In this article, the author presses the virtues of insider research, suggesting that Native American studies might profit from a deeper engagement with the broader debates that have taken place in other disciplines and fields. Insider research, he suggests, can generate questions not available to those with outsider perspectives. Participating in the insider/outsider debate gives American Indian studies scholars the opportunity to exert influence on an issue important to their discipline to a wider academic audience, demonstrating that their research has significance not only to Indigenous communities but also to the broader scholarly community. In this article, the author situates his dissertation research within both the insider/outsider debate and American Indian studies and thereby highlights the interplay of both. This article is divided into four sections. First, the author presents a discussion of the dominant issues in the insider/outsider debate, specifically, those issues concerning the nature of insider research, who conducts it, and the validity of the approach. Second, the author provides a brief overview of his dissertation research. Third, the author describes his position as an insider and outsider and asserts that this position allowed him to pose new questions and present new understandings about the kinship roles and responsibilities of Cowessess First Nation members. In the last section, the author demonstrates that while his "insiderness" was somewhat tenuous, his "outsiderness" was tempered by the fact that he is a Cowessess member and related to many of the research participants. Yet like all insider researchers he still had to navigate the research relationship with community members. (Contains 38 notes.)