Indigenous women’s carework and environmental pedagogy in select contemporary native American fiction

This article explores how Indigenous women’s fiction functions as a site of environmental education, reimagining pedagogy through relational ethics, affective care, and land-based knowledge. Drawing on The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Chippewa), Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee), and The Removed by Brandon Hobson (Cherokee), the paper examines how storytelling, domestic labour, and ecological care become pedagogical practices that sustain cultural continuity. Grounded in Indigenous feminist and environmental humanities frameworks, the study integrates Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg) concept of ‘land as pedagogy’, Mishuana Goeman’s (Tonawanda Band of Seneca) idea of spatial sovereignty, Kelli Keeler’s (Cherokee Nation) theorization of land as agent, and Beth Piatote’s (Nez Perce) notion of the ‘feminine everyday’. Together, these theories reveal how the everyday practices of Indigenous women enact sustainable learning rooted in reciprocity and care. The analysis demonstrates that these literary works do not simply represent ecological consciousness—they perform it—transforming narrative into a relational curriculum. By situating Indigenous storytelling within environmental education, the article argues that carework, kinship, and ecological reciprocity form a decolonial pedagogy aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (Quality Education), (Climate Action), and (Life on Land).