Digital Commons Network^™

Johnson V. M'Intosh: Christianity, Genocide, And The Dispossession Of Indigenous Peoples, Cynthia J. Boshell

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Using hermeneutical methodology, this paper examines some of the legal fictions that form the foundation of Federal Indian Law. The text of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh opinion is evaluated through the lens of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to determine the extent to which the Supreme Court incorporated genocidal principles into United States common law. The genealogy of M’Intosh is examined to identify influences that are not fully apparent on the face of the case. International jurisprudential interpretations of the legal definition of genocide are summarized and used as …

Organizing For Power: Understanding Changing Conceptions Of Power In Rural Community Organizing, Evan R. Morden

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Community organizing is a practice of building and utilizing collective power, often initiated by groups who have little or no preexisting social or economic power. By acting together in a disciplined, organized, and targeted fashion, organizing is used to exert influence in the public square to achieve policy outcomes, provide mutual aid, and reweave the fabric of social relations in communities, frequently in direct opposition to existing power structures. Thus, creating a shared understanding of power that is fundamentally liberative is key to the success of organizing efforts and moreover, to creating lasting community cohesion that can continue to mount …

Working Towards Land Return In Goukdi’N: A History Of Genocide And A Future Of Healing, Carrie Tully

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Since 2009, the city of Arcata, R. H. Emmerson & Sons, and Humboldt State University have collaborated on the transfer of an 884-acre tract of land in Goukdi’n (known locally as Jacoby Creek Forest). The main goals of this project are to prevent fragmentation of the land, protect wildlife, and to support and enhance student research opportunities. In the ten years that it took for this land to be transferred to the California State University and in the care of Humboldt State University the Wiyot Tribe was not consulted regarding the parcels, their purchase, or their being given to HSU. …

Living Rivers, Cosmopolitan Activism, And Environmental Justice In The Bengal Delta, Daniel Adel

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis explores the social movements and civil society activism to protect the rivers that flow through Bangladesh—the cradle and terminal delta floodplain of the transboundary Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna river systems—, as well as ways to build regional cooperation and watershed democracy in South Asia. The research drew on four overarching fields of study: environmental justice, southern environmentalism, ecological nationalism, and environmental governance. These four bodies of scholarship helped address the overarching question: how are civil society organizations analyzing and responding to the water diversions and degradation of Bangladesh’s transboundary rivers? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with civil society organizations …

Changing Seasons Of Resistance: Impacts Of Settler Colonialism And Climate Change In Indigenous Worlds, Elizabeth Jackson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This paper looks at the relationship between neoliberal capitalism, genocide, the biopolitics of settler colonialism and the impacts of climate change on the cultures and traditional lifeways of Indigenous communities. It also explores Indigenous modes and methods of adaptation and resilience. Climate Change is almost certainly the most urgent social problem in the history of human life on planet Earth. Many Indigenous people are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to marginalization and their commitment to land-based practices. Using in depth interviews with Indigenous Peoples, primarily from the Pacific Northwest, and the analysis of existing literature, this …

Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The Mountains: Hip-Hop, Exclusion, And The White Wilderness, Leonard Alexander Henderson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The expectations of normative behavior in outdoor recreation are often taken for granted and naturalized within dominant cultural narratives about human/nature interactions. In particular, expectations of silence and an absence of evidence of humans and human sounds (anthrophony), are grounded within an understanding of nature and a wilderness/urban paradigm framed by whiteness. Hip-Hop provides an interesting point of analysis for thinking about the binary opposition of wilderness and urbanness. The intersection of Hip-Hop and wilderness is also the starting point for my research. This research aims to speak to just a few ways that white and masculine social norms in …

An Intersectional Perspective On Diversity In Environmental Regulatory Agencies: A Case Study Of Women Of Color And Their Liminal Position Of Identity In South Florida, Leah A. Ramnath

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Diversity statistics from environmental agencies nationwide reveal overall growth and improvement in gender and racial composition of employees. However, although women occupied over half of leadership and staff positions, most were white women. The Regulatory and Economic Resources office, an environmental regulatory agency in south Florida, is exceptional as a majority of their employees are women of color. Although there has been continuous development of diversity initiatives by environmental agencies nationwide, perspectives of how women of color are experiencing the environmental workplace are underrepresented when reporting diversity data.

My study aims to understand the complex role of diversity in environmental …

Public Perceptions Of Homelessness In Humboldt County, John Thomas Krapf

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Homelessness is a social and political issue of great importance in the United States. For every 10,000 people in the U.S. 17 are experiencing homelessness (Bishop et al. 2017). Despite being a consequence of structural factors in the economy such as a lack of affordable housing and livable wages, the news media often frames the issue as an outcome of individualistic factors such as deviant characteristics, criminality, and personal flaws like drug addiction and mental illness. This study examines public perceptions of homelessness in Humboldt County. To explore this question, I conducted a content analysis of 94 articles on homelessness …

The Role Of Social Capital In Fishing Community Sustainability: Case Of Shelter Cove, Ca, Laura R. Casali

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Community development scholars have consistently highlighted the importance of social capital – the glue that keeps a community together – for the development and long-term sustainability of rural communities. There has been less discussion about the role of social capital in fishing communities. This thesis explores the historical trajectory of social capital in Shelter Cove, CA, a small, remote fishing community with an attempt to understand how the type and level of social capital have and may continue to affect the progress and sustainability of the community.

Data for this thesis were collected as part of a strategic planning effort …

Nature, Socio-Spatial Divisions And Connections: An Examination Of El Jardín De Guadalupe, Elizabeth Moreno

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Culture is often discussed in the content of social behavior but, how culture is spatially linked to landscapes is often overlooked. Points of social and cultural reproduction is not only tied to landscapes, but there are constantly challenged as new cultures are introduced into a space. Latino culture in the United States has, and continues to, reshape America’s landscapes. For purpose of this thesis, the reshaping of landscapes will be observed in a community. This project examines the perception that Latinos avoid participation in a community garden. This perception is not entirely true, as there was one Latina participating. As …

Eating Your Greens: Community Gardens And Gentrification In Oakland, Nicholas C. Felicich

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The issue of gentrification is paramount to the viability of poor and at risk communities in Oakland. Literature on gentrification has historically focused on larger societal and economic movements, but little has been studied about the role planned green space and gardens play in the spatial transformation of the urban environment. In this case study of two gardens in West Oakland, I explore questions of community involvement in the gardens, the role of garden aesthetics in attracting development and new residents to the neighborhood, the unique relationship between the City government and the gardens, the larger symbolic significance of green …

A "Dying Breed"? Exploring Logger Identity After The Decline In The Timber Industry In Hayfork, Ca, Sheri L. Harrison

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The rapid decline of timber operations in the late twentieth century had an immense impact on rural communities whose economy was dependent on logging and lumber mills. The voices and concerns of timber-dependent communities and timber workers have been marginalized by broader forces that focused on political, economic, and environmental issues throughout the Pacific Northwest timber conflict and the subsequent deindustrialization of the timber industry. This study examines the social impacts on loggers, their families, and the broader community in Hayfork, California, through the framework of identity theory. The formation of logger identity and the broader processes that have impacted …