Praise the Gardeners, Dun the Hunters: Alaska Natives, Taxation, and Settler Colonialism

Abstract This article explores the relationship between tax law and settler colonialism by looking at ways in which taxes can be part of “civilizing” process Indigenous peoples. In 1921, Territory Alaska enacted a “license on business fur-farming, trapping trading pelts skins fur-bearing animals.” Since most trappers were Natives, “fur tax” de facto targeted them. unpacks sociocultural political dimensions fur against backdrop Alaska’s colonial history. Despite what attorney general claimed was its “strict” revenue-raising function, much broader agenda. That agenda sought to turn semi-nomadic, “uncivilized” Native hunters into spatially grounded, “civilized” farmers, gardeners, reindeer herders, or wage workers. Ultimately, I suggest, within many if not spaces ideologies alter initial function taxes.