[nativestudies-l] Native American and Indigenous Studies Association formed

[Alyssa Mt. Pleasant]

  From Diverse Online: 
http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10997.shtml

Current News
Native American, Indigenous Scholars Form New Interdisciplinary Association
By Kimberly Davis
Apr 14, 2008, 22:20

Athens, Ga.

During a three-day conference held at the University of Georgia this 
past weekend, Native American and indigenous scholars from around the 
world voted overwhelmingly to form what organizers say is the first-ever 
membership-based, interdisciplinary, scholarly association.

 

Registered attendees at the second annual meeting approved the formation 
of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association by a vote of 
172-12, according to Dr. Jace Weaver, director of the Institute of 
Native American Studies at Georgia's flagship public university.

 

"Because all of use who do Native American or indigenous studies have 
our disciplinary meeting that we have to go to, there might be three, 
four, half-a-dozen if we're lucky, panels on indigenous issues," says 
Weaver, a professor of religion and Native American studies. "But 
there's no place where we can talk across interdisciplinary boundaries. 
That's necessary if we're going to move forward."

 

The association was first conceived by Dr. Robert Warrior, a professor 
at the University of Oklahoma, who "started with a phone call" three 
years ago that set a conversation in motion. That conversation led to 
the formation of a steering committee that organized the first 
Indigenous Studies meeting last year in Oklahoma. Because Native 
American and indigenous scholars are spread out in fields such as 
religion, sociology and political science, just to name a few, Warrior 
says that it is up to those who focus on and have a stake in these 
issues to come together.

 

"This is the obsession of our field," says Warrior, who last month was 
named director of the American Indian Studies Program and the Native 
American House at the University of Illinois. "It does come down to us 
and it also becomes this larger circle."

 

The next step for the association is to elect a slate of officers who 
will be installed at the next meeting, which will be held at the 
University of Minnesota in May 2009.

 

For many of those in attendance at the conference, which featured 
roughly 88 concurrent sessions and participants from Australia, New 
Zealand and Canada, the association is a welcome development and an idea 
whose time has come. Organizers say this year's conference marks the 
second meeting of its kind and scope.

 

"It's an historic moment for all of us," says Dr. Jacki Rand, an 
associate professor of Native North American history at the University 
of Iowa. "I think it's long overdue and it shows how much the academy 
has ignored Native American studies or American Indian studies."

 

Dr. Robert Collins, an assistant professor of American Indian studies at 
San Francisco State University, says that the association will match a 
specific need with the breadth of research that exists and will grow in 
the field.

 

"The diversity of the scholarship almost requires an association like 
this," says Collins, who is a member of the curatorial team for 
"/I//ndivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas/," a new 
exhibition from the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and 
the National Museum of African American History and Culture. "It's too 
broad for just American Indian studies and it needs a specificity that 
can't be matched by indigenous studies. It's about a lived experience."

 

Membership in the organization is open to any individual --- native and 
non-native ---who works in Native American, American Indian or 
indigenous studies, including students. One undergraduate student from 
the University of New Mexico presented a paper at the conference and 
said the association is a way for those who do this work to come 
together and build the future leaders and educators in the field.

 

"What it really means is, as Native students, we can assert our 
identity," says Jonathan Pino, 23, of T'siya Pueblo, N.M. "It's really 
about asserting who we are and taking it to the next level. We're 
redefining what it means to be Native scholars."

 

For more information about the Native American and Indigenous Studies 
Association, please contact Jace Weaver at jweaver at uga.edu 
<mailto:jweaver at uga.edu>

-- 

 

 

	

 

 

Alyssa Mt. Pleasant

Assistant Professor

	

 

American Studies Program

Yale University

P.O. Box 208236
New Haven, CT 06520-8236

 

203-432-1045

 

	

Department of History

Yale University
P.O. Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324

alyssa.mt.pleasant at yale.edu <mailto:alyssa.mt.pleasant at yale.edu>

 

	

 

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