Arizona State University held its annual American Indian Studies Association (AISA) conference last week in Tempe. This dynamic conference brought together activists and scholars from across the U.S. and Canada to present sessions fitting with this year’s conference themes: “Sustainability, Indigenous Community, Activism.”
In his opening remarks, outgoing AISA president Simon Ortiz tied together the three themes by poetically reiterating what he referred to as his mantra: “land, culture, community.” With a speech heavily interwoven with his native Acoma language, Ortiz spoke of the importance of revitalizing language, highlighting the “importance of language in recognizing who we are” and encouraged speakers who are insecure about their language abilities by saying, “whatever level of fluency you have, let it be part of your consciousness.”
There were dozens of noteworthy presentations, but the following speakers eloquently embodied the conference themes of sustainability, Indigenous community, and activism:
Sustainability
In a paper titled, Intellectual Colonialism: The ‘Mining’ of Traditional Knowledges, Doug West, Associate Professor of Political Science at Lakehead University, critiqued the co-optation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in sustainability discourse. Dr. West called into question the current thinking on sustainability, suggesting that it seeks to sustain a capitalistic growth model that exploits Indigenous knowledge systems. Dr. West asked several important questions that should be taken seriously by tribes and advocates of sustainable development: “Is sustainability an apologetic practice?” and “Is the current [sustainability] discourse a viable building block for re-imagining Native/settler relations?” Finally, he challenged his audience to consider that “sustainability is the Western ethic of the new millennium, but what exactly are we sustaining?”
Indigenous Community
Eddie Brown, Director of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University, spoke of his work to create a Tribally-Driven Participatory Research Model in which tribal community partners would be involved at early stages of all research projects, research would require approval from the tribal community, tribes would be active rather than passive in the research process, tribes would develop Tribal Research Review Boards, and training for all researchers going into tribal communities would be required or strongly encouraged. As Dr. Brown works with the National Congress of American Indians, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Washington to develop this important model, the collaborators continue to look at what structural supports need to be developed and what existing structural and institutional barriers might infringe upon the model’s efficacy.
Activism
Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), gave an impassioned keynote address titled, Mother Earth, Piñons, and Apple Pie. Goldtooth brought a strong activist current to the conference as he discussed his organization’s history and current work, including demonstrating at and reporting from the COP15 conference last fall, leading a campaign to stop the tar sands oil mines on traditional lands in Alberta, Canada, and partnering with REDOIL to address the detrimental impacts of oil and gas development in Alaska. Goldtooth hit upon some of the fundamental problems that face Native nations as they develop new economies: “People feel like they’re in ‘forced-choice’ decisions,” he says. “Too often Native nations are given false choices: poverty or economic development that destroys the Earth.” Goldtooth called this predicament a “forced choice” that, in his view, undermines sovereignty because tribal members “have no agency to really tell industry yes or no to development on tribal lands.” Goldtooth’s complete address to AISA will be published in issue 25-2 of Wicazo Sa, according to its editor James Riding In.
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There were many other presentations that exemplified the exciting new directions that work in the field of American Indian studies is taking and conference participants we spoke to were highly enthused by this seamless blending of scholarship and activism.
Simon Ortiz summed up the sentiments of the conference and gave attendees a motivational take-home message: “So much to say, so much to tell, so damn much – so just do it.”
