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Message from the Chair

Aloha mai kakou and welcome to the 2020-2021 academic year! Our curriculum is designed and taught by a distinguished and interdisciplinary faculty who collaborate with over 20 different Native communities and countless community organizations. As much as the American Indian Studies Program at UCLA is devoted to the study of Indigenous peoples, as a land grant institution we are committed to directly engaging with and working for the Indigenous peoples of California and beyond. Among them, we have a particular commitment to the Tongva as the taraaxatom (Indigenous peoples) of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands).

We are in the middle of a global reckoning with the legacy of colonization, displacement and structural racism all accented by a pandemic that lays bare the deep disparities and negative outcomes faced by Indigenous peoples and people of color. We embark on this academic year with a renewed sense of the power and importance of scholarship in shaping research, teaching and giving voice to and strengthening communities. Our investments in AIS’s undergraduate Major and Minor programs and its MA program are more important than ever. With humility, respect, and optimism I look forward to welcoming all of you in the near future in person and virtually so that we can all continue to build on the legacy of UCLA’s AIS program begun more than 50 years ago.

Faculty Statement for Justice

As leaders of academic units at UCLA dedicated to social justice, we stand in solidarity with those in Los Angeles and throughout the country fighting to end state violence against African Americans, Indigenous peoples, Latinx, Asian, and other communities of color. – Read more

Joint Statement – NALSA, AIGSA, AISA, AIA

June 5, 2020

As leaders of Native and Indigenous student and alumni organizations at UCLA, we condemn the state and police violence against our Black relatives. We write to affirm our commitment to social justice and stand in solidarity with our Black community in UCLA, Tovaangar and all unceded territories. – Read more

Student Resources

RAIN

Retention of American Indians Now! (RAIN) providing comprehensive support services to all students on-campus in order to address a wide variety of needs: academic, personal, social, cultural, and spiritual.

AIR

American Indian Recruitment (AIR) is in the service of serving Native students and providing resources to essentially support the journey to a quality higher education.

Admissions

Ranked among the top programs in American Indian Studies (AIS), the Master of Arts degree, interdepartmental program at UCLA draws  from a wide variety of departments; students choose an area of concentration (History/Law/Policy, Economic Development, Social Relations or Language/Literature/Expressive Arts), acquiring skills that will enable them to conduct original research through the mentorship of over 27 AIS affiliated UCLA faculty.

Click here to learn more about the admissions process.

Events

Publications

An American Genocide