Why Does Political Science Hate American Indians?
by Kennan Ferguson, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Native Americans have been structurally excluded from the discipline of political science in the continental United States, as has Native epistemology and political issues. I analyze the reasons for these erasures and elisions, noting the combined effects of rejecting Native scholars, political issues, analysis, and texts. I describe how these arise from presumptions inherent to the disciplinary practices of U.S. political science, and suggest a set of alternative formulations that could expand our understanding of politics, including attention to other forms of law, constitutions, relationships to the environment, sovereignty, collective decision-making, U.S. history, and majoritarianism. Read the full article.
- Responses
- Sovereignty and Survivance—The Pathways of Native Politics
by Daniel Carpenter, Harvard University - Why Aren’t Political Scientists Interested in Native American Politics?
by Paul Frymer, Princeton University - Marginalizing Politics: The Conceptual and Epistemological Barriers to American Indians
by Lauren M. MacLean, Indiana University Bloomington - Actualizing Political Science
by Joely Proudfit, California State University, San Marcos - Absence Does Not Make the Indigenous Political Heart Grow Fonder
by David E. Wilkins, University of Minnesota - Indigenizing Political Science or Decolonizing Political Scientists?
by Franke Wilmer, Montana State University
- Sovereignty and Survivance—The Pathways of Native Politics
Note: The entire discussion is ungated so that non-subscribers can access it.
Perspectives on Politics / Volume 14,Issue 4 / December 2016 / pp. 1029-1038