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Quote :"American Indian Studies: Intellectual Navel Gazing or Academic Discipline?"
[B]asic premises have emerged that appear in most [Native American Studies] curricula, and these premises can be said to constitute the basis for an academic discipline. The first premise is that the relationship between people and the land is the shaping force in American Indian cultures […] [Another] premise, which is particularly problematic for the U.S. government to comprehend, is that sovereignty is an inherent right of Indian nations. In contemporary America tribal sovereignty is grounded in treaties with the U.S. government that assured tribal rights to control of land.
It's hard to define what Native American Studies is, exactly. But over the years, there have been issues that keep appearing again and again. Two of the most important are the issues of land and sovereignty.
Native Americans have a very strong connection with their land. They lived on their land thousands of years before any settlers came, and this connection with their land is embedded in their culture. So in order to understand Native American culture, you have to understand the relationship of Native Americans to their land.
Kidwell argues that Native Americans shouldn't be subject to U.S. government rule—they should have complete political independence. And why not? Kidwell points out that Native Americans were colonized, their was forcibly taken away from them, and the few who survived disease and genocide were shoved onto reservations. What kind of deal was that?