Editor’s Commentary

Yá’át’ééh! My name is Lloyd L. Lee. I am an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation. My clan is Towering House (Kinyaa’áanii) born for Red Bottom (Tł’ááschíí). My maternal grandfather’s clan is Salt (Áshįįhí), and my paternal grandfather’s clan is Water’s Edge (Tábąąhá). I am a professor in the Native American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico. I am excited to assume the editorship of Wicazo Sa Review from my friend James Riding In. The journal has flourished under James’s leadership, and I am so grateful to him and to the University of Minnesota Press for this opportunity.

As I develop my editorial role, I intend to honor the journal’s founders, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, William Willard, Bea Medicine, and Roger Buffalohead, and the goals set forth with this journal on the principle of publishing research associated with the development of American Indian studies / Native American studies as a discipline. This journal has had a significant impact on the discipline and the needs of Native Nations and Indigenous peoples. It will continue to “define the cultural, legal, and historical parameters of scholarship and creativity essential to the ongoing process of decolonization and survival in the modern world.”¹ Articles in Wicazo Sa Review span a wide array of topics and themes vital to Native Nations, scholars, the Native studies discipline, and Indigenous peoples, such as sovereignty and governance, colonization/decolonization, health, film and media, literature, and Native nation building. We want to continue to build on the research and scholarship where the primary mission is to assist Indigenous peoples in taking possession of their own intellectual and creative pursuits.

In this thirty-fourth edition, the following articles continue this purpose. The first article is by Sarah Hernandez. Her piece titled “‘Everything Originates from the Oral Traditions’: A Close Reading of Cook-Lynn’s Aurelia: A Crow Creek Trilogy” does a close reading of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn’s Aurelia: A Crow Creek Trilogy. The close reading brings to the forefront important and vital understandings for Indigenous peoples. These understandings are tied to the connection to land and to each other as a community. Indigenous peoples have strong intellectual, social, political, cultural, and spiritual ties to the land, community, narratives, and a way of life. Hernandez reminds us also that the intellectual, social, and political work of Cook-Lynn and other Native scholars is vital to the continuation of Native Nations and peoples.

The second article, titled “Emerging Strategies for Indigenizing Science at Tribal Colleges,” is by Beverly R. DeVore-Wedding, Linda Nicholas-Figueroa, Paul Pansegrau, Janyce Woodard, Hank Miller, and Mark A. Griep. This collection of tribal college and universities faculty examine how institutions are working to connect science to tribal community topics and issues. They are bringing Indigenous cultural knowledge to inside and outside the classroom. They relate microbiology, climate change, chemistry, and medicinal plants.

The third article, titled “The ‘Pope Scope’: Vatican Attacks on Western Apache and Mount Graham,” by Joel Helfrich focuses on the Vatican’s involvement in the telescope projects on Mount Graham and the continuation of colonization against Indigenous peoples. Helfrich examines Vatican officials, Jesuit priest-astronomers, their allies, Indigenous peoples (including Western Apache peoples), and environ-mentalists. This examination of destruction to sacred Indigenous lands can be instructive in developing ways to help Indigenous peoples protect their sacred spaces and places.

Our issue concludes with a book review of Norman K. Denzin’s Re-Reading Ishi’s Story: Interpreting Representation in Three Worlds by Thomas E. Simmons.

Publishing a journal is a demanding process requiring the time and efforts of many. It is only through the participation of readers, reviewers, editors, and producers in the academic community that Wicazo Sa Review can and will continue to provide strong voices in American Indian studies / Native American studies. Thank you all! It is our hope this journal will contribute to American Indian studies / Native American studies departments and programs across the country seeking to protect the sovereignty, integrity, cultures, and identities of Indigenous peoples. We also call out for writers and scholars to submit [End...