17th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference Presidential Address: American Indian Studies/Native American Studies in a Twenty-First Century World: Practices and Opportunities

Abstract

17th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference Presidential AddressAmerican Indian Studies/Native American Studies in a Twenty-First Century World: Practices and Opportunities Lloyd L. Lee (bio) Good morning. I am honored and pleased to be in Akimel O'odham territory participating with esteemed scholars, students, and community members at the 17th Annual American Indian Studies Association conference. I want to thank the members of the American Indian Studies Association Council (Myla Vicenti Carpio, Jeanette Haynes Writer, Elise Boxer, Richard Meyers, Larry Gross, Tennille Marley, Simon Ortiz, and Michael Yellow Bird), Elizabeth Martos, and the American Indian studies program here at Arizona State University for hosting this conference. I am a citizen of the Navajo Nation. My clans are Kinyaa'áanii (Towering House), born for Tł'ááschíí (Red Bottom). My maternal grandfather's clan is Áshįįhí (Salt), and my paternal grandfather's clan is Tábąąhá (Water's Edge). I grew up in Albuquerque, Naschitti, and Vanderwagon, New Mexico, and continue to keep a close association with my communities by voting in tribal elections; attending ceremonies, celebrations, funerals; and talking with community members on various topics related to education, politics, tribal governance, identity, leadership, environment, sports, and so forth. In my academic life, I am an associate professor of Native American studies at the University of New Mexico and the director of the Institute for American Indian Research. My academic training is in the discipline of American studies with an emphasis in Southwest studies, race, class, ethnicity, and American Indian history. My research focuses [End Page 5] are on American Indian identity, Navajo masculinities, Navajo philosophies, American Indian leadership, Navajo transformative research, and American Indian community building. I presently teach courses on identity, tribal governance, leadership, gender, research methods, community building, and worldviews. Like many of my colleagues in AIS/NAS, I have spent a good part of my academic career theorizing and writing about colonization, decolonization, identity, gender, philosophies, and Native nation building. My future research plans include an oral history project on the Navajo Special Program at Intermountain school in the 1950s and early 1960s, develop a clearinghouse for the Navajo boy's puberty ceremony, examine the concept of American Indian creativity and cultural production, and develop a praxis approach to decolonizing the Navajo Nation. I anticipate this second stage of my work will assist students and the discipline in American Indian community building and empowerment. I've worked in Native American studies officially for the past eight years; but, I've really been a part of it my whole life. I want to share with you my thoughts on the state of AIS/NAS and the opportunities our discipline faces this century. I will discuss several American Indian scholarly perspectives on the discipline, highlight four AIS/NAS departments and programs, and end with my views on five opportunities our discipline faces. I've examined various American Indian scholars on the state of AIS/NAS including Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Vine Deloria Jr., Clara Sue Kidwell, James Riding In, Michael Yellow Bird, Jace Weaver, Duane Champagne, Robert Warrior, Audra Simpson, Melissa K. Nelson, and Sidner Larson. All of these great minds project key thoughts about the history of American Indian studies/Native American studies (AIS/NAS) and what we need to do. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn's "Who Stole Native American Studies?," published in Wicazo Sa Review in 1997, describes the first American Indian scholars' gathering in 1970 at Princeton University. The scholars at the gathering called on AIS/NAS to focus on indigenousness (culture, place, and philosophy) and sovereignty (history and law). They also supported research on Native-based practitioners and tenured professors would be expected to develop appropriate research designs, collect data, and publish.1 Jace Weaver's "More Light Than Heat: The Current State of Native American Studies," published in 2007, declares the AIS/NAS field a mess. He advocates the field needs to serve Native peoples, communities, and develop an academic association where colleges and universities respect the field. He believes the Native American Indigenous Studies Association is such an academic association although the American Indian Studies Association has been in existence longer and was envisioned and developed by AIS/NAS professors and...