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Dear AISC Friends and Family,

It has become commonplace to say that we are living in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the dramatic inequality our communities have long been experiencing, both through the disproportionate impact of the virus itself, and though the disproportionate economic impacts. Our communities are frightened, exhausted, hungry, and angry. In this devastating context, the racially motivated killing of three African Americans — Amhaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd — has equally exposed, yet again, the ongoing presence of a lethal racism in our society. It is painful, it is outrage producing, it has brought us as a society to the brink of chaos. Perhaps a needed chaos, in the sense that in many ways these events are not, in fact, “unprecedented.” They have ample precedents in the inequality-produced underlying conditions that marked our communities for death in this pandemic, and in the nightmarish endless replay loop of Black deaths, particularly, though not exclusively, at the hands of police.

In a recent special issue of American Anthropologist on the anthropology of white supremacy, I argued that we should not be surprised at the resurgent white nationalism and misogyny that have characterized the period of the most recent presidential administration, because our society, as a settler capitalist state, is fundamentally structured upon these logics. I argued that we need to be thinking about structural rather than cosmetic change. The time for that change has come.

Never has the relationship between what is happening in the world and on our campus been more clear. As students, faculty and staff hit the streets to demand racial justice, an unfortunate number have been arrested or assaulted by police for voicing their legitimate demands. Sadly, on one night, the LAPD used UCLA’s Jackie Robinson stadium as a makeshift field jail, busing in people arrested on curfew violations and treating them abusively while booking them under Bruin banners. We have joined other faculty in vocally denouncing this activity, and united our voice with those currently calling for full UCLA divestment from LAPD. True leadership is greatly needed as we seek to end structural racism on our campus and in our society. We hope that UCLA leadership will choose to lead.

Chinchokma’ni sabanna/be well,

Shannon Speed,

Director, UCLA American Indian Studies Center

For up to date information on the COVID-19 outbreak, please access: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/coronavirus-information-for-the-ucla-campus-community

UCLA acknowledges the Tongva People

AISC at UCLA acknowledges the Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and are grateful to have the opportunity to work for the Taraaxatom (indigenous peoples) in this place. As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to Honuukvetam (Ancestors), 'Ahiihirom (Elders), and 'Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/ relations) past, present and emerging.

EVENTS FROM THE AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES CENTER

UCLA AISC 50TH ANNIVERSARY

June marks the final month of the 50th anniversary of the American Indian Studies Center. Each month during the past year, we have highlighted one of our alumni in this newsletter’s Native Bruins: Past, Present & Emerging feature. Because this feature has proved to be highly popular, we have decided to continue it indefinitely. You can read about our illustrious alumni on our website and social media pages (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). This month we are highlighting Native Bruin GREG SARRIS.

NATIVE BRUINS: PAST PRESENT & EMERGING

UCLA AMERICA INDIAN CULTURE AND RESEARCH JOURNAL

We want to assure you that the editorial staff of the American Indian Culture an Research Journal are continuing to work remotely through UCLA’s temporary office closures. Please continue to submit articles to Editor-in-Chief Randall Akee at aiscsubmissions@aisc.ucla.edu. However, because we are working from home during this time, we will temporarily be unable to fulfill book orders until further notice. Please do not hesitate to contact Pamela Grieman with any publications-related concerns at grieman@ucla.edu. And please stay safe and healthy!

New! Special AICRJ Issue on Blackness and Indigeneity

The next issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal on “Rethinking Blackness and Indigeneity in the Light of Settler Colonial Theory” is now available online and in print. Guest-edited by Circe Sturm, this special issue explores the intersections of Blackness and Indigeneity from two primary analytic and theoretical frames, critical race theory and settler colonialism (vol. 43, no. 2). Contributors include Shanya Cordis, William Felepchuk, Sarah Fong, Reid Gómez, Kelsey Dayle John and Kimberly Williams Brown, Jessi Quizar, Circe Sturm, and Joyce Pualani Warren.

Forthcoming! Special AICRJ Issue on Indigeneity, Feminism, Activism

Keep your eyes out for the next issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal on “Indigeneity, Feminism, Activism.” Guest-edited by Joanne Barker, this special issue includes contributions from Joanne Barker, Jaskiran Dhillon, Annita Hetoevehotohke’e Lucchesi, Melissa K. Nelson, Kai Pyle, and Melanie Yazzie, with poetry by Kecia Cook and Janelle Pewapsconias and fiction by Deborah Miranda.

American Indian Studies Center Publications

The Center's publications unit operates as a small independent press, one of the few that prizes Native voices in works of creative writing, community handbooks, and academic publications. Our flagship publication is the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (AICRJ), which has been recognized as one of the leading serial publications on Native American life and issues. In addition to publishing works on contemporary and historical American Indian issues, law, and politics, the press publishes books of plays, poetry, and fiction.

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