Editor's Commentary

This issue contains information about the twelfth annual American Indian Studies Association (AISA) conference and three articles that make a significant contribution to our knowledge. First, however, I will pay homage to the life of Jack D. Forbes. Then I will share an American Indian studies paradigm that my Arizona State University colleagues asked me to craft for a proposal calling for the creation of a master's program.

Honoring the Memory of Jack D. Forbes

Jack Forbes, who was of Powhatan-Renape, Delaware-Lenape descent, entered the spirit world on February 23, 2011. Having earned a doctorate in history and anthropology from the University of Southern California in 1959, his legacy is that of a visionary, intellectual, and scholar, and his contributions to AIS and academia in general are abundant. He wrote numerous books, book chapters, and journal articles focusing on such topics as Indian history, colonialism, and education. Of particular note is his 1966 study titled "An American Indian University: A Proposal for Survival," which helped spark the Indian college movement. ¹ He called for the creation of an intertribal university controlled by Indians that would provide training in various areas, including education, law, agriculture, social work, and general education. By 1971, he had cofounded D-Q University near Davis, California, which had a mission that centered on cultural survival. By then, Navajo Community College had been founded in Tsaile on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Today, approximately one-third of all Indian college students attend one of the thirty-six tribal colleges scattered across the nation. Most of these institutions are geographically isolated and serve students who otherwise would not have an opportunity to improve the quality of their lives through education. ² Forbes also played a pivotal role in creating the Native American studies (NAS) program at the University of California, Davis. Today, it is one of only two U.S. universities offering a doctorate in AIS/NAS.

Even after retiring in the mid-1990s, Forbes remained active as a scholar. In December 2010, he e-mailed me to ask about the status of a manuscript titled "America: The Theft of a Continent's Names and What It Means," which he had submitted to Wicazo Sa Review several months earlier. Like much of his scholarship, this study challenges a fundamental component of the master narrative stemming from white colonialism in the Americas. I will publish this work in an upcoming issue. Jack is gone, but his legacy and life's work will endure for years to come. AIS and the Indian world are significantly better because of his courage, foresight, and commitment.

An American Indian Studies Paradigm Statement

There are a hundred or so academic programs and departments with AIS designations in the United States and Canada functioning under a variety of paradigms ranging from the reasonable to the absurdly superficial. There are few graduate and undergraduate programs with adequate administrative support, as well as strong curricula and faculty, while the majority of other programs suffer from a lack of resources, cohesion, Indian faculty, and focus. In this diverse milieu, there is neither a unifying paradigm that links AIS into an academic discipline nor a shared understanding of what AIS should be. It is difficult to assess these programs because there are no academic standards in place that measure what students should be taught, where faculty should publish, and the types of service faculty members should provide to communities.

When my colleagues asked me in January 2011 to draft an American Indian studies paradigm statement that would describe the nature of the program in less than five hundred words, I felt honored to do so. In formulating my ideas for this task, I reflected on what AIS could do to empower students while helping to strengthen and sustain diverse Indian nations. Then I turned to the inspirational writings of such scholars as Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Crow Creek Dakota), Susan A. Miller (Seminole), Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan-Renape and Delaware-Lenape heritage), Michael Yellow Bird (Arikara/Hidatsa), and Tom Holm (Muscogee/Cherokee), whose works are significant to AIS for a variety of reasons. ^3...