pollution affects physical processes including reproduction. Examining cases of environmental reproductive injustice within Native American communities demonstrates how environmental racism and its various effects are weaponized as tools of settler colonial power structures, meant to disempower and replace Indigenous communities. The continued efforts to control and regulate Indigenous women’s bodies by targeted environmental pollution reflect ongoing colonialist processes of sterilization and eradication. Previous scientific studies inspiring this research demonstrate the relation between environmental pollution of Native American Reservations and traditional lands and the increased risk of unsuccessful pregnancies, lower sperm count, delayed menstruation or contaminated breast milk (See Langston; Hoover; Fitzgerald). With developments in humanities academia and activist language, such as environmental justice (EJ) and reproductive justice (RJ) allow for the following analysis of movements addressing this intersection (See Bullard; Doverspike, Nicole; LaDuke; Japenga). In order to expand on this scientific and sociological finding, this paper investigates existing approaches to environmental reproductive justice for Native American women and the kinds of legal or bureaucratic barriers they face by interviewing representatives of existing organizations. While some studies have begun examination of the intersection of environmental justice and reproductive justice, this paper specifically analyzes what existing organizations are doing to solve these problems and what sort of barriers they face. This research aims to answer the following questions: How is environmental racism affecting reproductive justice for Native American women? How is infertility via environmental racism used as a continuation of settler colonialism? How can things change and why haven’t appropriate changes been made thus far? What are the legal conditions barring this process? I argue that if organizations are aware of the environmental reproductive injustices happening to Native American peoples, then the barriers to legal solutions are evidence of continued settler colonialism in the legal system.en-USCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USEnvironmental StudiesEnviromental JusticeReproductive JusticeNative AmericanSlow ViolenceIntersectionalityThesis/Dissertation