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Abstract
Western academia has a long history of ignoring or denying indigenous methods of creating knowledge. Anthropology, in particular, has claimed the authority to represent indigenous people and their knowledge implying the invalidity of indigenous exegesis. In this thesis I attempt to reassert an indigenous voice by challenging western epistemological traditions which often deny the systems of theory employed in indigenous ways of creating knowledge. I utilize late Pleistocene-early Holocene oral histories of the Gitxsan and related peoples to illustrate my contentions. Many western scholars have presented these narratives as “myths.” I contest that representation, contending that the Gitxsan and related peoples have their own methods for validating oral histories. I also present corroborating western archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence which reinforces my contentions. I conclude that the Gitxsan and related peoples have been able to maintain an oral historical record that reaches back through 12,000 years.
In this dissertation I argue that the position of the indigenous scholar within the western academy is paradoxical. Working within divergent western and indigenous worldviews, and the theories, methods and ethics which derive therefrom, makes the position of the indigenous scholar problematic. I present the idea that, within the range of indigenous and western worldviews, each has general principles which can be contrasted. Indigenous perspectives and approaches to knowledge creation are generally holistic, subjective and experiential while western ones include the principles of reductionism, objectivism and positivism with associated dualistic and evolutionary concepts. These principles have contributed to a situation in which the West has come to dominate much of the indigenous world politically and ideologically. In recent years, indigenous scholars have contested the representation of indigenous people and their knowledge by western scholars and have embarked upon a process of decolonization. That decolonization process has resulted in the development of indigenous scholarship based upon indigenous research agendas. Such research agendas call for new approaches to ethics, theory and method and new relationships with non-indigenous scholars studying indigenous topics.
This dissertation concludes with discussions of: the possibility of establishing the study of culture from an indigenous perspective; advancement of indigenous theory and method; the development of new approaches to the ethics of research in indigenous communities by both indigenous and non-indigenous scholars; and how indigenous scholars must negotiate a space in the western academy and the indigenous community.