Final answer:
The term 'ignorance' is emphasized to indicate how it was purposefully used to overshadow Indigenous rights and facilitate land seizure, thereby aiding European and later U.S. colonizers' goals of convenience over justice for native communities.
Step-by-step explanation:
The author of 'This Land is Whose Land' emphasizes ignorance as a tool against native visibility because it facilitated the denial of Indigenous rights and the seizure of their lands. Ignorance enabled European colonizers and later, the United States government, to generalize and overlook the complex and diverse nature of Indigenous communities, making it easier to implement overarching treaties and policies geared towards removal and assimilation. This ignorance was not accidental; it served the convenience and imperialistic goals of the colonizers by obscuring the legitimacy of native claims to the land and their cultural and political sovereignty.
Historical works, like Helen Hunt Jackson's 'A Century of Dishonor', expose the exploitative practices of a government prioritizing its expansionist goals over justice for native peoples. Contemporary art, like Smith's 'State Names', insists on bringing attention to the historical and ongoing injustices by highlighting the significance of names and the legacy of lands stolen from the Indigenous populations. Land acknowledgments at institutions like Northwestern University and the body of contemporary Native American artwork are critical efforts to counter this ignorance and the ongoing process of colonialism, reminding us of our place in this history and our responsibility towards it.