Indigenous Thinkers

First Panel:
Reclaiming American Indian Studies
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Tom Holm
John Red Horse
Moderator: James Riding In

 Wicazo Sa Review 20.1 (2005) 169-177

Introduction by James Riding In
Let me make a few introductory comments about what I see as important about American Indian studies and about this conference. Many of us in attendance today are committed to the development of AIS as a discipline, not as a stepchild of anthropology, history, English, social work, or sociology, among others. Our status as members of distinct political entities and the future of our respective nations is too significantly great to accept the practices, theories, methodologies, and canons of others. We cannot forsake meaningful service to our nations. American Indian studies must never function as the handmaiden of colonialism. The intellectual information we gather, analyze, and synthesize must be for the collective purpose of defending sovereignty, lands, economic well-being, human rights, and religious freedom of our peoples and our nations. Our careers in academia in any event are secondary to this goal.

Colonialism has branded indigenous peoples with a mark of inferiority. Put another way, we have blocked the colonizers' progress, or Manifest Destiny, and their claims of preemptive rights given to them by their Creator to the lands and resources of our peoples. Unfortunately this attitude of the colonizer has resulted in such destructive policies as forced removals, coercive assimilation, and genocide. The Supreme Court continues to draw on imperialistic legal theories and discourses [End Page 169] to render decisions that adversely affect our land claims, sovereignty, and religious freedom.

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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/wicazo_sa_review/v020/20.1cook-lynn01.html

Wicazo Sa Review
Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2005
Special Issue: Colonization/Decolonization, II