American Indian Studies (AIS) faces many problems in its attempt to emerge as an academic discipline, but several activities, individuals, and concepts offer possible solutions. AIS is a conceptually rudderless discipline, isolated both within the academic environment and from its cultural roots, and functioning as career ladder for those who wish to "work with Indians" rather than providing intellectual pursuits for Indians themselves. The chief conceptual difficulty in creating an AIS discipline is the Euroamerican orientation of standard academic curricula with its "white studies" and European-derived processes and standards. Current programs and practitioners providing a basis for future development of AIS include: AIS programs in colleges/universities in 22 states; emergence of AIS focused and controlled journals offering autonomous scholarly publishing; efforts to establish independent AIS-controlled book publishing enterprises; three generations of competent and innovative practitioners within and outside academic settings. The essential missing requirements for emergence of AIS as a discipline is a coherent alternative to "white studies." Efforts toward this include insistence on articulation of Native American perspectives vis-a-vis the content of various disciplines, developing political and legal themes within a more Indian-specific depth, and cooperation with new internationalist Indian organizations which offer more universalized and less self-serving forums. (LFL)