American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The struggle for the validity of indigenous knowledges may no longer be over the recognition that indigenous peoples have ways of viewing the world which are unique, but over proving the authenticity of, and control over, our own forms of knowledge. —Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodology American Indian Studies (AIS), or Native American studies (NAS), arose as a field in the late 1960s and 1970s as part of the “new Indian” movement and the revitalization of Indian culture and identity. By 1999 there were many colleges and universities offering programs or majors in AIS/NAS, thirteen with graduate degrees, and at least four with Ph.D. programs. Although multidisciplinary in nature, and drawing from the humanities, history and the social sciences, AIS/NAS is informed by its own paradigm. Thus, the question remains: Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Is American Indian studies a legitimate discipline, with its own unique perspective and methodological concerns? Or is it solely an area of concentration within the established disciplines? I subscribe to the first view, that AIS/NAS has its own perspective or paradigm. I term this “academic Indianismo.” Alexander Ewen (Perepeche) has coined the term Indianismo as a counterpoint to indigenismo, a concept promoted by Lazaro Cardenas, the Mexican proponent of Indian rights. Cardenas, however, despite his humanistic concerns, saw indigenismo as a means of assimilating Indians into the body politic of Mexico with its mixed-blood population and mestizo culture.