Introduction to American Indian/Native American Studies
"Powerful storytelling can create pathways of empathy and understanding across cultural, racial and socioeconomic divides that were built up to keep us separated from one another.” -Frank Waln from In Their Own Words
-American Writers Museum May 2, 2019
As a special note to the reader, we the authors of this chapter will be using Indian, American Indian, Native, and Native American interchangeably throughout this chapter. We humbly realize that we cannot cover everything there is to know about American Indian Studies/Native American Studies in this one single chapter. The information provided is meant to be an overview of the foundational knowledge in this core discipline area of Ethnic Studies: American Indian/Native American Studies. We would like to encourage you to take Native American Studies courses, and do your own research about any of the content and topics raised in this chapter.
Before we begin, it is important to discuss whether or not your professor included a Land Acknowledgement Statement in their syllabus. A Land Acknowledgement Statement is a critical step towards working with local Native communities to secure meaningful partnership and inclusion in the stewardship and protection of their cultural resources and homelands. It is imperative that faculty, staff, administrators and students at your college know whose tribal land you occupy to recognize local tribal sovereign rights to the land in order to begin the work to decolonize your campus and community.
Land Acknowledgement Statements must be created in collaboration with local sovereign tribal nations. Land Acknowledgement Statements should be read at the beginning of meetings, events, graduation, orientation, convocation and be included on your college's website and course syllabi. These statements are important because they recognize that local tribes continue to exist and are part of the community. Contacting local tribes is the first step in this collaboration, which has the capacity to result in a great opportunity to build a working relationship and help serve Native American students on your campus.
The authors of this chapter acknowledge that we are writing in the unceded territory of California, home to nearly 200 tribal nations. We acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of our various regions. By taking a moment to honor these ancestral grounds that we are on, we support the resilience and strength that all Indigenous people have shown worldwide. The Miwok are one of the tribal nations in our area. Below is a photo of a bust of a Miwok dancer done by Miwok artist Jim Plamondon.
American Indian/Native American Studies: An Academic Discipline
American Indian Studies (AIS) or Native American Studies (NAS) is an academic discipline that formally began in the late 1960’s when Native American student activists coordinated with Asian American, Chicana/o/x, Puerto Rican and Black students to demand change within higher education. During this time, American Indian students at San Francisco State (Student Kouncil of Intertribal Nations - SKINS), Berkeley, UCLA and UC Davis were speaking out about American Indian rights, criticizing federal Indian policy and laws, discussing American Indian identity, and seeking to preserve tribal cultures.
Student activism focused attention on the inequity evident in the low enrollment and success rates of Black, Chicano, Asian American and American Indian students on college campuses as well as the lack of coverage of these core groups within the college curriculum. American Indians had long been the subject of study in disciplines like sociology, history, art and anthropology, but these disciplines only viewed Native people from an "outsider" perspective, treating us as subjects of study, often reinforcing stereotypes. Vine Deloria Jr., enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, author, historian and activist for Native American rights, concerned with the establishment of federal policy based on inaccurate academic studies, often criticized anthropologists and historians in his writings (ie. Custer Died for your Sins: An Indian Manifesto).
American Indian students and community leaders including Indian activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM), United Native Americans (UNA) and the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) as well as other organizations influenced the national political climate by providing information to the media that the general public did not know, which in turn pressured a response from the federal government and local colleges and universities. This movement specifically addressed broken treaties, unlivable conditions on reservations, and the lack of fair and equitable representation of Native people in academia and scholarly research.
While other disciplines may "study" and teach about Native people, American Indian Studies (AIS) or Native American Studies (NAS) provides the voices, social struggles, contributions and lived experiences of Native people culturally, socially, economically, legally, politically, and academically. AIS/NAS actively promotes the sustained and thriving existence of Native peoples and sovereign tribal nations with an emphasis on agency and group-affirmation. To accomplish this, AIS/NAS encourages important research to identify critical issues relevant to Native communities. This commitment to Native communities distinguishes AIS/NAS from other academic disciplines. One could argue that NAS or AIS began way before the 1960’s in that Native voices can be heard speaking about justice and equity, establishing laws and governing councils, as well as sustainable land and environmental policies of nations, if one listens, from the beginning of our existence. But that is the point…if one listens.
