The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) is highly committed to fostering the next generation of leading Native scholars. Being a part of the AIISP at Cornell connects you with leadership opportunities through research and community involvement. Choosing to minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) through AIISP implies undertaking leadership responsibilities in Indigenous communities and/or advocacy on Indigenous issues, and shaping the field of Indigeneity through scholarship that is grounded in ethical and relevant research projects.

Due to our commitment and contribution of important research relating to the field of AIIS, we offer our students many opportunities such as: funding for research, travel, and enrichment, plus access to a huge library of resources all year long. Additionally we are proud to support qualified students' applications to relevant scholarships and internships.

Cornell is a privately endowed research university and a partner of the State University of New York. As the federal land-grant institution in New York State, Cornell has a responsibility—unique within the Ivy League—to make contributions in all fields of knowledge in a manner that prioritizes public engagement to help improve the quality of life in New York State, the nation, and the world.

Portrait photo of woman wearing glasses in a botanic garden.
Headshot photograph of a man smiling wearing a blue plaid shirt.
Photo of a man wearing a hat sitting in a view with mountains behind them.

Professors Jolene Rickard and Jodi Byrd Recognized on List of Top 35 Influential American Indian Scholars

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month 2021, AcademicInfluence.com focuses on 35 scholars from indigenous people groups in North America who have had a profound influence on academia, literature, history, the arts, science, politics, activism, and more: AcademicInfluence.com 2021 Influential American Indian Scholars.

Congratulations Professors Jolene Rickard (Ska:rù:rę'/Tuscarora) and Jodi Byrd (Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma)!

Student Research

In 1779, President George Washington ordered a scorched earth campaign against the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The campaign destroyed vast quantities of vegetables, forty towns, and thousands of bushels of corn. This genocide displaced several Haudenosaunee communities, including the Cayuga Nation, from their homelands surrounding Cayuga Lake. Two hundred and fifty years later, the Cayuga return.

Waylon Wilson is a citizen of the Tuscarora Nation and an AIISP graduate student focused on re-storying Indigenous history and issues in multiple media platforms. As a digital media artist, he is relocating Indigenous place-based knowledge as mobile, virtual environments, laser-cut fabrications, and quirky animations. He builds interactive, intergenerational digital spaces for elder and youth play. His current research interests examine the intersections of Indigenous storytelling, documentary filmmaking, cinema techniques, and video game strategies.

Waylon would like to extend a special thank you to Professor Jolene Rickard (Ska:rù:rę'/Tuscarora), Professor John Whitman, Steve Henhawk (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ'/ Cayuga), and everyone at AIISP for their continued support of this on-going work!