Building on the work of second-wave radical feminist theorists from fields such as communication studies, sociology, history, and womens studies; on the work of community based and grassroots radical feminist theorists and activists; and by examining prostitution and the responses to this form of male violence against women, in this book Cherry Smiley proposes a female-centered theory of colonization and subsequently of decolonizing feminism. Incorporating first-hand prostitution research done in New Zealand and across Canada and questioning her own uncritical acceptance of the historical social and political status of Indigenous women in Canada, Cherry Smiley has looked at the roles of culture and tradition in the oppression of Indigenous women, and has constructed a decolonizing feminist methodology in the process. This work troubles the very concepts of colonization and feminism as we currently understand them. In Not Sacred, Not Squaws, Cherry Smiley redefines colonization and situates decolonizing feminism as distinct and foundational as opposed to separate and different components of the Womens Liberation Movement.