Native American Knowledge Systems

Every culture has some system of knowledge to explain its place in the world. Some of these systems are more complex than others, but each has an internal consistency based on what people have experienced. Some cultures have been characterized as “savage,” or “primitive” and have been considered as inferior by other cultures. Some cultures have become highly “scientific,” based on certain accepted practices of controlling their environments. This book presents examples from cultures in Mesoamerica and North America of different ways of seeing the world. These examples may inspire readers to examine their own ways of knowing. 

Clara Sue Kidwell has served as associate dean for program development at Bacone college in Muskogee, Oklahoma (2011-2013), director of the American Indian Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2007-2011), and director of the Native American Studies program and Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma in Norman (1995- 2007). Her tribal affiliations are Choctaw and Chippewa. She received Ph.D. in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma. Before joining the faculty there in 1995 she served for two years as Assistant Director of Cultural Resources at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.

Her publications include Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818-1918, A Native American Theology, co-authored with Homer Noley and George Tinker, Native American Studies co-authored with Alan Velie, and The Choctaws in Oklahoma: From Tribe to Nation, 1855-1970.