This bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices for the Positive Universe: Earth Protection Team website. Some of the authors featured on this page include Kevin Gover, Amber Dean, Tammy Trucks-Bordeaux, Education Journal of the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, Kenichi Matsui, Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles, Roland D. Chrisjohn, Jaakko Puisto, Stella U. Ogunwole, and Christine Gervais.
(2002). The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2000. Census 2000 Brief. This brief summarizes data from Census 2000 on the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) population and discusses its distribution at national, regional, and state levels. This information is intended for all levels of government to use in implementing and evaluating programs related to education, employment, health care, job training, civil rights, and housing. On April 1, 2000, 4.1 million persons–1.5 percent of the U.S. population–reported their race as AI/AN. This number included 2.5 million reporting AI/AN only and 1.6 million reporting AI/AN in combination with another race. Of all respondents who reported AI/AN, 43 percent lived in the West and 31 percent lived in the South. About 25 percent lived in California and Oklahoma combined. At 19 percent, Alaska had the highest proportion of AI/AN population, followed by Oklahoma (11 percent) and New Mexico (10 percent). American Indians and Alaska Natives were the majority of the population in 26 counties, located in eight states of the West and Midwest. Locations of clusters of counties with high AI/AN proportions are described. Among large cities, the largest AI/AN populations were found in New York and Los Angeles, which together accounted for 3.4 percent of the total AI/AN population. American Indian tribal groupings with 100,000 or more people were Cherokee, Navajo, Latin American Indian, Choctaw, Sioux, and Chippewa. Alaska Native tribal responses and patterns of mixed-tribal responses are also discussed. (Contains 11 data tables and figures.) [More] Descriptors: Alaska Natives, American Indians, Census Figures, Demography
(2011). On Their Own and in Their Own Words: Bolivian Adolescent Girls' Empowerment through Non-Governmental Human Rights Education, Journal of Youth Studies. In recognition of the profound benefits of children's engagement with their rights, this article presents an experiential account of how Bolivian adolescent indigenous girls discover, articulate, experience, and advocate human rights. This study explores adolescent girls' demonstrations of empowerment, agency, resistance, and solidarity as part of their initiatives within non-governmentally based human rights workshops. By featuring their voices, this study demonstrates how young Bolivian females are able to shape their own expectations and experiences of human rights. This study further emphasizes how a supportive and interactive educational introduction to the conventions, declarations, and constitutions intended to safeguard human rights can open up possibilities for comfort, self-realization, and liberation among adolescent girls amidst endemic patriarchal constraints and ongoing political and economic instability. [More] Descriptors: Civil Rights, Females, Foreign Countries, Childrens Rights
(2000). Reflecting on the Past: Some Important Aspects of Indian Education To Consider as We Look toward the Future, Journal of American Indian Education. Discusses American Indian education in four critical areas: tribal control, focus and priority, language and culture, and research. These areas are complex and political due to treaty rights; sovereignty; and relationships between Indian tribes and federal, state, and local governments. Unity among Indians and making Indian education a priority at all levels are essential for continued progress. Descriptors: American Indian Education, Cultural Maintenance, Culturally Relevant Education, Educational Attitudes
(2011). Financing College in Hard Times: Work and Student Aid. The CSU Crisis and California's Future. This report is the third in a series of reports designed to analyze the impact of the fiscal cutbacks on opportunity for higher education in the California State University system, the huge network of 23 universities that provide the greatest amount of Bachelor of Arts (BA) level of education in the state. The first study, "Higher Tuition, More Work, and Academic Harm: An Examination of the Impact of Tuition Hikes on the Employment Experiences of Under-represented Minority Students at One CSU campus" (Amy Leisenring) explores how students on one CSU campus understand the consequences of the state's budget crisis and their experiences with jobs, as well as the impact that working has on their academic success. Latino, African American, and Indian students at this CSU campus believe that recent fee and tuition increases have negatively impacted them in multiple ways. These students and their families clearly feel the burden of the rising costs of a CSU degree. The second study, "The State University Grant Program and its Effects on Underrepresented Students at the CSU" (Jose L. Santos) explores how the CSU's State University Grant (SUG) program helps to maintain affordability for higher education and helps us understand who benefits from this program. This study reviews the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study: 2008, as well as other publicly available data from the CSU system and California Postsecondary Education Commission. The data reveals that in the last twenty years there has been a proportional increase of students from underrepresented minorities benefitting from SUG awards, particularly Mexican Americans and Other Latinos. Each study contains tables, references and appendices. [Foreword by Gary Orfield. Additional funding for this research was provided by the California State University (CSU) Faculty Association.] [More] Descriptors: Higher Education, Hispanic Americans, Program Effectiveness, Employment Experience
(1999). The Education Connection: Christopher Columbus to Sherman Alexie, Journal of American Indian Education. Educational exchange between American Indians and outsiders is examined in three periods. From first contact to the mid-1800s, knowledge was exchanged relatively equally. From the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, acculturation was imposed upon American Indians. The political liberalism of the 1960s spawned renewed interest in Indian culture and rights, and flexibility returned to the education exchange. Descriptors: Acculturation, American Indian Education, Colonialism, Cultural Differences
(1973). Legal Aid Programs Seek Justice, Protection, Education for Indians. American Indian Legal Aid Programs throughout the country are briefly described. Descriptors: American Indians, Civil Rights, Court Litigation, Lawyers
(2000). Remarks of Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs: Address to Tribal Leaders, Journal of American Indian Education. Assistant Secretary Gover apologizes for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) actions in the ethnic cleansing of American Indian tribes and the destruction of Indian cultures. He asserts the agency's moral responsibility of putting things right and proposes that a healing process begin and that the BIA work to reinvent itself as an instrument of Native prosperity. Descriptors: Acculturation, American Indian History, American Indians, Boarding Schools
(2001). Statement of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the Use of Native American Images and Nicknames as Sports Symbols. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights calls for an end to the use of Native American images and team names by non-Native schools. While respecting the right to freedom of expression, the Commission believes that the use of Native American images and nicknames in school is insensitive and should be avoided. In addition, these mascots may violate anti-discrimination laws. Since the 1960s, many overtly derogatory symbols and images offensive to African Americans have been eliminated. However, many secondary schools, postsecondary institutions, and professional sports teams continue to use Native American nicknames and imagery despite the vigorous opposition of American Indian leaders and organizations. It is particularly disturbing that Native American references are still found in educational institutions, where they may create a racially hostile educational environment intimidating to Indian students. American Indians have the lowest high school graduation, college attendance, and college graduation rates. These problems may be exacerbated by the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes. While some schools maintain that Indian imagery stimulates interest in American Indian culture, stereotypes encourage interest only in mythical "Indians" and block genuine understanding of contemporary Native people as fellow Americans. The elimination of stereotypes will make room for education about real Indian people, current Native issues, and the rich variety of American Indian cultures in our country. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Colleges, Cultural Images, Educational Environment
(2003). Academic Massacres: The Story of Two American Indian Women and Their Struggle to Survive Academia, American Indian Quarterly. Last year, Franci, a very knowledgeable Lakota scholar and writer, arrived to teach at this author's university. The author's friend, Malea, had left, so she was pleased to see another American Indian face in the department. The past year it had become clear that Indians faced many hardships at the university, but most strikingly they continued to face attacks concerning the value of their own scholarship, primarily due to a lack of understanding and more specifically an unwillingness to understand Indigenous peoples. Franci, too, experienced the callousness of the dominant culture's assumption of intellectual superiority. At a meeting where she was told she was not the chosen candidate for the job, she was also told that "This is a Class One Research institution, and the general consensus among the faculty is that your research is not good, and that your dissertation adds nothing to the body of knowledge." Not only did these words cripple her worth, but they also affected this author deeply because a knowledgeable American Indian with sound research skills lost much of her self-esteem and was not treated with respect. Being Indian is difficult enough, and immediately after being shuttled through the doors of academia, Indians often realize that the institution creates illusions, propagates illusions, and thrives on illusions. Thus, the author writes to all American Indian students: You will get in the doors, but after you have arrived, you will find the doors closing much more often, find fewer allies, and find your back, more times than not, firmly planted along a wall. If we speak up, we are disgruntled troublemakers, and if we are quiet, we will not remain so for long. Unless you plan to disappear, you will become an activist. Prepare yourself. You may never be accepted by others, but before you confine yourself to serious depression or consider leaving the education you so rightly deserve, ask yourself the most important question: Do we not have a right to voice our concerns? [More] Descriptors: Research Methodology, American Indians, Research Skills, Depression (Psychology)
(1986). The Right-Brained Indian: Fact or Fiction?, Journal of American Indian Education. Disputes evidence used to label American Indians as right-brain dominant. Points out dangers in incorporating untested theories about right-hemisphere learners into curriculum revision. Descriptors: American Indian Education, American Indians, Cognitive Style, Curriculum Development
(2009). "We Were Very Afraid": The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Politics, Identity, and the Perception of Termination, 1971-2003, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. The federal policy of termination against Native Americans was on a high roll from 1946 to 1954. The policy received explicit expression in House Concurrent Resolution 108, passed in 1953, which stated that "Indians should be made subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States" and that "at the earliest possible time, all the Indian tribes should be freed from federal supervision and control and from all disabilities and limitations specially applicable to Indians." The policy culminated in 1954, when the Senate and House Indian Affairs Subcommittees organized joint sessions on the termination of twelve reservations, including the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Historians have generally argued that the termination policy ended either in the 1960s with the civil rights movement or at the latest when President Richard Nixon publicly declared the end to the policy in his address to the US Congress on 8 July 1970. By that time federal Indian affairs had moved toward self-determination policy, whereby American Indians could and should obtain more responsibility for running their own reservations with reduced federal input. This article proposes to present a reevaluation of termination by using the Salish and Kootenai as a case study and specifically focuses on the internal dynamics of the tribal politics from the early 1970s to the 2003 referendum on the linear descent proposal, which to many tribal members meant diluting tribal "blood" so significantly that it would parallel termination of the Salish and Kootenai tribes. This time termination would not mean legal abolition of the tribes or their reservation, as in the proposed federal policy of the 1950s, but would mean opening tribal enrollment to lineal descendants, many of them practically "white," which to a majority of tribal members would mean de facto termination of tribal identity. [More] Descriptors: Civil Rights, American Indians, Historians, Tribes
(2003). What Came out of the Takeovers: Women's Activism and the Indian Community School of Milwaukee, American Indian Quarterly. Alcatraz, the Trail of Broken Treaties, Wounded Knee–these are the well-known sites of "takeovers" by American Indian activists, mostly members of the American Indian Movement or AIM, in the 1960s and 1970s. AIM began in 1968, in Minneapolis-St. Paul, when urban Indians organized to protect their rights and preserve their traditions. Indian activism spread across North America with other takeovers, sit-ins, and demonstrations. Recent studies of American Indian activism have been welcomed for their contribution to people's understanding of a crucial period in recent Indian history. However, most of these studies have focused on the very visible, public figures of the Red Power movement, virtually all of whom have been men. Women's activism, while less visible, has been crucial to sustaining Indian communities, particularly in urban areas, and to maintaining the momentum begun in the heady days of the 1960s and 1970s. Individuals need to look more closely at the contributions of women to those activist movements. In this paper, the author examines the role of women in the 1971 takeover of the United States Coast Guard Station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and how women parlayed that takeover into a longstanding community organization: the Indian Community School. Leaving the political issues largely to men, the women turned their attention to the needs of their children, ultimately creating a center that is now funded by Indian gaming and serves the entire urban Indian community of Milwaukee. Their success is not acknowledged by AIM, and the Milwaukee takeover itself is rarely mentioned in histories of Indian activism. [More] Descriptors: Community Schools, Females, American Indian Education, Community Organizations
(2003). An Open Epistle to Dr. Traditional Cherokee of the Nonexistent Bear Clan, American Indian Quarterly. Having grown up in the Native American Church culture in the time when Navajo people were persecuted for practicing this religion, the author states that a great price has been paid to date that allows him to practice his religious freedom and his way of life. Because non native people are selfishly imitating sacred Indigenous ceremonies, they put all native people at risk, and disrespect what the old people have fought for–that sacred way of life given by the Holy People at the beginning of time. In this open letter, the author presents his views to Dr. Traditional Cherokee of the Nonexistent Bear Clan (TCNBC), who teaches at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in the College of Ecosystem Science and Management, and racial identity. Saying that Dr. TCNBC claims he is Cherokee but cannot produce the necessary documentation to prove his heritage, Redsteer strongly criticizes what he refers to as a "boy scouts-like environment" that enveloped Dr. Traditional Cherokee of the Nonexistent Bear Clan's class lectures and activities, and the "Hollywood -like" settings that became the norm. He opines that Dr. TCNBC has perpetuated dangerous ideas reinforced by his very actions that make a mockery of the sufferings of Indigenous peoples, thus endangering their right to practice their religion. The Association of American Indian and Alaska Native Professors takes a stand on ethnic fraud and offers recommendations to guarantee the truth of American Indian/Alaska Native identification in universities and colleges here in the United States. Their concern arose out of racial exploitation of American Indians and Alaska Natives and the need to develop culturally diverse campus communities. Redsteer concludes by presenting recommendations from this organization to remedy situations like Dr. TCNBC. The recommendations are: (1) set up a case-by- case review process if one cannot meet this criterion; (2) include Indigenous faculty in the selection process; (3) require a documented statement that demonstrates past and future commitment to Native concerns; (4) require administrators to attend workshops on tribal sovereignty; (5) meet with local tribal officials; and (6) advertise vacancies at all levels in tribal publications. The academic stage cannot hide behind that flimsy veiled statement that if Dr. TCNBC says he is Cherokee, then he is. Redsteer contends that by not adhering to the The Association of American Indian and Alaska Native Professors guidelines, the university is doing the Native communities a great disservice. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Ethnicity, Deception, College Faculty
(2011). Water-Rights Settlements and Reclamation in Central Arizona as a Cross-Cultural Experience: A Reexamination of Native Water Policy, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. As of December 2010, the US Congress had enacted more than twenty major community-specific Native water-rights settlements, and the state of Arizona had more of these settlements (eight) than any other US state. This unique situation has invited voluminous studies on Arizona's Native water-rights settlements. Although these studies have clarified the political and legal implications of the settlements and offered some practical future recommendations for Native water-rights policy, several ethnohistorical and theoretical questions still remain as to what factors galvanized and formed these settlements and whose ideas they were. In this article, the author examines the history and implications of two water-rights settlements: one for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community, and the other for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation in central Arizona, both near the city of Phoenix. In order to clarify the ethnohistorical aspects of these settlements, the author focuses on interactions and negotiations between the two Native communities and non-Native stakeholders about Native water rights and the impact of water works that affected these communities during the twentieth century. By providing a detailed documentation of Native and non-Native reactions as well as the interactions between these peoples, the author attempts to clarify the evolving and hybrid nature of Native water-rights settlements. He argues that these features, which scholars have not yet discussed in adequate detail, somewhat resemble historic peace treaties between Native peoples and the federal government. [More] Descriptors: Water, American Indians, Federal Government, United States History
(2015). The CMHR and the Ongoing Crisis of Murdered or Missing Indigenous Women: Do Museums Have a Responsibility to Care?, Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies. Organizations like the Native Women's Association of Canada have been working tirelessly for well over a decade to draw attention to the scope of the problem of violence against Indigenous women, and by 2010 (the year in which federal funding for their research, education, and policy initiative on violence against Indigenous women and girls was eliminated), the organization had documented 582 cases of missing or murdered women. This article asks "What responsibilities might museums such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) have to care for the 'difficult knowledge' evoked by the violent deaths of Indigenous women, and how could a museum encourage and support a wider public to care for and remain open to experiencing the real difficulty of such knowledge." Author Amber Dean argues here that it is the CMHR's responsibility to explore the subject of human rights in order to enhance the public's understanding of human rights in order to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue, even if the knowledge of history is difficult and violent. Dean goes on to say that as an institution devoted to public learning about human rights, the CMHR does in fact have a responsibility to care for the difficult knowledge of ongoing colonialism. [More] Descriptors: Museums, Violence, Homicide, Females