McKenna, Brian (2011). Staging a Christopher Columbus Play in a Culture of Illusion: Public Pedagogy in a Theatre of Genocide, Policy Futures in Education. In the foreword to "The Politics of Genocide", political theorist Noam Chomsky writes that denial of the American Indian holocaust is a potent force in the United States. He argues that "the most unambiguous cases of genocide" are often "acknowledged by the perpetrators, and passed over as insignificant or even denied in retrospect by the beneficiaries, right to the present". That is very true in the United States, where the author of this article discovers that few of his college students know much, if anything, about the capacious genocide of North American Indians. In this article, Brian McKenna explores the power of aesthetic theory and praxis to help overcome the rigid psychological defenses of besieged students. He carefully informs students about the genocide spawned by Columbus and the Spanish, and then draws connections between that history and the history of US Indian genocide and imperialism, up to the present day in Iraq and around the globe. The article presents a five-part exercise, refined over seven years, that shows how McKenna lets the "truth" dazzle gradually and then thunder mightily in revealing students to themselves. He requires students to imagine themselves as high school teachers where they must produce the written outlines of a play that is based, in part, on the truths of the Spanish genocide as depicted by America's first de facto cultural anthropologist, Father Bartolome de las Casas. The ultimate aims of the exercise are threefold: (1) Will students, in the politically charged setting of a high school, construct a Theatre of Genocide about the Arawak Indians and the Spanish? (2) Will students draw the educational links between the Spanish and the theatres of war and genocide associated with the United States? And (3) How will students grapple with the pedagogical relationships between knowledge and power; censorship and self-censorship; truth and art? The article also asks, "Who controls the play curriculum? How can critical public pedagogues challenge the ubiquity of high school productions such as "Oklahoma!" and "Hello, Dolly!" to create forms of drama that speak directly to the issues of the day?   [More]  Descriptors: Teaching Methods, Power Structure, War, High Schools

Morris, Kate (2011). Running the "Medicine Line": Images of the Border in Contemporary Native American Art, American Indian Quarterly. In this article the author is concerned with the intersection of two congruent phenomena: (1) an increasing number of references to borders in contemporary Native American art; and (2) an increasing occurrence of border-rights conflicts between Native nations and the governments of the United States and Canada. Focusing on the period roughly 1990 to the present, she acknowledges the shifts in both art and politics after September 11, 2001; however, she does not suggest that tension or even outright conflict around borders is new to Indian Country–indeed, the right to free passage is a basic tenet of American Indian and First Nations sovereignty. She argues that as border-zone frictions "intensified" post-9/11, the visual and philosophical complexity of artworks situated within these zones also increased. The evolving situation at Kawehno:ke and the installation of Alan Michelson's artwork at Massena provide an ideal entry point into this discourse.   [More]  Descriptors: American Indians, Foreign Countries, Art, Conflict

Lindsley, Sheryl L.; Braithwaite, Charles A.; Ahlberg, Kristin L. (2002). Mending the Sacred Hoop: Identity Enactment and the Occupation of Wounded Knee, Great Plains Quarterly. The occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973 by the leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) represented a culmination of frustration felt by Native Americans. The news media mocked the occupation and minimized the seriousness of the event. However, the historical significance of the Native American occupation of Wounded Knee, as well as the ensuing trail, which was viewed as a major civil rights case for Native Americans, justifies their rhetorical analysis and augments understanding of the American Indian protest movement.   [More]  Descriptors: Civil Rights, American Indians, American Indian Education, Rhetorical Criticism

Justice, Daniel Heath (2001). We're Not There Yet, Kemo Sabe: Positing a Future for American Indian Literary Studies, American Indian Quarterly. The mechanisms by which the scholarly integrity of American Indian studies is pressured to conform to the colonialist, Euro-American ideals of the academy are examined. The future of American Indian studies depends on increased visibility and tribal advocacy by American Indians and recognition by non-Indians that Indians have the right and responsibility to represent themselves. Descriptors: American Indian Literature, American Indian Studies, American Indians, Culturally Relevant Education

Perry, Barbara; Robyn, Linda (2005). Putting Anti-Indian Violence in Context. The Case of the Great Lakes Chippewas of Wisconsin, American Indian Quarterly. The Chippewas of Northern Wisconsin continue to experience a peculiarly American form of apartheid, characterized by segregation, discrimination, cultural imperialism, and everyday violence. While the blatant stigmatization, disempowerment, and violence reached its modern day zenith in the spear fishing conflict of the 1980s and 1990s, ongoing patterns of racism and violence remain embedded in the culture. The purpose of this paper, then, is to explore the ways in which contemporary patterns of oppression continue to shape the climate in which anti-American Indian violence occurs in this particular region. Native Americans across the country continue to experience myriad and interrelated forms of economic, political, and social oppression. This is evident in practices ranging from negative cultural imaging, treaty abrogations, and even violence. Recent years have seen extensive resistance on the part of American Indians, as they reassert their remaining treaty rights around land, resources, and self-governance. That American society at large is not ready for this relatively novel activism has been apparent in episodes of retaliatory violence intended to reassert Western control of American Indians and their resources. In what follows the authors examine recent experiences of Wisconsin Chippewas as an illustration of this cycle. In particular, this article provides an overview of the oppressive conditions in this part of the nation, followed by consideration of recent American Indian activism and resistance in the region. Finally, the authors trace the patterns of reactionary violence that have met such efforts at self-assertion.   [More]  Descriptors: Academic Achievement, American Indians, Violence, Racial Discrimination

Pember, Mary Annette (2007). Farewell to the Chief, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. The battle over the use of American Indian names and mascots among college and professional athletic teams has a seldom-told economic backstory. It is more than simple alumni sentimentality. Money, influence and power often play a significant role in decisions regarding the use of these symbols. Paraphernalia bearing the images bring in millions of dollars each year to the institutions. But the names and images have been decried as disrespectful and insensitive to American Indians. And it is the tribes, along with philanthropic, education, professional and civil rights organizations, that are leading the movement to retire the symbols. The National Congress of American Indians, the National Education Association, the NCAA and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights have all voiced their opposition to the mascots. Last year, the NCAA ruled that teams featuring offensive mascots would no longer be able to host postseason tournaments and would be subject to other penalties and restrictions. That rule, combined with the waves of negative publicity the mascots have generated, has led many colleges and universities to shelve the mascots permanently. The most recent and possibly most visible mascot retirement came in February when University of Illinois trustees chose to discontinue the use of the school's mascot, Chief Illiniwek. The circumstances of the Chief's demise shed a glimmer of light on the powerful economic forces at play behind these struggles. To date, four schools have negotiated agreements with local tribal leadership eliciting support for their American Indian-nicknamed teams and mascots: The Catawba College Indians, the Central Michigan University Chippewas, the University of Utah Utes and the Florida State Seminoles. Of the four, FSU is the only one that still maintains a mascot.   [More]  Descriptors: American Indians, College Athletics, Ethnic Stereotypes, Court Litigation

Murphy, Sharon; Lemire, Lynne; Wisman, Mindi (2009). Complex Personhood as the Context for Intimate Partner Victimization: One American Indian Woman's Story, American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research: The Journal of the National Center. This qualitative case study explores one American Indian (AI) woman's experience of intimate partner violence and the subsequent murder of her abusive partner. The lens of complex personhood (Gordon, 1997) has been applied as a method for understanding "Annie's" multiple identities of AI woman, victim of intimate partner violence, mother, and convicted felon. The aim of the current case study was to uncover implicit and explicit meanings embedded in the experiences of moving from a victim of IPV to an offender by applying a framework of hermeneutic phenomenology as the methodology. Three relational themes emerged from the interview data: "Getting out of Hand," "They're in my Footstep all the Way Now," and "What's a Miranda Right"? Lastly, this article begins an exploration into the complex link between victimization and offending as it applies to one battered woman.   [More]  Descriptors: Family Violence, American Indians, Phenomenology, American Indian Culture

Roppolo, Kimberly (2007). Vision, Voice, and Intertribal Metanarrative: The American Indian Visual-Rhetorical Tradition and Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead, American Indian Quarterly. American Indian cultures tend to be right hemispheric because of the ways in which they acquire knowledge. Over the thousands of years that American Indian peoples have lived in this hemisphere, strong visual rhetorics were developed, because of this tendency to engage in visual thinking and the socioeconomic need to communicate with others who might not speak the same language or who share situations in which speech was either inappropriate or dangerous. Because of the unique cultural developments in Native America and because of the relationship of that heritage to their contemporary literature, the author deems it important to examine how image has acted and continues to act "as" and "with" text in their cultures. In this article, the author provides a few examples of how some visual rhetorics have evolved over the years and shows their continuing importance in Native American life and literature. In addition, the author examines the visual rhetoric of Leslie Marmon Silko's "Almanac of the Dead" by focusing briefly on one image: the snake. The author chose the snake, along with Silko's "Almanac of the Dead," because she saw it as being metonymic for the intertribal metanarrative with much slipping between signifiers.   [More]  Descriptors: Rhetoric, American Indians, Visualization, American Indian Culture

James, Nancy Ellen (2011). Engaging the Whole Mind: Transmediation between Pictures and Print Construction of Reading/Writing Understanding by Ten African American Second Grade Students in Response to Art, Read-Alouds, and Small Group Experiences, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways second grade children signaled the meanings they made from pictures and print and to identify ways they signaled new meanings when transmediations between these two semiotic systems took place. The study was a mixed methods study using qualitative methods in a case study format for the first three questions, supported by a quantitative component for the fourth question. The researcher was also the teacher, teaching and collecting data from ten second grade, African American students in an after-school bookmaking program. The ten participants were selected because they all made very low reading scores on standardized tests. Observations, video and audio recordings, memos, artifacts, interviews, surveys and standardized test scores served as data collection vehicles.   American public schools were founded on Western European written rhetoric. Because of the importance of reading, writing, math and science, a verbal mode of teaching dominates, placing great value on left-brained thinking. Unfortunately, verbocentric pedagogy is not meeting the needs of our constantly changing culture. Oral rhetoric from indigenous cultures such as American Indians, or minorities such as African Americans are based in the arts; dance, music, storytelling, and visual art of all kinds. These are right-brained functions. They are also the natural and preferred methods of communication for young children of all cultures. This study will enable the reader to reflect on their beliefs about engaging the whole mind, placing verbal and visual semiotics on an equal, parallel and complimentary plane.   [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.%5D   [More]  Descriptors: African American Students, Standardized Tests, Rhetoric, Video Technology

Waszak, Susan (2010). Contemporary Hurdles in the Application of the Indian Child Welfare Act, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. In 1978 Congress passed an astonishing piece of legislation that gave Native American tribes a considerable amount of jurisdiction over matters of child custody and the adoption of their children. In 1976, the Association of American Indian Affairs gathered statistics relevant to the adoption of Indian children that Congress found "shocking [and that] cries out for sweeping reform at all levels of government." The statistics revealed that Indian children were roughly 20 percent more likely than non-Indian children to be taken from their Native homes, and the vast majority of these children were placed with non-Indian families. The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) sought to remedy this situation by vesting jurisdiction with tribal courts when one of their children was in danger of leaving the tribal community through state or private efforts to terminate an Indian parent's parental rights. In this commentary, the author outlines the procedures set out in the ICWA, explores jurisdictional issues that arise when an Indian child custody case evoking the ICWA is brought to court, investigates successful attempts of the state courts in diminishing the strength of the act through judicially created exceptions–namely the "existing Indian family exception" and the "good cause" exception, and analyzes the tribes' equally successful attempts to use tribal custom as a tool in formulating their own unique rule of law in governing the affairs of their children.   [More]  Descriptors: Parent Rights, American Indians, State Courts, Child Welfare

Shirley, Valerie J. (2004). On the Right Path: Over the Past 20 Years, Colleges and Universities Continue to Experience an Increase in the Number of American Indian-Alaska Native Students Receiving Degrees, Black Issues in Higher Education. Accounting for only 1 percent of the total U.S. population, American Indians have a 60 percent to 70 percent high school dropout rate, the highest among all minority groups. At the same time, however, more American Indian students than ever are graduating from high school and leaving their home communities behind in pursuit of a higher education. Leaving their communities behind also means trying to maintain a balance between their indigenous values and beliefs and that of the dominant culture's. And despite their high dropout rates and the fact that 30 percent of the American Indian population lives below the poverty line, they recognize that education is the key to a better future. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (1999-2000), there has been tremendous growth in the number of earned degrees in postsecondary institutions serving American Indian and Alaska Native students. Descriptors: Enrollment Trends, Postsecondary Education, College Bound Students, Poverty

Pember, Mary Annette (2007). A Painful Remembrance, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Many in Indian country have expressed that the trauma from the boarding school experience continues to terrorize the hearts of American Indians. Although much has been written about this history that looms so large in the North American indigenous experience, it remains an obscure topic in mainstream America. Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo, a member of the Dine tribe and project director of a grant from the National Institute for Disability Research and Rehabilitation, is working to bring attention to the "intergenerational trauma" of the boarding school era through the recently founded Boarding School Healing Project. Toledo and her colleagues maintain that many of the social ills plaguing current generations of American Indians, including sexual abuse, child abuse, violence towards women and substance abuse can be traced to the generations of abuse experienced at Indian boarding schools. Toledo describes intergenerational trauma as posttraumatic stress disorder that has been passed down through generations. The project's goals are four-fold: healing, education, documentation and accountability. According to their mission statement, "the project is a starting point to address child sexual abuse. By framing abuse as the continuing effects of human rights abuses perpetrated by government policy, they hope to take the shame away from talking about these issues and provide space for communities to address the problems and heal."   [More]  Descriptors: Substance Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Boarding Schools

Trujillo, Octaviana V.; Alston, Denise A. (2005). A Report on the Status of American Indians and Alaska Natives in Education: Historical Legacy to Cultural Empowerment, National Education Association. On October 27, 2004, the National Education Association (NEA) joined with the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) to host "Moving from Research to Practice: A Summit on Indian Students." Over 100 American Indian and Alaska Native education practitioners and researchers from Alaska to Mississippi gathered to share their knowledge of effective educational strategies for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. Presentations focused on four themes: Using Native Language and Culture to Promote Success in Indian Students; Preparing Educators to Be Effective Supports for Student Achievement; Reaching Out to the Community to Create Success; and Promoting Policies that Benefit Indian Students. This report draws, in part, on the presentations and discussions held at the Summit, and explores several aspects of the American Indian/Alaska Native historical, social, and cultural experiences as they relate to the development of Indian education. Using these experiences as a context, the report suggests a few broad strategies for improving the status of AI/AN education and provides recommendations for action. Multiple resources round out the text to encourage further investigation into how to make a positive impact on the education of American Indian and Alaska Native students. Contains the following: (1) Endnotes; (2) History Timeline: Selected Dates in Indian History and Indian Education; and (3) Resources. [This report was written with the assistance of Douglas Martin.]   [More]  Descriptors: American Indians, Alaska Natives, Empowerment, American Indian Education

Willows, Noreen D.; Marshall, Dru; Raine, Kim; Ridley, Denise C. (2009). Diabetes Awareness and Body Size Perceptions of Cree Schoolchildren, Health Education Research. Native American Indians and First Nations are predisposed to obesity and diabetes. A study was done to understand Cree schoolchildren's diabetes awareness and body size perceptions in two communities that had diabetes awareness-raising activities in the Province of Quebec, Canada. Children (N = 203) in grades 4-6 were classified into weight categories using measured heights and weights and grouped on diabetes awareness based on dichotomous responses to the question "Do you know what diabetes is?" Children selected a drawing of an American Indian child whom they felt most likely to get diabetes and described their body size perception using a closed response question. Although 64.5% of children were overweight or obese, most (60.1%) children considered their body size to be "just right", with 29.6% considering it "too big" and 10.3% considering it "too small". A minority (27.6%) of children had diabetes awareness. These children were more likely than children without diabetes awareness to consider their body size too big (42.9 versus 24.5%) and to choose an obese drawing as at risk for diabetes (85.7 versus 63.3%, odds ratio 3.48 and 95% confidence interval 1.53-7.91). Culturally appropriate health education programs to increase schoolchildren's diabetes awareness and possibility to have a healthy body weight are important.   [More]  Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Obesity, Health Education, American Indians

Cooper, Kenneth J.; Pyrillis, Rita; Rosario, Ruben; Stuart, Reginald; Zinngrabe, Elaine (2007). Media Matters, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. This article presents five vignettes, written by veteran journalists, that focus on the current and future state of journalism. Despite almost daily reports of media consolidation and newspaper layoffs, the journalists sound a cautionary but optimistic tone about the industry. They weigh in on everything from the threats to diversity to the future of how the news is delivered. These vignettes are: (1) "The Many Sides of Media Consolidation," by Kenneth J. Cooper; (2) "Coverage of American Indians Is Usually Wrong," by Rita Pyrillis; (3) "From Watchdog to Lapdog," by Ruben Rosario; (4) "Job Prospects Limited, But There With Right Skills," by Reginald Stuart; and (5) "Reinventing and Sustaining Journalism With New Media," by Elaine Zinngrabe. Graphics show (A) Minority Representation in the Newsroom by Race/Ethnicity and Job Category, 2007; and (B) Regional Comparison of Minority Newsroom Employment, 2007.   [More]  Descriptors: Journalism Education, American Indians, Journalism, Job Layoff

Jain, Samvit (2009). Leader and Spokesman for a People in Exile: Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, History Teacher. This article discusses Chief Joseph's surrender that marked the beginning of his diplomatic stand for justice in Indian Territory, where his tribe was forcibly exiled in accordance with American Indian policy of the time. Joseph battled for the repatriation of the Nez Perce through protests and other legal means, winning the support of the growing Indian rights movement of the 1880s. Through his efforts, Joseph forced the government to act on his demands, leaving a foundation for American Indian rights activism and policy reform in the twentieth century. As part of the surrender negotiations, Chief Joseph was promised that his people would be returned to the Idaho reservation in the spring of 1878. In the following months, however, federal officials at the highest levels of the military and Indian Bureau decided to override the surrender terms. Joseph's diplomacy led many to conclude that they had not studied the Nez Perce view of the war or its origins, and his demands stirred the conscience of government officials and the public. Joseph's diplomatic success as an influential individual in history set the stage for major legal changes in American Indian policy, and inspired the Nez Perce to continue the battle for their aboriginal rights.   [More]  Descriptors: American Indians, American Indian Education, Federal Indian Relationship, Civil Rights

Wiedman, Dennis (2012). Upholding Indigenous Freedoms of Religion and Medicine: Peyotists at the 1906-1908 Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and First Legislature, American Indian Quarterly. In the five hundred years of European and American globalization of the world, seldom have Indigenous peoples been invited to a constitutional convention and first legislature to express their perspectives and concerns. Rarely in the five-hundred-year history of the European and American colonization of the world were the rights of the Indigenous peoples considered at the juncture when new political entities established their constitutions and first laws. Typically, nation-states attempt to extinguish Indigenous rights to land and resources, refuse to grant their political legitimacy, and severely persecute traditional healing and religious practices. Not until 1978 did the United States grant religious freedom to Native Americans. Peyotists were not protected by federal law until 1994, when President Clinton signed the amendments to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Not until September 2007 did the United Nations declare that nations recognize Indigenous rights to their spiritual and religious traditions as well as their traditional medicines and health practices. This article portrays a critical juncture in 1907 when the American nation-state imposed its full legal, economic, political, and value system upon more than forty Indigenous nations by merging Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory into the state of Oklahoma.   [More]  Descriptors: Freedom, Religion, Medicine, American Indians

Nelson, Melissa K. (2011). The Future of Native Studies: A Modest Manifesto, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. In the author's presentation at the gathering and celebration of forty years of the American Indian Studies Center, she focused on emerging, positive trends and developments in Native American/American Indian/indigenous studies (NAS) and on areas to move toward as educators expand the field in order to make it more current and relevant to the lived experiences of Native Americans today. In this short essay, the author summarizes these trends and encourages further exploration and development of other themes in the unfolding field of NAS. She offers these observations as an Anishinaabe/Metis woman who has served as a professor of American Indian studies in California for eight years and as the executive director of a Native American indigenous rights nonprofit organization for seventeen years.   [More]  Descriptors: American Indian Studies, American Indians, Nonprofit Organizations, Futures (of Society)

Phillips, John (2011). Building on Tradition–Tribal Colleges Can Lead the Way to Food Sovereignty, Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education. Fort Belknap Indian Reservation's food system typifies that of many rural communities. Most food is grown and processed hundreds or thousands of miles away and transported long distances before it reaches the local grocery shelf. Like oil and gas, food prices are largely determined by international commodity markets driven by global supply, demand, and speculation. Demand and profitability often determine what products lie on a store's shelf–not health and nutrition. Strengthening a community's local food system means relying less on outside food supplies and taking control of food choices. The Fort Belknap Demonstration Garden is one important strategy being employed to build the local food system on the reservation. Food sovereignty refers to policies that express the rights of peoples to define their own food systems and includes agriculture, livestock, and fisheries systems. For American Indian tribes, food sovereignty is also an expression of tribal sovereignty. That means food sovereignty expands tribal rights and powers to food systems and traditional plants, animals, and knowledge related to food production. In practical terms, food sovereignty encompasses promoting nutritious diets and diabetes prevention, boosting food-related income and decreasing food costs, protecting the environment and natural resources, managing tribal land and water rights, restoring and preserving cultural food knowledge and practices, and increasing the resilience of tribal communities against natural or man-made disasters. These issues require long-term strategic thinking and action at all levels within the tribe. This article discusses how tribal colleges can lead the way to food sovereignty.   [More]  Descriptors: Food, Health Promotion, Water, Tribal Sovereignty

Nishioka, Vicki (2013). Eliminating Disparities in School Discipline, Principal Leadership. Disparities in suspension rates for White, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian students are more often a result of inequitable disciplinary actions than differences in behavior. Exclusionary discipline undermines students' academic achievement by weakening their connection with school and removing them from the classroom. Students who experience multiple suspensions are at risk for academic failure, dropping out, substance use, and delinquency. Consequently, exclusionary discipline may explain some of the achievement gap between White students and students of color. Inequitable application of school discipline that is based on race, ethnicity, sex, or disability also raises concerns about equity and the school's legal responsibility to protect the civil rights of each student. Although it is challenging, eliminating disparity in school discipline is an achievable and worthwhile goal. This article highlights nine features that schools have used to address this issue successfully. These features are: (1) Lead through collaboration and by example; (2) Use data to identify problems and inform decision making; (3) Develop positive, caring relationships with each student; (4) Establish high expectations for each student; (5) Teach social and emotional learning skills; (6) Structure school and classroom environments; (7) Provide teachers with professional development and resources; (8) Involve parents early and often; and (9) Use preventive and proactive discipline practices.   [More]  Descriptors: Principals, Instructional Leadership, Discipline, Academic Achievement

Palmer, Mark H. (2011). Sold! The Loss of Kiowa Allotments in the Post-Indian Reorganization Era, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. The fragmentation of large nineteenth-century reservations resulted in the creation of American Indian allotment geographies in the United States. Federal Indian policy, namely the General Allotment Act of 1887, allowed the US government to break up large reservations, allot land to individual Indians, and sell the surplus to non-Indian settlers. More than ninety million acres of land transferred from Indian to non-Indian ownership during the past 130 years. Reduction of land-allotment areas concerned tribal governments, Indian landowners, and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Implementation of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) in 1934 encouraged the preservation of Indian culture, the development of tribal government, educational opportunities, and the protection of Indian land. However, many American Indians sold their allotments, and land bases continued to decrease following the passage of the IRA. The purpose of this study is to investigate the allotment problem at a local scale, using historical land maps and BIA documents to determine why Indian-owned land bases continued to decline after 1934. The author's tribal affiliation with the Kiowas of southwestern Oklahoma led to the selection of their land base as a subject of inquiry and a geographical focal point. This research contributed to a broader collection of literature regarding the dispossession of Indian land in the United States.   [More]  Descriptors: American Indians, Tribes, United States History, American Indian History

Boulard, Garry (2006). Solving the Funding Riddle, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Some education officials with expertise in American Indian scholarship programs say a lack of available money and information continue to limit American Indian enrollment in higher education. Pamela Silas, director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says they help more than 100 students a year. Despite its name, the organization also awards scholarships for American Indians studying agricultural science, architecture, business and law. However, she thinks they really end up serving only about one-third of the applications they get. There remains a very large unmet need. Part of the problem is finding the money for the scholarships. An equally daunting challenge is getting that money into the hands of needy students, says Bonnie Mausia, scholarship coordinator with American Indian Services in Provo, Utah. Silas also says she thinks some of the many American Indian community programs in rural and isolated sections of the country have been less successful, because the scholarship sponsors "just don't have the relationships they need with these various communities. They don't know where to go to get the information into the right hands." Even in the face of such challenges, Quinton Roman Nose, education director with the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, says the percentage of American Indian and Alaskan Native students in higher education is going to continue to increase, due in large part to the simple existence of so many scholarship options.   [More]  Descriptors: Higher Education, Scholarships, American Indians, College Students

Krueger, Karla (2009). "Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty", School Library Media Activities Monthly. This article provides an overview of the three-volume reference set, "Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty" published by ABC-CLIO. This reference work is edited by Donald Fixico, Arizona State University, and dedicated to the people of his tribes: (1) Shawnee; (2) Sac and Fox; (3) Seminole; and (4) Muscogee Creek. The advisory board includes members with tribal affiliations and the set boasts 150 contributors. The content and organization fill a niche for schools because it takes students beyond the typical Native American encyclopedias' overviews of Native American tribes, locations, and leaders. (It can, however, be used for student studies about native groups, locations, and leaders through the information about treaties as they relate to various tribes, leaders, and locations from which, or to which, native peoples were removed.) A focus on treaties involving Native Americans is the common link for the extensive list of topics and issues covered in this three-volume set. Topics and issues include treaties and American Indian Schools; treaties and hunting, fishing, and gathering; treaties and related court cases; treaties and water rights; treaties and land and natural resources; treaty descriptions; primary documents; and locations, people, and events related to treaties.   [More]  Descriptors: Treaties, American Indians, Encyclopedias, Tribes

Denson, Andrew (2012). Native Americans in Cold War Public Diplomacy: Indian Politics, American History, and the US Information Agency, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. This essay examines the depiction of Native Americans by the US Information Agency (USIA), the bureau charged with explaining American politics to the international public during the Cold War. In the 1950s and 1960s, the USIA broadcast the message that Americans had begun to acknowledge their nation's history of conquest and were working to redress old wrongs through an activist government. That message echoed the agency's depiction of the African American Civil Rights Movement and allowed the USIA to recognize Indian resistance to assimilation. It offered little room for tribal nationhood, however, during these early years of the modern American Indian political revival.   [More]  Descriptors: United States History, Civil Rights, American Indians, Politics

Moody, Heather Ann (2013). "Before We Teach It, We Have to Learn It": Wisconsin Act 31 Compliance within Public Teacher Preparation Programs, ProQuest LLC. Wisconsin Act 31 was established for the purpose of addressing American Indian history, culture, and sovereignty within K-12 schools as a response to treaty rights issues in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yet, in the 21 st century there remain issues with compliance throughout not only K-12 schools but also institutions of higher education. The research addresses how public institutions of higher education factor into compliance with regard to teacher preparation programs. Through a mixed methods approach, instructors from nine University of Wisconsin System institutions were surveyed regarding their professional and personal background in relation to American Indian Studies as well as their understanding of Wisconsin Act 31. In addition, a document analysis was performed on the syllabi from teacher-licensing certified courses. The results provided an overall understanding of the issues within teacher preparation programs that affect future educators. A distinction became apparent between courses that are education-related and those that are discipline specific. Majority of the courses are education-related and provide an emphasis on the general human diversity elements of Wisconsin Act 31. Alternatively, discipline specific courses address the foundational topics of Wisconsin Act 31 including culture, history, sovereignty, and contemporary issues. The differences between the types of courses that fulfill the Wisconsin Act 31 teacher-licensing requirement signify a need for further investigation into bringing together University of Wisconsin institutions, the Department of Public Instruction, and American Indians to fully address Wisconsin Act 31 requirements. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.%5D   [More]  Descriptors: State Legislation, Compliance (Legal), Teacher Education Programs, Public School Teachers

Pierce, Alexandra (2012). American Indian Adolescent Girls: Vulnerability to Sex Trafficking, Intervention Strategies, American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research: The Journal of the National Center. The Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center offers harm reduction programming to at-risk adolescent American Indian girls, including outreach, case management, advocacy, healthy sexuality education, and support groups. To evaluate program impact, participants are assessed at intake and every 6 months afterward for current vulnerability to commercial sexual exploitation, violence, and addiction. Evaluation results indicate frequent exposure to sex traffickers and suggest that harm reduction methods can help girls reduce risk of commercial sexual exploitation.   [More]  Descriptors: Social Support Groups, Intervention, Females, American Indians

Ruiz, Eddy A. (2008). UCLA Community College Bibliography: Tribal Colleges–The Path to Self-Determination, Community College Journal of Research and Practice. This bibliography explores tribally controlled colleges, an area of research that is often neglected by mainstream academia. Unlike other American minorities, Native Americans make up sovereign nations. American Indian tribal members retain their rights to land and self-government, and since 1924 they hold dual citizenship in their Native communities and the United States. The referenced articles, dissertations, and reports provide historical, qualitative, quantitative, and case study evidence pertaining to the triumphs and struggles of American Indians in higher education beginning in 1968 with the creation of Navajo Community College–now Dine' College–the first formal tribally controlled higher education institution.   [More]  Descriptors: Higher Education, American Indians, Navajo (Nation), American Indian Education

Faircloth, Susan C.; Tippeconnic, John W., III (2010). The Dropout/Graduation Crisis among American Indian and Alaska Native Students: Failure to Respond Places the Future of Native Peoples at Risk, Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles. This paper examines the graduation/dropout crisis among American Indian and Alaska Native students using data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Data from 2005 is drawn from the seven states with the highest percentage of American Indian and Alaska Native students as well as five states in the Pacific and Northwestern regions of the United States. Findings indicate that the number of American Indians and Alaska Natives who graduate continues to be a matter of urgent concern. On average, less than 50% of Native students in these twelve states graduate each year. (Contains 8 tables, 1 figure, and 22 footnotes.) [This paper was produced by the Center for the Study of Leadership in American Indian Education at the Pennsylvania State University.]   [More]  Descriptors: American Indians, Alaska Natives, Dropouts, American Indian Education

Mirich, Denise L.; Cavey, Laurie O. (2015). Lacing Together Mathematics and Culture, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. In this article, the authors drew on the cultural traditions associated with the Shoshoni-Paiute tribes to design a lesson to engage students in problem solving and making arguments for their strategies. The reservation school is in an isolated rural community 100 miles from any other larger town and the participants for this article were the sixth-grade class, composed of twenty students, eight boys and twelve girls. Historically there has been a cultural mismatch between the traditional school math perspective and the cultural orientations of Native American Indians, but it became clear that the Shoshone-Paiutes have a rich mathematical heritage. For example, measurements are often determined by making comparisons with known quantities, and the food gathered is measured according to different-size handmade bags. The lesson goal for the students was to find the approximate area of a moccasin pattern (that they created) by decomposing the figure created by that pattern into rectangles and right triangles. The lesson was designed to span three days. At the conclusion of the lesson, a whole-class discussion was held to debrief, ask questions, and clarify misunderstandings. Students were asked if they were surprised how much math was included when making their moccasin patterns. In summary, this experience has been a reminder of the importance of encouraging students to recognize and understand mathematics in many cultures, especially their own, and feel good about their mathematical learning.   [More]  Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Secondary School Mathematics, Rural Schools, Middle School Students

Nesper, Larry (2012). Twenty-Five Years of Ojibwe Treaty Rights in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. The recognition and implementation of American Indian treaty rights beginning in the last quarter of the twentieth century are transforming the ways in which landscapes are managed, tribal and state institutions are structured, and civic identities are constructed in a number of states that surround Indian nations. This national treaty-rights movement first antedates, catalyzes, and finally comes to be coextensive with the passage of federal legislation that operationalizes tribal self-determination. This synergy has had the effect of politically transforming indigenous polities, their relationships with each other, and their relationships with other sovereign bodies. This article discusses the meaning and magnitude of the exercise of the rights by describing the institutional developments in the tribal communities that have facilitated and resulted from that exercise. It aspires to document the dimensions of the distinct and measurable renaissance that has taken place in the Ojibwe communities of the Western Great Lakes. This ramifying rebirth has been facilitated in large part by the Ojibwe tribes authorizing and developing the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), an intertribal natural resource agency. It is the twenty-fifth anniversary of GLIFWC that occasions this retrospective.   [More]  Descriptors: Treaties, Federal Legislation, American Indians, Natural Resources