In a small, brightly lit classroom, five Native men and women discuss their language, seriously but with laughter, while a young man in the back of the room takes notes.  Their conversation slows to prayerful silence and then rises again, driving one of them to jump up and scribble a word on the whiteboard.

Their topic? The meaning and etymology of words in their tribal language. Although untrained in Western linguistic theory or research methodology, they are clearly Native scholars.

For many years, educators and students at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) have recognized the contributions of such community-based scholars and their efforts to preserve and revitalize our cultural traditions and ways of living. We indigenous scholars have learned that such research is sacred work, essential to our survival. Research also serves the sovereignty and sustainability goals of our tribal nations.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith, a Maori scholar, has published a book that validates what we know about the significance of community-based research and about the problems we have experienced with Western research. Native scholars across the country are talking about Decolonizing Methodologies:  Research and Indigenous People.

Tuhiwai Smith is a professor of education at the University of Auckland and co-director of a collaboration of Maori researchers from eight institutions. She has played a key role in developing Maori educational initiatives, including the Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, which is the tribal university of her tribe.

With remarkable courage, Tuhiwai Smith names the oppression and imperialism we have experienced with Western research and goes beyond that to tell us what we can do about it.

Indigenous people of the Americas were subjects of research almost from the moment Columbus landed on our shores, and we are well aware of the potential for abuse in research having experienced it at several places in our history.

The first section of Tuhiwai Smith’s book examines the role of research in the colonization of indigenous people. Many Western scholars have used research to make the case that indigenous people do not possess the intellect, ability, or higher-order human qualities needed to thrive in the modern world. We talk about this privately, but for the most part, we don’t discuss it publicly.

The intent of research is to create and maintain a framework for organizing people and their knowledge, but the architects of the framework are individuals trained in Western practices, according to Tuhiwai Smith. The Western worldview is embedded with the values and beliefs of people who had to justify their colonization of indigenous people and the taking of land, resources, and human lives.

In the second part of her book, Tuhiwai Smith outlines her recommendations for creating and implementing an indigenous research agenda centered on the self-determination of Native nations. She provides examples from the Maori research agenda.

She tells us that as indigenous scholars, we can take control of the research process. The Native research agenda involves a number of social/evolutionary phases that indigenous nations move through: decolonization, healing, transformation, and mobilization.

This research agenda differs dramatically from the typical research agenda of mainstream institutions concerning our people; they want to describe, organize, and define indigenous people in the context of Western thought. In contrast, indigenous scholars intend to use research data as a knowledge base to help ensure our existence as unique indigenous nations for thousands of years to come.

For example, to Western scholars, the purpose for researching Native languages is preserving them for future study. To us, the purpose is to keep the language alive.

Tuhiwai Smith points out the importance of spirituality to indigenous research. This represents the clearest difference between indigenous people and the West: Our values, attitudes, beliefs, and practices are all embedded in our spirituality.

HEALING RESEARCH. Joe Eagle Elk based all of his healing on what the spirits told him should or could be done. Photo contributed by Jean Max Gaudierrier

The work of the late Joe Eagle Elk demonstrates this point. Eagle Elk was a healer or medicine man from the Sicangu Lakota Nation on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota who was the subject of a 2002 book by Gerald Mohatt, The Price of a Gift, A Lakota Healer’s Story. Part of the book describes Eagle Elk’s scholarly discussions with Western psychiatrists and psychologists.

At professional meetings, Eagle Elk explained to his Western colleagues that he based all of his work on what the spirits told him should or could be done.  He communicated with the spirits through ceremony.

It is a rare Western doctor or mental health practitioner who calls on the spirit world for advice on the right healing words, medicines, and practices.  Eagle Elk did so without second thoughts. Eagle Elk’s experience expresses the profound difference between Western research practice and Native methodologies.

In our rural, reservation, and urban tribal communities, there are other Native scholars and researchers whose life work is to understand and share our traditional ways.  The speakers of our Native languages study the origin and meaning of words; the herbalists know all the uses of plants for food or medicine; the historians through story teach about our cultures and societies; and the biologists and geologists explain the sicknesses in the plants and animals and share the best places to hunt, fish, and gather.

As tribal scholars and researchers, we must continue our dialogue about the role and nature of research. We must conduct research that helps inform and address community issues and concerns. We must build the capacity of our citizens to control and manage the research agenda.

While we do these things, it is important for us to keep our vision of tribal nationhood in sight.  We must revitalize our languages and protect our homelands and resources. We must preserve and utilize our social systems, rules of order, self-governance, and religious knowledge that make each of us uniquely Native.

As we address the devastating social conditions of our communities and families, we must do so with the express purpose of building on the cultural knowledge and assets of our communities.

We must do everything we can as researchers and scholars to protect the sovereign status of our nations.  To do otherwise is to promote the oppressive practices used to “keep us in our place.”

Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota) is president of Northwest Indian College in Washington and a frequent contributor to Tribal College Journal. She has over 20 years experience in Indian education at the K-12 and post-secondary levels including CEO of St. Francis Indian School and vice president of Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.