American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Until recently, it has been difficult to present a logically consecutive account of the Keres idea of a godhead. In varying degrees Keres worship of its deities has been rationalized as positivist or mystic by theologians and behavioral scientists as well as by other tribal Americans. It has never been certain whether Keres worship is positivist-pagan overly involved with the reality of existence or mystically pagan with uncommon concern with the supernatural. Astronomers conducting searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have long been interested in the history of “first contact” between foreign civilizations as a proxy for extraterrestrial contact and have often employed frontier metaphors and colonial analogies in their pursuit of extraterrestrials. This article shows this language was more than mere rhetoric; drawing from the history of Orientalism and the US frontier, this article investigates SETI’s physical and disciplinary homes, ultimately arguing that, even when attempting to convey universality, SETI scientist’s pursuit of the alien was shaped by cultural power structures such as gender and colonialism.