About the American Society for Ethnohistory

Introduction

The American Society for Ethnohistory (ASE) was founded in 1954 to promote the interdisciplinary investigation of the histories of the Native Peoples of the Americas. The ethnohistorical method, as it has come to be known, involves developing histories informed by ethnography, linguistics, archaeology, and ecology. Today the ASE, is a thriving organization of over 1,200 scholars and related members.

The Society is the preeminent international organization in the field and sponsors the journal Ethnohistory. In membership and purpose, it represents the interests of communities as well as academics from a variety of disciplines - cultural anthropology, history, american indian studies, archaeology, ecology, linguistics, and other related disciplines. The unifying factor is a commitment to the mission of our association - professionals from a variety of backgrounds who are helping to to create a more inclusive picture of the histories of native groups in the Americas.

History of the Society

The Society began as an outgrowth of the research done for the Indian Claims Act of 1946. By the mid 1950s the anthropological and historical reports used as evidence in Native American claims against the U.S. Government were brought together for the first Ohio Valley Historic Indian Conference. This subsequently became known as the American Indian Ethnohistoric Conference, affiliated with Indiana University at Bloomington. The Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Ethnohistory Archive assembled between 1953 and 1966 continues to be an important reserach collection. In 1966, the Conference changed its name to the American Society for Ethnohistory. The Society's journal, Ethnohistory, has been published quarterly since 1954. Currently, the Society has about 500 active members and 700 institutional subscribers.