Friends & Community

UCLA is home to some of the country's most influential and respected scholars writing and working in American Indian Studies today. We recognize the commitment, excellence, and engagement of our faculty and staff, who have made the American Indian Studies Center at UCLA a noted research center in the field. Below are a few highlights of the impact the Center has had locally, nationally, and internationally.

Impact on the Academy

• Partners for Justice - Partners for Justice supports the Federal Indian Law and Order Commission (ILOC) in furthering research regarding criminal justice in tribal communities.
• 5th Annual CRS Symposium: Race and Sovereignty - The 5th Annual CRS Symposium explored the relationship between race and sovereignty, supported by the AISC.
• Are Reservations Stand-Ins for Indians? Sovereignty, Identity, and Authenticity in David Treuer's Rez Life - A reading by Dr. David Treuer from his latest book, Rez Life, hosted by the AISC.
• Indigenous Peoples' Rights in the International Human Rights Framework – A Comfortable Fit? - The UCLA American Indian Studies Center co-hosted this one-day symposium.
• The Exiles - A screening of The Exiles, a film that chronicles one night in the lives of young Native American men and women living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles, 1957, was followed by a roundtable discussion with Native Filmmaker Sterlin Harjo and Professor Peter Nabokov.
• The American Society for Ethnohistory Meeting 2011 - A four-day conference in Pasadena, CA to promote the interdisciplinary investigation of the histories of the Native Peoples of the Americas.

Impact on the Community

• Wiyot Repatriation - We were honored to host a NAGPRA repatriation event with the Wiyot Tribe.
• InSight - InSight engages five local urban American Indian youth in creating digital images reflecting violence-free lives.
• Teaching and Mentoring Indian Tarahat (TAMIT) - TAMIT is an education and leadership development initiative for 9th–12th grade high school students led by the Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and serving the Los Angeles Indian community.
• Navajo Repatriation - Tony Joe and Timothy Begay from the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Office, Traditional Culture Program, discussed issues related to Cultural Protection and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Impact on the World

• UN World Intellectual Property Organization - Director Angela Riley delivered the keynote address at the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization’s side event in Geneva, Switzerland on July 18, 2011, entitled, Making Sui Generis Protection Work: Best Practices and Future Research.
• UN Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues - The workshop, titled Preserving and Protecting the Cultural Heritage and Intellectual Property of Indigenous Peoples: The Case of the Hopi, was organized and co-sponsored by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center in cooperation with Hopi Cultural Preservation Office and UN World Intellectual Property Organization.
• United Nations-Indigenous Peoples Partnership - The first global inter-agency initiative to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples concluded its inaugural Policy Board meeting with Director Angela Riley as an indigenous expert member of the Board.
• Deer Dances and Other Yaqui Ways of Knowledge - A performance by Yoeme Indian Deer Dancer and Singers and a presentation of research surrounding the Yoeme communities in northwest Mexico by Professor David Delgado Shorter.
• Maya Lenca Storytelling: Into the Next Millennium - A performance of a Maya-Lenca creation myth by the young chief Leonel Chevez, a health worker, artist, and activist grounded in his Maya-Lenca traditions.