This passage is adapted from material published in 1989.

The growing success of ethnohistory (a blend of history and anthropology pioneered by James Axtell) as a tool for understanding Native American experience may, ironically, keep Axtell and his colleagues from their large goal of ending the segregation of American Indian history from American history in general. As their subdiscipline continues to grow, ethnohistorians may spend more time debating one another than they do trying to convert outsiders. And the term "ethnohistory" itself, implying that the study of native peoples requires a special technique, reinforces the very barrier between American Indians and other Americans that ethnohistorians want to dismantle. Readers of Axtell's workwill find that it resembles "new social history" in its approach, but by labeling his writing "ethnohistory", Axtell may limit his potential audience. That would be unfortunate, because Axtell is right in asserting that Native Americans belong at center stage [in the drama] of our social experience and cultural identity.