American Indian Culture and Research Journal

In 1980, during his keynote address to the UCLA American Indian Studies Conference, Russell Thornton observed that "the future for American Indian Studies is open . . . [either to] blend into other disciplines . . . or become mere components . . . or it could emerge as a discipline, unique and distinct in higher education" [emphasis added]. It is this distinctly contradictory set of options which Jose Berriero has termed "the dilemma" that has frustrated the potential of university-level American Indian education from its outset. Today, however, both the material and the intellectual foundations exist through which American Indian Studies can come into its own, transcending the constraints of Euro-American colonial indoctrination which have been imposed upon it and creating a matrix of knowledge for Native America which Ron LaFrance has called its "symbology of development." The seeds planted during the 1960s, despite all odds, have sprouted and grown, and may well be preparing to bear fruit. This brief survey of the state of affairs within American Indian Studies will endeavor to sketch both problems confronted by the discipline and possible solutions. As with any study of this sort, it does not-in fact, cannot-purport to offer a comprehensive analysis of its subject matter. Rather, it is intended to provide a capsule orientation to the complexity of issues and dynamics involved, and to open the door to further consideration and discussion of the topics raised. And it is intended to extend a definition of American Indian Studies as a fully interdisciplinary academic field which is a viable conceptual alternative to the Eurocentrism inherent in the present intellectual status quo.