In 2005 President Karen Haynes started a Tribal Initiative at CSUSM. She began her work by creating a Native Advisory Council (NAC) comprised of faculty, staff, and, most importantly, representatives appointed by local tribal communities. The NAC is a broad-based tribal community council with a mission to "assist regional tribal communities in Indian country in articulating educational needs through advisement and regular meetings with CSUSM President and CSUSM Leadership." The NAC works to increase educational, professional, and research opportunities while preserving the cultural integrity of tribal communities and realizing individual and unique concerns. The members first conceived the American Indian Studies Department of the President's Native Advisory Council.
In 2007, CSUSM hired the first full-time tribal liaison, Ms. Tishmall Turner (Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians) in the CSU system from a local tribal community. In 2008, Dr. Joely Proudfit (Payomkawichum) joined CSUSM faculty in Sociology/Native Studies and was hired to take the leadership role in developing the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center (CICSC). The CICSC charter was approved in 2009, and the doors opened November 17, 2011. The CICSC has a mission to foster collaborative research and community service relationships between faculty, staff, and students at CSUSM and local tribal communities. With tribal staff, faculty, and community support firmly in place at CSUSM, the prominent missing piece to the Tribal Initiative was in curricular offerings.
Since 2008 the work to develop an American Indian Studies major/department has been a combination of community-based and formal university-wide collaborations. In the Fall Semester 2014, Provost Graham Oberem convened an American Indian Task Force to determine the need to create an American Indian Studies Department. The Task Force recommended that such a department be created and that a significant study area is also considered shortly. In the Spring Semester 2015, Provost Oberem announced his support of the Task Force's recommendation to create an American Indian Studies Department at the Academic Senate meeting (May 2015). He also announced Dr. Joely Proudfit as the inaugural chair of the American Indian Studies Department. Following her appointment as department chair, Dr. Proudfit was tasked with convening a strategic planning process to develop a vision, mission, and strategic objectives for the AIS department.
In the Fall Semester of 2015, Dr. Proudfit worked with a consultant to develop its strategic plan. A core committee and a larger campus-community committee were invited to attend three planning meetings. The Strategic Plan's key outcomes were the creation of a vision statement, a mission statement, and objectives that outlined the process to submit a request for a major in American Indian Studies.
The American Indian Studies (AIS) Department was formed by the recommendation of the Provost's Task Force in the Fall Semester 2014. Dr. Proudfit was named the inaugural chair in Spring Semester 2015, and the Native Studies Minor was wholly revised and reformed to meet the educational needs of AIAN in the 21st Century. A proposal to develop a Bachelor of Arts Degree in AIS was submitted for curricular review in the Fall Semester 2015 and is pending approval.
The goal was to launch the AIS Major in Fall 2016. The Mission of the American Indian Studies Department is to provide students with research, community- and place-based program of study through an integrated approach to understanding tribal knowledge about the diverse history, government-to-government relationship, community, culture, and social needs of American Indians in California and the U.S. to work effectively with and for tribal communities as they interface with non-Indian communities to exercise tribal sovereignty.
AIS provides a bridge between campus and community activities and engagement. Our goal is to create culturally intelligent graduates who will contribute to the regional workforce, including working for Tribal Nations in meaningful ways. Our courses include tribal community engagement, guest lectures, field trips, participatory research, and service-learning activities.
The byline for the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center states, "Education is the Path to Self-Determination." These words greet our staff, students, faculty, and visitors to our ad hoc American Indian Studies Department, and they are words that we live by. We live in a fast-moving and complicated era of tribal sovereignty in which the most common image that everyday citizens have of American Indians is a casino. As an American Indian educator, I have spent my entire life combating American Indians' harmful stereotypes ranging from the drunken and poor Indian to the Indian-maiden costume that shows up all too frequently at Halloween and in "cowboys and Indians" themed parties. The motivation for me to fight the good fight always boils down to the byline for the CICSC-education is the path to self-determination, and this is true for all of us Indian and non-Indian alike. For American Indian people, mainly, the need for education to sustain the milestones and achievements that our tribal ancestors and leaders have worked so hard to build is paramount. Building a 21st century AIS department, minor, and, hopefully, major will contribute to the pipeline of success that local tribes are building in Southern California.
At CSUSM, we are committed to building a healthier and more vibrant community by connecting university knowledge with community knowledge in mutually beneficial ways. In all of our work, we emphasize university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, and transformative.
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