Editor’s Commentary

Abstract

Editor’s Commentary James Riding In (bio) This edition marks the beginning of an important new series entitled “The State of Indigenous America.” The idea behind this series is to increase understanding of the complex economic, social, and political issues facing American Indian nations and peoples. It is also designed for the contributors to offer solutions for addressing the problems under discussion. The first installment is Dr. Donald Warne’s discussion concerning health issues that American Indians face in the twenty-first century. Warne points out that although the U.S. government through its numerous treaties with Indian nations promised to provide health care to Indian peoples, this pledge is far from being fulfilled. The Indian Health Service, the U.S. agency designated to provide health care to Indians, is underfunded by approximately 40 percent, leaving many Indians without adequate health coverage. Consequently, large portions of the Indian population in Arizona and elsewhere suffer the effects of preventable diseases including diabetes, alcoholism, accidents, and suicide. Warne’s solutions call for the U.S. government to live up to its trust responsibilities for innovative funding such as tribal self-insurance programs and other actions. Subsequent installments of the series take on a variety of vital issues affecting Indian Country, such as sovereignty, land, religious freedom, sacred sites protection, repatriation, sustainable communities, decolonization, nation building, and collective historical trauma. Please contact the editor of Wicazo Sa Review if you want to contribute to this series. [End Page 5] This edition also contains four articles with issues important to American Indians and American Indian studies. Susan Miller’s work concerning the small but growing body of American Indian scholars, mostly historians, who are breaking new ground by writing from an Indigenous paradigm is an extension of her seminal piece published in the spring 2008 issue of Wicazo Sa Review. In this current issue, Miller provides examples of how Vine Deloria Jr., Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Steven Crum, Jennifer Denetdale, Waziyatawin, and other Indigenous scholars have rejected the problem-ridden tropes of the Euroamerican historical paradigm, which is heavily influenced by a Euroamerican sense of superiority, in favor of exploring knowledge constructed from Indian thoughts and experiences. To Miller, this intellectual development is an important process that will have meaning for future generations of Indians. Rosemary White Shield’s study provides an understanding of how cultural factors contributed to the persistence rates among a small number of Indian women who earned higher education degrees in mainstream institutions situated in the north central part of the country. Based on information gathered from oral and written interviews, she points out that spiritual and cultural factors, important variables in these women’s lives, enabled them to succeed in the face of such barriers as collective historical trauma and institutional and societal racism. Lawrence Gross’s probing examination reveals aspects of the life and nonfiction writings of Jim Northrup, an Anishinaabe humorist, storyteller, and Vietnam veteran from the Fond du Lac Reservation in northern Minnesota. Gross asserts that Northrup is striving not only to heal the wounds that impact Anishinaabe life but also to preserve his peoples’ language and culture. Justin Richland points out that during a century of contact with Euroamericans, Hopis have been extremely protective regarding the distribution of traditional knowledge, especially when it comes to sharing information of this sort with the newcomers. He also argues that these same dynamics of controlling access to knowledge occurs among the Hopis themselves because not everyone has a right to know certain types of sacred information. [End Page 6] James Riding In James Riding In (Pawnee) is the editor of Wicazo Sa Review, associate professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University, and the chair of the board of trustees of Pawnee Nation College. His publications appear in various books and journals. Copyright © 2009 Association for American Indian Research