In charting how sovereignty has been defined in Indigenous literary studies, this chapter outlines some of the recent debates around the political and cultural meanings of the term. Through close readings of recent poems by Layli Long Soldier and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, this chapter further argues that resurgent Indigenous futures depend upon relationalities that resist state models of political sovereignty.

For nearly a century now Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, and/or Two-Spirit Indigenous writers have addressed the ways the intellectual sovereignty of their lives and art strengthens understandings of Indigenous nationhood. This chapter considers how and why these intersections of queerness and sovereignty have informed the fast-growing canon of queer Indigenous literatures in English. To do so, it examines the rise of queer Indigenous activism and health sovereignty work in HIV education alongside the history of queer Indigenous literatures in what is currently the U.S. and Canada. Looking across the work of writers like Beth Brant, Carole laFavor, Craig Womack, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, Gwen Benaway, Billy-Ray Belcourt, M. Carmen Lane, Tommy Pico, and Joshua Whitehead, the chapter highlights the range and breadth of sovereign embodiments from the 1960s to 2020 and argues that in the present day queer sovereignty holds a radical promise for Indigenous futures.