Building Silver Bridges: Paranormal Apparitions, Settler Heritage, and Indigenous Erasure in the Ohio River Valley

Abstract

"Paranormal heritage" is contested and should be understood as bridging conceptual divides within dark heritage studies and settler colonial studies. Through historic/fictitious narratives, regional legends, and fortean research this article examines paranormal heritage in the Ohio River Valley, connected to the cryptozoological figure of Mothman, as a continued weaving of settler heritage. Using decolonial and Indigenous theory, it argues that through weaving certain paranormal heritages Indigenous stories and landscapes are usurped, and Indigenous Peoples and Title are erased to ‘indigenize’ settler populations. Paranormal settler heritages require attention for their role in the logic of elimination and settler moves to innocence.