Wicazo Sa Review

Wicazo Sa Review
Title	Wicazo Sa Review
Discipline	Indigenous studies
Language	English
Publisher	University of Minnesota Press
Country	United States
History	1985–present
Frequency	Biannual
Issn	0737-0679

Wicazo Sa Review is a peer-reviewed academic journal centered on Indigenous studies, Native American history, Native American literature, and contemporary Indigenous issues. The journal publishes interdisciplinary scholarship connecting Indigenous intellectual traditions with research in museums, archives, law, and public policy, engaging scholars, activists, and community members across North America.

History and founding

The journal was founded in 1985 amid debates at the Smithsonian Institution and conversations among scholars at the University of Minnesota, activists associated with the American Indian Movement, and Native writers linked to the Red Power era; founding voices drew on networks including the National Congress of American Indians, the Indigenous Peoples' Council on Biocolonialism, and tribal cultural programs from the Ojibwe and Dakota nations. Early editors and supporters worked with institutions such as the Minnesota Historical Society, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Native American Rights Fund to shape a platform that responded to discussions from the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, debates at the National Museum of the American Indian planning stages, and scholarly currents exemplified by conferences at the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association. Institutional partnerships with the University of Minnesota Press, collaborations with programs at the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at the Houghton Library, and networks involving the Ford Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supported early publication and distribution.

Editorial scope and content

The journal's scope has encompassed history, literature, legal studies, visual arts, and policy: articles engage topics from treaty rights litigated in the United States Supreme Court and cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to literary analyses in conversation with authors like Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith-influenced methodological critiques. Contributions examine museum repatriation issues involving the Smithsonian Institution and local tribal museums, archival practices connected to the Library of Congress, linguistic revitalization linked to Noam Chomsky-referenced frameworks, and environmental cases involving the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, and tribal sovereignty claims. Special issues have centered on topics intersecting with the National Endowment for the Humanities, decolonization debates influenced by scholars at Harvard University, and pedagogy resonant with curricula at the University of New Mexico and University of Arizona.

Publication and access

Published biannually by the University of Minnesota Press, the journal issues peer-reviewed articles, essays, book reviews, and forum pieces distributed to subscribers through academic channels including the Modern Language Association listings, the American Historical Association catalogues, and library systems such as the OCLC and WorldCat. Institutional access is available through university libraries including the University of California system, the University of Michigan library consortium, and the Yale University library, while individual subscriptions have been distributed via scholarly platforms used by the American Indian Studies Association and collections indexed by the Project MUSE and JSTOR archives. Back issues have been used in course syllabi at institutions such as the University of Minnesota, Brown University, and the University of British Columbia.

Editorial board and contributors

The editorial board has included scholars affiliated with the University of Minnesota, the University of Washington, the University of Toronto, the University of New Mexico, and tribal colleges such as the Chief Dull Knife College and Sinte Gleska University; contributors include historians, literary critics, legal scholars, and community elders linked to networks like the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the Society of American Archivists, and the Association for Asian American Studies where intersecting scholarship appears. Notable contributors and reviewers have been scholars associated with Vine Deloria Jr., collaborators from the National Museum of the American Indian planning committee, and writers connected to presses such as Beacon Press, University of Arizona Press, and Duke University Press.

Reception and impact

Scholarly reception has recognized the journal as influential in shaping discourse around Indigenous sovereignty debates seen in rulings that referenced scholarship in venues like the United States Court of Appeals and policy discussions at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Reviews in periodicals linked to the American Indian Quarterly, Journal of American History, and citations in monographs published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press reflect its impact on historiography, literary studies, and museum practices; community recognition has come through partnerships with tribal cultural programs and ceremonies featuring work promoted in the journal.

Indexing and academic recognition

The journal is indexed in major humanities and social sciences databases including listings in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, MLA International Bibliography, and regional indexes used by the American Historical Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries; it is cited in dissertations archived in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database and referenced in course catalogs at institutions such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Academic awards and honors for articles have been acknowledged in announcements from the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and cited in grant applications to funders such as the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Category:Academic journals Category:Native American studies journals