User:Zeus Aurelius/NAS

In contrast to Western anthropology, the knowledge base of Native American studies is endogenous, emerging from indigenous communities. Developers of Native American studies widely dismissed scientific objectivity, since Western cultural biases have historically informed anthropology and other disciplines.

Discourse about Diversity and Decolonization

Since the inception of Native American Studies, there’s been discourse on the question of which ethnicities should study and contribute to the field of Native Americans Studies. These fundamental questions range from who should study Native American Studies in undergraduate courses to whether academics of non-Indian descent can contribute major scholarly works to the field.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn is a Native American academic and activist who has written on the topic of decolonization. Cook-Lynn emphasizes the importance of Native American studies as an interdisciplinary field that examines the histories, cultures, and experiences of Indigenous peoples in North America.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a professor of education and Maori development and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Maori at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. Smith explains that the word "research" is linked to European colonialism. Indigenous peoples are apprehensive and cautious of that connection, and the pursuit of knowledge, or research, is deeply embedded in multiple layers of European and Colonial processes. Colonial definitions and understandings of native peoples were reported to the West and then those representations were sent back and attached to indigenous identity. In this way, research is very powerful. Indigenous researchers must be afforded the opportunity to critique and fine-tune the methodologies so that their experiences are more accurately represented.