Native American Studies Initiative
NOTICE – HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS
From all of us here at NASI, Our hearts go out to western North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in this time of exceptionally devastating crisis.
There are many efforts here at Duke university that we can all participate in, including contributing our time, our labor, or our funds to help out our NC family. Even small contributions such as an hour of your time, a package of baby diapers, or a few dollars make a large impact.
The recovery in some areas may take months or years, so please join us in taking action now.
We are posting Duke’s relief options below and will continue posting more reputable resources on our Instagram page @DukeNASI.
Vision
The Native American Studies Initiative (NASI) was founded in 2023 to support and promote the Native American scholarly community across Duke University’s campuses through national and international research, partnerships, and engagement.
NASI focuses on three main areas: increasing the visibility and presence of Native Americans and Native American Studies work on these campuses; supporting faculty, staff, and students in their Native American Studies research; and forming collaborations across universities and colleges, and partnerships with Native Nations, to strengthen ethically based, community-engaged research on a national and international level.
Land Acknowledgement and Statement on Sovereignty
Please note that land acknowledgements are on hold at Duke University due to their problematic nature of contributing to erasure (/past-ifying) of contemporary Native people, amongst other issues. See here for more information about land acknowledgments at Duke and here for an article on rethinking land acknowledgments.
Instead, we encourage faculty, students, and staff to encourage their audiences to actively support Native faculty, students, and staff on campus with a “calling in” for Duke accountability by promoting active engagement with the Native American/Indigenous Student Alliance petition, which can be found here.
NASI supports the Duke Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program Statement on Affirmative Action, which can be found here.
We endorse the Cherokee Scholars’ Statement on Sovereignty and Identity, which can be found here.