To Be or Not to Be Indigenous: Identity, Race, and Representation in Education

Abstract

In this article, personal experiences are described of being caught in the midst of oppressive discourses of "othering" during the work as a Comanche- Kiowa faculty member in a predominantly white research university. While Cornel Pewewardy was focusing on how to reform his relationship with Indigenous communities as a "privileged" educator, he missed the process by which he was being co-oped by the dominant English-speaking community to legitimate their discourse of Indigenous identity, race, and education as a "problem." Through his story, Pewewardy recontextualizes theories about the multiplicity of tribal identities of the educator. He problematizes the "we" in the literature of Indigenous studies who analyze their identity, race, and representation in education. This challenges dominant-culture education as well as Indigenous scholars to move beyond the externally imposed concepts of identity race, and representation in education and to call upon their own tribal histories of complicity and marginalization in order to move toward new sovereign tribal identities and discourses. Similarly, educators are called upon from marginalized tribal cultures to recognize their position within their professions as transformational leaders and realize that they are their own tribal voices of decolonization.