Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians

by Devon A. Mihesuah

Book Overview

Ten leading Native scholars examine the state of scholarly research and writing on Native Americans. Their distinctive perspectives and telling arguments lend clarity to the heated debate about the purpose and direction of Native American scholarship.

All too frequently, Native Americans have little control over how they and their ancestors are researched and depicted in scholarly writings. The relationship between Native peoples and the academic...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803282435
• ISBN13: 9780803282438
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Natives and Academics

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. The book addressed the issue of disrespecting the oral tradition of American Indian cultures by writing about them. This is something that has concerned me, especially as I look into continuing my studies through a PhD program.

How to research 101

A must have for writers looking to explore the world of American Indians through Academia. This book makes a great place to start for any writers outside the world of the American Indian because it informs from the perspective necessary to invoke change in the poorly and mainly Euroview of the American experience. The essays are insightful and informative and I found the bibliographies at the ends of each chapter a gift that only research freaks like me could enjoy. Thanks for the direction and how about a Volume 2?

required reading for all students in humanities

Professor Mihesuah does an excellent job, as writer and editor, promoting a new model for American Indian studies, one more cognizant that the scientific/historical assumptions of the academy are themselves culturally loaded against a just understanding and representation of American Indians. Personally, I think this is true of much modern culture as well; one reason academics have such a hard time figuring out what to do with (and how to talk about) rock and roll, for instance, is that it doesn't quite fit the categories western civilization has developed so far. This is a fine collection of essays, one that should be required reading for all PhD candidates in the humanities.

Required reading for ALL academics

Aside from the excellent job Professor Mihesuah does (both as writer and editor) in presenting the case for creating a different model for understanding American Indian history and culture, the essays here offer a much needed balance to academic presumptions about the primacy of scientific (as it were) fact. Should be required reading for all Ph.D. candidates in the humanities.