American Indian Thought: Philosophical Essays

This book brings together a diverse group of American Indian thinkers to discuss traditional and contemporary philosophies and philosophical issues. The essays presented here address philosophical questions pertaining to knowledge, time, place, history, science, law, religion, nationhood, ethics, and art, as understood from a variety of Native American standpoints. Unique in its approach, this volume represents several different tribes and nations and amplifies the voice of contemporary American Indian culture struggling for respect and autonomy. Taken together, the essays collected here exemplify the way in which American Indian perspectives enrich contemporary philosophy. Scholars, students of philosophy, and general readers alike will benefit from this distinctive collection.

Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part I: American Indians and Philosophy: . 1. Vine Deloria, Jr.: Why We Respect Our Elders Burial Grounds. Part II: Epistemology and Knowing: . 2. Brian Yazzie Burkhart: What Coyote and Thales Can Teach Us. 3. V.F. Cordova: Approaches to Native American Philosophy. 4. John Dufour: Epistemology and Understanding. Part III: Science, Math, Logic: . 5. Gregory Cajete: A Philosophy of Native Science. 6. Thomas Norton Smith: Indigenous Numerical Thought. 7. Anne Waters: That Alchemical Bering Strait Theory. Part IV: Metaphysics and Being: . 8. Ted Jojola: Notes on Identity, Time, Place, and Space. 9. Anne Waters: Language Matters: NonDiscreet NonBinary Dualism. 10. Maureen E. Smith: Crippling the Spirit, Wounding the Soul: Native American Spiritual and Religious Suppression. Part V: Phenomenology and Ontology . 11. Marilyn Notah Verney: On Authenticity. 12. Leslie Nawagesic: The Phenomenology of a Mugwump Life. 13. Anne Waters: Ontology of Identity and Interstitial Being. Part VI: Ethics and Respect: . 14. V.F. Cordova: Ethics: The We and the I. 15. Thurmond Lee Hester: Choctaw Conceptions of the Excellence of the Self, with Implications for a Native Education. 16. Laurie Anne Whitt: Commodification of Knowledge. Part VII: Social and Political: . 17. Steve Russell: Jurisprudence of Colonialism. 18. Dale Turner: Oral Traditions and the Politics of (Mis)recognition. 19. Annette Arkeketa: Repatriation: Religious Freedom, Equal Opportunity, and Institutional Racism. Part VIII: Aesthetics: . 20. V.F. Cordova: Ethics: From an Artist’s Point of View. 21. David Martinez: Along the Horizon A World Appears: George Morrison and the Pursuit of an American Indian Aesthetic. 22. Thurmond Lee Hester: On Philosophical Discourse: Some Intercultural Musings. Bibliography. Index

Anne Waters is Research Associate at the Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture Center at the State University of New York, Binghamton. Sheis the founder and President of the American Indian Philosophy Association. She edits the American Philosophical Association (APA) Newsletter on American Indian Philosophy and is chair of the APA Committee on American Indians in Philosophy. Among other publications, she is co–editor of American Philosophies: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2001).

"This is a ground breaking volume. Its ideas intersect with diverse subfields of the discipline of philosophy as taught in North American universities. Each essay offers fresh ways of defining what philosophy is about." Iris Marion Young, University of Chicago <!––end––> "Descendants of survivors of the ‘moral monstrosity’ of near genocidal oppression of Native peoples are now within the ranks of professional philosophers and are hard at work rescuing and rehabilitating Indian philosophical thought. By reading these essays carefully, respectfully, and with open minds we have an opportunity to do better by Indian peoples than was the shameful case several centuries ago, and since. We will be better persons and philosophers for having done so, and better citizens, too." Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., Vanderbilt University " American Indian Thought contrasts US indigenous philosophies with Western academic philosophy. The writers explain perspectives on metaphysics, epistemology, phenomenology, social and political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics, in ways that will challenge, inspire and fascinate readers across disciplines." Naomi Zack, University of Oregon