American Indian History and Writing from Home: Constructing an Indian Perspective

American Indian History and Writing from HomeConstructing an Indian Perspective Donald L. Fixico (bio) As we approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, examining the scholarship of Native historians "writing from home" represents a major step in advancing the field of Indian history. At the same time, after reading the writing of American Indian history for over thirty years, I am convinced that there is much more to do. It is not the research data that are collected but rather how the historical evidence is viewed and interpreted. If the typical premise of American Indian history is actually the history of Indian-white relations, then the "other" side of the coin must be turned over for understanding an Indian point of view and what is called "writing from home." Conceptually, "writing from home" is the challenge of historians who are American Indian and who write history based on their cultural perceptions and home place as Native people who have been trained in the mainstream academy. Before this essay can go any further, we should ask, What is Indian history? Without going into great detail, Indian history is perceived differently by Indians close to their traditions as opposed to academic historians. While this essay focuses on the latter and writing from home, Indian history of the former is conveyed in the oral tradition via stories where "experiences" are more important than "events." Furthermore, Indian history in the form of "experiences" is actually moments of time where time is perceived differently from the American mainstream. "Time, in [Indian] mythic thinking, is a very different order of perception, obligation, and experience," as described by Calvin Martin. He continues: "Here, time's instruments of measurement are the myriad cycles of nature and its citizens, all thought to be taking place within the suspended moment, the still point, of creation."1 While Martin, a mainstream historian, [End Page 553] has helped to acknowledge Indian perception of time and history, it is the mainstream definition of history that is the concern here, and writing from home is the central issue. First of all, some people might say that there is no one Indian perspective. It is true that at present there are 562 federally recognized tribes, and all of these nations have a different view about Indian history. When the added factor that Indian men and women think differently is considered, then the previous statement is more complicated. The complexity becomes greater when adding in the First Nations of Canada and Indigenous groups of Mexico and South America. Yet Indian people and individuals who know Indians very well would agree that there is an Indian perspective. Writing from home has both advantages and disadvantages, and this has been pointed out by the authors of the essays in this issue. If one had to say, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. At the same time, this comparison depends on perception and how historians see the situation of Native persons writing about their own homeland and their tribal history. With this thought in mind, there is a difference of how Indian people and non-Indians view things. This point has already been addressed in these essays; I also addressed it in The American Indian Mind in a Linear World.2 Without doubt, Native people who are close to their traditions "see" the world differently from non-Indians and even Indians who are not close to their tribal traditions. If you really know Indian people, then you know what I am talking about. The difference in perception underscores the point that Indians who write history "see" the world differently than non-Indian historians who write Indian history. (Yet you do not have to be Indian in order to "see" Indian.) This particular difference has not been so evident, since there are only about a dozen American Indian historians who actively write from a Native perspective. This ability is what I would call "real" Indian history and writing from "home." How they do this is the main argument of this essay and the other essays in this issue. In her essay, "Haudenosaunee Genealogies: Conflict and Community in the Oneida Land Claim," Kristina Ackley reminds us...

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