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rom the grounds of the Navajo Nation, geographer Andrew Curley documents the history of Indigenous community’s participation in the coal industry. He dwells on the complex politics of energy transition and how such conversations and actions take place on the ground.

Carbon Sovereignty centers Indigenous people’s history and their continuing experiences of colonisation in extractive landscapes. Underlining how “the welfare and well-being of Indigenous Peoples were the last consideration among colonial lawmakers and industry types who determined the ultimate fate of our participation in the energy production,” this book offers a powerful account of Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and ongoing negotiations for land, resources, and autonomy.  The author powerfully brings his training as a geographer and his advocacy and engagement as an Indigenous scholar and member of the community.

Curley asserts that one cannot “fully understand modern Indigenous life in North America without accounting for carbon sovereignty.” Paying meticulous attention to everyday negotiations, resistance, and conversations, this book follows the 2013 coal lease renewal process, a fifty year between the tribe and the Arizona state utility known as the Salt River Project (SRP). The renewal meant employment and revenue for the tribe, yet in the backdrop of climate change and initiatives for renewable energy from Indigenous activists within the community, the process on the ground was complex.

Extractive resource regimes like coal are intrinsically linked to Indigenous politics and culture around the world.  Curley brilliantly underlines how carbon cultures shape assertions for sovereignty and right to self-determination in Indigenous societies. Yet, he draws our attention to the limits of comparison. Indigenous cultures are not homogenous and therefore one should be cautious of generalizing their histories and lived experiences. Carbon Sovereignty put “experiences in context” and examines how Diné land were made into extractive spaces, which in turn determines how tribal sovereignty are founded on resource extraction. Curley succinctly defines concepts such as Indigenous capitalism. The way the author is able to historize the Indigenous experiences with extractive resource regime is commendable because it resonates with other communities across the globe. From Australia to Asia, the complex negotiations Indigenous communities must take up cannot be reduced to a simplistic narrative of a pro-mining/anti-mining category. Often, well-meaning non-Indigenous environmentalists are unable to grasp the nuances in Indigenous extractive landscapes. Coal deeply impacts the oil, water, land and displaces Indigenous families and communities. Yet, living in a carbon landscape is also deeply a personal experience because extractive regimes founded on violent colonial logic transforms social and cultural relations on the ground. Curley notes that there is “structural conditioning created by and through coal.”

The book has five core chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion. The first chapter situates the history of the federal Indian policy and the creation of the Navajo Tribal Council in the 1930s. Tracing the aftermath of these developments, this chapter highlights the colonial and assimilationist projects, especially the capitalist relationship that is formed on Navajo land which would eventually benefit the settler colonial state.

Chapter two “Shape-Shifting Colonialism and the Origin of Carbon Sovereignty” focuses on sovereignty, right to self-determination, the paradox of decolonization, and most importantly the conceptualization of internal colonies. This is a captivating chapter because it shows the rich contribution of Indigenous scholarship to existing concepts on resource extraction on Indigenous lands. Curley offers the concept of “carbon sovereignty” which he defines it as sovereignty that is built on the expansion of energy resources. Chapter three “Carbon Treatymaking” dwells on the climate and coal question in the twenty first century. The author focuses on the anxieties of Indigenous communities whose livelihood depends on the coal mines in Navajo lands. The fear of shutting down the mines means losing work and becoming unemployed. How do Indigenous environmental groups and coal miners tackle issues of climate change with Indigenous notions of sovereignty? What does carbon sovereignty look like in Indigenous lands? How do we Indigenous councils understand just/unjust processes in a carbon landscape? Chapter four “Workers’ Perspective on Coal” combines ethnography and in-depth interview methods to examine how Indigenous coal miners “incorporate mining into their identity and politics.” Following the conversations and debates, Curley highlights that coal is “both a political and a social issue”. Focusing on the lived reality and reflections of Indigenous coal miners like Edison, the author shows how coal is an embedded economy that is a source of livelihood and meaning simultaneously. Here, notions of independence, labour, hard work, and value elaborated through personal accounts of Indigenous workers whose lives are tied to coal. One of the miners called David highlights that coal mines have been a source of employment and livelihood in a place where there are few opportunities. Chapter five “Toward Energy Transition” dwells on a Diné concept known as t´ááhwó ájí t´éego that environmental organised and Diné people concerned with the climate crisis apply. The language of “transition” is central for this this chapter. This concept allows the author to dwell on theories of time to highlight the “non-linear understanding of history.” What are transition conversations for Indigenous communities engaged in coal mining? And how do they situate issues of sustainable development in the given situation?

In conclusion titled “All that is Solid Melts into Air” Curley powerfully notes, Coal created the modern Navajo Nation in response to development pressures from the State of Arizona and regional utilities.” Yet, it is the Diné people who lost out. The conclusion was the most difficult chapter to for me because I felt Andrew Curley was writing the future of the Naga nation as they embrace coal mining as part of their livelihood and economy. My own work on coal mining communities in the foothills of Assam and Nagaland (Kikon 2019) was a difficult book to write and I was at loss by the time I tried to write the conclusion of the book. I felt who would get me, a Naga anthropologist in a resource frontier like Northeast India trying to figure out why Naga villagers were invited in mining for coal. As Curley notes, “The Diné economy was broken not by coal but by free-market capitalism,” Extractive industries perceive Indigenous peoples’ homelands as coveted sites for minerals and hydrocarbon exploration. As the pressure intensifies on Indigenous communities to put their water, land, and resources into the capitalist circulation, there are bound to be tensions and debates within members of respective Indigenous communities. Curley notes that Indigenous sovereignty in the United States will be increasingly impacted by capitalist practices which includes the mining industry. I would add that this is true across continents wherever Indigenous communities are grappling with extractive resource regimes. Andrew Curley, thank you for this wonderful book.

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Dolly Kikon is professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz.