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[selah]

I have come across two job ads that state their preferred candidate would be aboriginal. It's a Native literature job in both cases. There are a number of Native studies jobs being advertised, but as a non-Native, I feel like this clause serves as a deterrent to keep me from applying. One search chair told me in an email that they wanted someone who was fluent in a specific aboriginal language, and we're talking about a position in a large English department in a major city. Should I bother applying and wasting my time? Thanks for your insights.

[yellowtractor]

The key word is "preferred."  In each case the SC would like to hire a specialist in Native studies who also happens to be aboriginal huself.  In each case the SC is not sure either that the law of professional supply and demand will enable it to hire such a candidate, or that any given candidate's racial status will be the deciding element of the hire.

If it were me, and I had the requisite credentials (which I assume you do), I would go ahead and apply--presumably you are already on the market--without getting my hopes up.  It's possible either or both schools won't find a qualified candidate who is willing to relocate to their particular location or school.  It's also possible--especially if the school is small--that the local situation is complex, and that some other aspect of your vita could strike the SC as being desirable, thereby compensating to some extent for your not being Native yourself.

[frankpetersen]

I've seen three searches like that close up---in all three the "preferred" candidate was not hired. Two were duds, one was edged out by a better candidate.  There was a sense in two of those cases that given the student/local demographics, the current composition of the faculty, that it would be *nice* to have an X in the new position (most scholars of that area tend to also fit the "preferred" demographic as well---usually for language reasons).

Apply for whatever you are qualified for, you never know what will happen in a search.

[larryc]

I am a white guy who does American Indian history. In grad school I had a moment of panic that perhaps I would not stand a chance in the job market against candidates who were actually Indian and had PhDs. So I found a list somewhere (in the Chronicle?) that showed the number of Native Americans getting PhDs in history. Some years it was as many as two individuals, but most years it was one. And for all I know they were writing dissertations about the French Revolution. I stopped worrying. I got a job.

Those job ads you see--what are the odds really of them finding a native person with the credential? What are the odds of them being able to afford that person? They might get lucky, they are hoping to get lucky, but you surely stand a chance. Go ahead and apply.

[sockgumbee]

Most places would rather have an Indigenous person especially if there are Native students to advise.

However there are many good scholars of Native American studies that are not Native, some of whom know Native languages. So you could always say that you are willing to learn, if indeed you are.

I echo the others, go ahead and apply, just knowing that a Native person would have preference, all other things being equal. That said if you've studied Native American literature or some other aspect of Native America and have not really gotten to know any Native people, then this would be a good time to start making connections in Indian country. Because a person who has intellectual knowledge only will be at a disavantage in so many ways. That you ask the question implies this. Most folks that work with Indians know that there is room for them if there is mutual respect.

[selah]

Thanks for your responses everyone. I wonder whether a job for Asian American literature would say we prefer an Asian-American candidate please, or for African American literature, a black candidate. Ditto gender studies. Or perhaps that's what is implicit. Since I am not Native, it makes me annoyed to think that someone would assume I would make a less-than-desirable mentor for Native students. During my college years, I was openly rejected by Native groups on campus; I wanted to volunteer for powwows and get to know "Indian country" (as you say, theother) but it wasn't that easy. Do you think I didn't get the "What are YOU doing here" stare? Believe me, I tried. For what it's worth, I am not Euro-American. Does my biology make me any less of a scholar or colleague? I don't think so. Anyway. I think I will apply.

[yellowtractor]

I think it's usually implicit, though as others have noted the searches don't always turn out that way.  My guess is that a job ad is more likely to make this explicit if advising a particular community of students is perceived as part of the job description (as Gumbee says).  You might do many things for, say, a population of Native American students, Selah,  but you cannot serve as a role model in the same way that a Native American faculty member could.

Note that this issue of advising and role modeling is entirely separate from what you bring up at the end of your most recent post, i.e. your capacity to shine as a scholar and colleague (in this field of study or any other).  --But at this point we simply don't know enough about the job ads, the departments, or the institutions to do more than guess.  Apply.

[larryc]

Since I am not Native, it makes me annoyed to think that someone would assume I would make a less-than-desirable mentor for Native students.

Me too. Especially because it is true and all.

[sockgumbee]

Hopefully not to hijack the thread too much but it really depends on how you go about trying to make contacts in Indian country as to whether you are accepted or not. Usually it's a process thing. That said there is some prejudice against white and other groups by some individuals. And some Indian groups would rather not have non-Indian work with them.

During my college years, I was openly rejected by Native groups on campus; I wanted to volunteer for powwows and get to know "Indian country" (as you say, theother) but it wasn't that easy. Do you think I didn't get the "What are YOU doing here" stare? Believe me, I tried. For what it's worth, I am not Euro-American. Does my biology make me any less of a scholar or colleague? I don't think so. Anyway. I think I will apply.

Volunteering to help on a powwow would not be the way to go. Powwows have all kinds of protocol that an non-Indian wouldn't be able to be part of. If you tried to join a Native group ditto. Better to attend powwow and find out what happens at them and get to know people at them. Better to get to know Native folks as people rather than, as it's implied in your words, a social service project. Really, you should plan on going slow and getting to know individuals. And even then you might not be accepted totally in the group. But that's not just something Indians do. Although bad experiences make a lot of Indians wary of outsiders of any color.

Back to scholarship, there is a lot of bad criticism on Native American texts. Okey let me qualify that, criticism that looks at the text from a non-Indian perspective not from Indian ones. While I guess anything is possible, if you aren't able to appreciate how to relate to Indians on their terms I would wonder how you are able to talk with any authority about their work. Or advise Native students.

[selah]

What you said about my trying to participate in a community as being a "social service"-type enterprise is frankly insulting. And I didn't spend six years of my life studying a set of literatures just to be told I'll never be a good critic in it because I'm not Native.

[yellowtractor]

While I guess anything is possible, if you aren't able to appreciate how to relate to Indians on their terms I would wonder how you are able to talk with any authority about their work.

Yes, this is exactly why I had to spend all that time and effort--not to mention acting as humanities liaison to the physics department in my then-graduate school (nasty role, endless committee meetings)--in order to time-travel back to the early national period so that I could speak with some authority about those texts.

At least advising wasn't part of the picture.

[larryc]

What you said about my trying to participate in a community as being a "social service"-type enterprise is frankly insulting.

No, it was observational.

I think you can be a great scholar of native texts, or history, without being a native. But you will inevitably be a different type of scholar than an native studying those same texts. How could it be otherwise? Do your best work and let is speak for itself.

And do not conflate the issues of scholarship and being a role model.  You can be a fantastic role model on some levels to a native student. But imagine a person with your scholarship AND who comes from the same place as Indian students.

Good luck.

[sockgumbee]

What you said about my trying to participate in a community as being a "social service"-type enterprise is frankly insulting.

No, it was observational.

I think you can be a great scholar of native texts, or history, without being a native. But you will inevitably be a different type of scholar than an native studying those same texts. How could it be otherwise? Do your best work and let is speak for itself.

And do not conflate the issues of scholarship and being a role model.  You can be a fantastic role model on some levels to a native student. But imagine a person with your scholarship AND who comes from the same place as Indian students.

Good luck.

As a Native person and a scholar I think anyone is a much better scholar of Native American studies if they have a connection with a Native American community and have some working understanding of the culture. As a Native person and a scholar I don't feel I have the right to tell people what or what not to study, and I feel like people should do those things that make them the most happy or fullfilled or whatever. As a Native person and a scholar, it's frustrating to read criticism that, while correct in that of course there are always multiple possible readings of a text, does not take into account Native readings or Native meaning of the text. The scholarship misses the nuances or often, in my mind, is just wrong. Often I have to use this scholarship as examples of someone not in touch with Native peoples/culture. But this scholarship is published and is important/right/good enough to someone. So Selah, that's where my remarks come from. I'm sure you are a good scholar, but by whose measure? Only you can answer that question. But this is the reason that many departments desire Native scholars before others. Some non-Native scholars are able to make connections and produce work that is more in keeping with Native ways of doing and being. But certainly, although I prefer the latter there are people who get jobs, get tenure etc. who, from my perspective never get it right.

In any culture, there are appropriate ways to make connections with people. The ways you mention aren't appropriate, so I am not surprised you got the "what are you doing here?" stares. Nothing personal was intended. So my suggestions is to try different ways rather than just give up because you've "tried". I'm Native and I wouldn't 'help out' at a powwow of Native people I didn't know well or was not invited to be part of the help, you just don't do things that way. But I'd attend a powwow in a heartbeat. And often Native people are not going to tell you not to do something, because that would be telling you how to live your life, but will try otherways such as stares to let a person know that something is inappropriate. Cultural difference, FWIW. I'm letting you know this to hopefully make your way a bit easier. What you want to do with the info is up to you. If you want to get insulted by how I as a Native see your 'participation' rather than rethink the way you are trying to make connections with Native peoples, it's your loss.

Good luck with your job search in any case.

[mended_drum]

To the OP: apply.  A preference is not a requirement, as others have noted.

And, on the other part of this conversation, what if the period studied is in the far  past?  Is current ethnicity still relevant?  I ask because, as a medievalist, it would never occur to me to consider my ethnicity relevant to my field of study.  Do those who study, say, Aztec culture, consider ethnicity relevant?  Just curious.

[sockgumbee]

To the OP: apply.  A preference is not a requirement, as others have noted.

And, on the other part of this conversation, what if the period studied is in the far  past?  Is current ethnicity still relevant?  I ask because, as a medievalist, it would never occur to me to consider my ethnicity relevant to my field of study.  Do those who study, say, Aztec culture, consider ethnicity relevant?  Just curious.

Yes, it does make a difference to some people that the ethnicity of the scholar is the same as the ethnicity of those being studied, even for the 'past'.

For many traditional Native peoples, space and relationships are more important than time in terms of creating meaning. This is demonstrated in practicing ceremony that is eons old. The idea of progress in terms of time is besides the point. So for these folks, what you call the past is part of a relationship with each other and the natural world. And who we are today is tied to our parents and their parents and going back, in the here and now. In contrast to most Judeo-Christian belief to spread the word of God to whomever 'needs' it, we keep our spiritual practices to ourselves. And so much of the present state of Native America does not make sense if you don't know history, even ancient history. Native American scholars are as likely to be traditional as other Natives.

Another issue is that what Native people have been told about their history by their people is often discounted and hidden by non-Native academics in deference to the so-called objective. The example I use when I teach is imagine that you are an eye witness to a two car automobile accident. And a friend of yours is in one of the cars, let's say it's a T-bone, and your friend's car gets hit on the passenger side. Anyway, the police show up and take statements from you and your friend about the accident. However the police hires an investigator to study the cars and the accident and figure out what happened. And the investigator never considers what you or your friend say, in fact the investigator says that since y'all were part of the accident or on the scene, you are too close to the situation and can't possibly give reliable information.