MISSION OVERVIEW

The core goals and objectives of the American Indian Studies Center (AISC) are to facilitate research and research collaborations; disseminate research results through research conferences, meetings and other activities; strengthen graduate and undergraduate education by providing students enrolled in the American Indian Studies program with training opportunities and access to facilities; to seek extramural research funds; and carry out university and public service programs related to the Center's research expertise. In addition, the AISC maintains a reference library, publishes books as well as the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, provides academic counseling and support to students, actively promotes student recruitment and retention, supports academic programs in American Indian Studies (AIS) and administers postdoctoral and predoctoral fellowships and research awards through the Institute of American Cultures. The Center acts as a focal point for scholars, staff, students and community members who are interested in research, education, and issues about Native Americans. Our research focus is broad and encompasses topics ranging from the contemporary urban Indian experience to issues within tribal communities. We also attempt to balance a national focus with attention to underserved and often overlooked California tribes. Underlying our mission is an acknowledgment that the indigenous peoples of North America are generally poorly understood and have distinct social, cultural, economical, political, and legal needs by virtue of their status as indigenous nations colonized by a major world power.

The American Indian Studies Center is an Organized Research Unit (ORU), and as such, its mission is to promote research, education, and community service within an academic framework. As an ORU, the Center is headed by a Director who is a tenured member of the UCLA faculty. The Center's goals are accomplished by assisting campus departments with recruiting American Indian faculty and supporting research by faculty and students. The Center acts as a focal point for faculty, pre and post doctoral fellows, and students to conduct research on issues about Native Americans. Institute of American Cultures (IAC) grants, external grants, committees, and teaching bring faculty and students to the Center from a variety of departments.

ABOUT INTERIM DIRECTOR AND PROFESSOR GEIOGAMAH

A member of the Kiowa-Delaware Tribes from Oklahoma, Hanay Geiogamah is a professor of theater in the School of Theater, Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Geiogamah is the current director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center and for the past ten years has served as the principal investigator for Project HOOP, the national initiative to promote development of Native American theater and performing arts. With an extensive background in the theater as a director, playwright and producer, he is actively involved in American Indian studies and research and serves as the founding artistic director of the internationally-acclaimed American Indian Dance Theater.

Professor Geiogamah was senior producer for the two-part documentary series, Indian Country Diaries, broadcase nationally on the PBS network in November 2006 as a production of the Native American Public Telecommunications Consortium. In March of this year, he staged the dance sequences for teh critically prasied opera Wakonda's Dream at Opera Omaha, serving as guest artist for the premiere performances with members of the American Indian Dance Theater.

Professor Geiogamah is the author and editor of a number of books and articles on Native American theater and performing arts and serves as the series editor for the Native American Theater Series of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center Press. For Project HOOP, he is planning a national symposium entitled Re-Imaging Native American Storytelling Traditions, to be held during the coming year with funding support from the Ford Foundation. His first collection of plays, New Native American Drama, is published by the University of Oklahoma Press and has been in print for 27 years.

HISTORY

The initial beginnings of the Center date to 1969, when students and community members asked UCLA to create a curriculum and research center concentrating on Native American history and culture. Many Native students at UCLA and community members believed that UCLA was not conducting research or disseminating accurate information about Native American issues, history, and culture. In 1970, Chancellor Young secured a five-year Ford Foundation Grant for support of the Center and the three other ethnic studies centers, Asian American, African-American and Chicano. The Ford grant supported research, grant writing, a library, publications, and curriculum development. In the early 1970s, the student affairs position was secured from the university and was designed to focus on student retention and recruitment. In the fiscal year 1975-1976, UCLA agreed to assume financial support for the four ethnic studies centers, including the American Indian Studies Center. Also in 1975, and in association with the new UCLA commitments to the four ethnic studies centers, the Institute of American Cultures was created to distribute research grants and fellowships in ethnic studies. All four ethnic studies centers participate, and each year, by means of competitive review processes, each center awards one postdoctoral fellowship, one predoctoral fellowship, and a series of research grants to faculty, student, and postdoctoral fellow applicants. Over the past 25 years, the fellowships and grants have been major sources of research support in the Center. The Center, in 1975, was endowed with five faculty FTE (full-time equivalents) and is charged with faculty recruitment and development of Native scholars and scholars working in Native Studies. In 1982, the Center faculty created the Interdepartmental Program's (IDP) master's degree in American Indian Studies and developed a series of core courses. The IDP is endowed with few resources and no space, therefore the Center has provided administrative and resource support to the IDP. IDP students study and often work in the Center, and the student affairs officer has increasingly taken on many of the IDP's routine administrative duties. The faculty members are appointed in academic departments and agree to participate in the IDP and ORU. Faculty do not have appointments directly to the Center or IDP. In the mid-1990s, the Center and IDP faculty created a minor in American Indian Studies through IDP and just recently in 2002, the major was approved.

At present, the Center is divided into five operational units. Administration integrates, supports, and monitors basic operations in all units. Publications disseminates research findings through the production of a quarterly academic journal, books, monographs, videotapes, and other media. The student affairs officer recruits and counsels students, helps identify community needs, seeks community guidance on research and education issues, and provides administrative support for the IDP. The library serves as a resource for students and scholars by maintaining a collection of books and periodicals on American Indian subject matter and helping support research projects and grant development. The research department administers internal and external grants, and carries on and stimulates collaborative research projects. The American Indian Studies Center is dedicated to culturally appropriate research, information distribution, and community service for and about American Indians. Over the past three decades, the Center has become nationally and internationally recognized as one of the foremost American Indian studies programs.